Does Andrew Johns want to coach the NSW Blues if Laurie Daley gives up the post?

ANDREW Johns has given his best indication he wants to coach NSW after the Blues legend admitted: “I still don’t think NSW get it.”

Does Andrew Johns want to coach NSW?

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ANDREW Johns has left the door open to coach NSW next year after the Blues legend admitted: “I still don’t think NSW get it”.

As pressure mounts on Laurie Daley after another series defeat, Johns created a whole new debate in the aftermath of the Suncorp Stadium capitulation.

Johns and Phil Gould were scathing in their assessment of the Blues.

“I feel sick at the moment,” Johns said on Channel Nine.

“It is just so hard to watch. Look, you have to applaud Queensland. But I still don’t think NSW get it.

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“There were times there when the ball was thrown back inside and we just switched off. You think the ball has gone past you and my job is done. It is not.

“You can’t give up on it in Origin footy and that is what we have to get the mentality of. It is not about set plays and fancy plays. Cooper Cronk spoke about will and desire, that is what wins these games.

“I look at the teams on paper before and I think NSW on paper had a much stronger team. I thought they had a much stronger forward pack. But the game isn’t played on paper.”

Johns was then asked by former Queensland champion Paul Vautin if he would reconsider coaching NSW next year or the year after if NSW asked him to take the job.

“I don’t know, Fatty,” Johns said.

An emotional Andrew Johns has his say on the Blues and answers the question on whether he would take up the coaching job. #Origin #9WWOS pic.twitter.com/anYMUhN5fa

— Wide World of Sports (@wwos) July 12, 2017

“When you asked me that on the Footy Show I said no. I don’t know, I can’t answer that at the moment.”

Vautin then said: “ I think you are thinking about it., I think you’d like to.”

Johns responded: “I don’t know mate. I don’t know if I need that pressure in my life.”

Daley has already said he does not know if he wants to stay in the job with Brad Fittler and Dean Pay other names mentioned if Daley walks away.

Gould agreed with Johns’ assessment on the Blues’ performance, but stopped short of saying Daley should stand down.

“I don’t think there is too many people that know more about Origin football than Laurie Daley,” Gould said.

Is Andrew Johns about to put his hand up for the Blues gig? Picture Gregg Porteous

“I mean, he was one of our greatest ever players. He has been there for five years.

“He has had four series losses. Coaching is not his profession and we haven’t had a professional coach there for a number of years. Laurie gets in there because he is passionate about it and he loves it.

“I think he takes it hard when they lose and I think he is going to take this one particularly hard given the way the series went. They lost this (series) when they lost in Sydney.

“They didn’t handle that second half very well. And whether you are sitting here thinking you are going to get a different coach or you are going to pick a different halfback or pick a different five-eighth, I don’t think this is about coaching and I don’t think this is about the selection.

Queensland’s Johnathan Thurston and Billy Slater with the State of Origin shield.

“I think it is a thing that we have never done over the last 10 or 11 years and I keep saying it every time we lose. We just haven’t cultivated a leadership group that we can trust to get the job done and that is the difference between us and Queensland at the moment.

“We tend to play more like a club team than an Origin team. The things that win these games and lose these games are magnified far greater than they are in club football. Andrew is right when he says NSW hasn’t got it. NSW hasn’t got it for a long time.

“There is plenty of talent in our individuals but as a group there is no glue to hold them together in the tough times.”