Laurie Daley’s blunt admission after State of Origin disaster

With serious questions still lingering after NSW’s horror effort in the State of Origin decider Blues coach Laurie Daley still has no answers.

The full post-mortem of NSW’s State of Origin capitulation is yet to come but beaten Blues coach Laurie Daley says he’s still “trying to recover” nearly a week after a Queensland ambush delivered the Maroons a remarkable series win.

Daley, who took over from Michael Maguire who steered NSW to the shield in 2024, returned to his day job on Sydney radio on Monday, declared that he would “ have to take full responsibility” after his team lost the final two games.

Having already stated his intention to coach on in 2026, as per his contract, Daley conceded losing would haunt him for some time.

“I’m trying to recover from Wednesday night. It will take a while to get over. I’ve been reflecting,” Daley said on Big Sports Breakfast.

“The first couple of days were tough. We expected a better performance, obviously, so I’ve been scratching my head (and asking) why? Why did we have a performance like that?

NSW Blues coach Laurie Daley (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

“That has to start with the coaches, me in particular. I’ve got to look at myself and make sure I go through what I did to see whether that was the best I could have done.

“As head coach, I have to take full accountability because I’m the leader. I get that, I understand that.

“Going on what I felt after the game, I’m still none-the-wiser because I was so happy with the way we prepared and went about it.

“We have to find out what happened and why we weren’t ready to go out at our best.”

Daley said there were staff meetings to come this week and other debriefs where all questions would be asked

“Coaches meetings to come, leadership meetings. There is a lot to still happen behind the scenes,” he said.

“You want to get it while it’s fresh – the thoughts about the week, the game, what do we need to do better, why did we miss the jump. All those things.”

Laurie Daley, Blues head coach and Maroons Captain Cameron Munster after game three (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

The Blues carried injured players into the game including Payne Haas and Brian To’o but defended the decision to take them into the decider.

“Brian and Payne had limited preparations in games one and two and they were players-of-the-match in games one and two,” Daley said.

“With that body of work behind them, you trust them. Look at Brian’s performance, he was great. He carried the ball 25, 26 times.”

Daley said nothing could change the result, but he would work to change the future.

“No matter what I say today, we have to fix what happened. It was disappointing, very disappointing, but what do you do? You‘ve got to move forward,” he said

“There’ll be times when you reflect and you go over things.

“You’ve got to front up.”

Originally published as Laurie Daley’s blunt admission after State of Origin disaster