Laurie Daley’s second coming and this time he is playing for keeps
Discarded, dumped, written off in 2017, Laurie Daley’s second coming as Blues coach saw him return armed with instincts, scars, and a burning desire for redemption. He’s playing for keeps.
When Laurie Daley coached NSW the first time, in 2013, the feeling on both sides of the Tweed was he’d melt in the State of Origin furnace.
Legendary player, sure. Fine captain, absolutely. “I played Origin,” his predecessor and former Canberra Raiders teammate, Ricky Stuart, said. “Laurie owned it.”
But could the affable, chuckling, schooner-sucking Daley play the necessary mind games needed in a theatrical three-match series such as this?
Origin coaches require a hint of madness — because you need to be mad to do it, such is the overwhelming criticism, hysteria, and attention the interstate series elicits.
Phil Gould was one of Origin’s great orators. Wayne Bennett knew the right words to say at the right time. Both manipulated the media like we were plasticine.
Was Daley up for all that?
“I want Queensland to think I’m a dumbo,” he told me at the time. “I want them to underestimate me.”
Storm coach Craig Bellamy, who also played with Daley at the Raiders in the 1980s and joined him this year as a special adviser, laughs when I tell him this.
“He’s certainly no dumbo,” Bellamy said. “With all due respect to a lot of great players, he’s the best I ever had the honour of playing with. He started playing first grade with Junee in the bush as a 17-year-old, which didn’t happen in those days because players that young were bashed out of the game.
“But Loz was one hell of a player, and he’s transferred that to coaching. I’ve been really impressed. He’s very firm with his ideas and what he believes in. When he talks about those, there’s a directness. For a guy who hasn’t coached at an NRL level, he’s strong on what he wants.”
Every participant in Wednesday night’s State of Origin decider between NSW and Queensland at Accor Stadium is feeling the heat.
Maroons coach Billy Slater is eyeballing a second consecutive series loss. NSW halfback Nathan Cleary has never won a decider and can bury any argument about his place in history if he leads his team to victory carrying a groin injury.
This is Daley’s second coming as Blues coach, discarded after the car crash of the 2017 series which brought into sharp focus the boozy culture he presided over.
He might have the security of a two-year deal but make no mistake: this is a series the Blues should win, not least because of the deeper pool of talent and superstars at Daley’s disposal.
Typical of NSW’s hubris, former players predicted record scorelines before the first two matches. Others flagged the possibility of a dynasty.
There’s also an eerie similarity this year to what happened in 2017.
NSW won the first match in Brisbane that year, then blew game two at home before losing the decider in Brisbane.
After winning the first match in Brisbane this year, the Blues headed to Perth for game two where they were the shortest-priced favourites in Origin betting history. They lost after a dismissal first-half display that reeked of complacency.
When Daley walked into the media conference following that loss, you spotted the big, saggy bags under his eyes and thought … why?
Why would one of the most accomplished players in rugby league history, with an easy gig co-hosting breakfast radio in Sydney, put himself through all this? Again?
Daley wants to win this series because of the way he left the job the last time around. He’s too affable to say it out loud, but those closest to him understand how much it hurt when the NSW Rugby League dumped him in August 2017.
After losing three consecutive series, he fronted the board in late July seeking a one-year extension. He had every right to feel he’d get it after then chairman George Peponis publicly declared he had his support.
Then a slow trickle of stories about the boozy shenanigans that occurred during the campaign found their way into the media. The most memorable was a $1500 bar bill for a “bonding session” in the lead-up to game two, which the Blues lost after being raging favourites at home.
Another board meeting was called. Peponis changed his mind after being lobbied by other directors who preferred Brad Fittler.
Daley was gone and Fittler was soon in. As always, the right job appeared for Fittler at the right time.
Daley was fuming. He’d performed miracles against a Maroons team featuring future Immortals Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Billy Slater and Greg Inglis.
Which made the Blues’ series win in 2014 one of the greatest upsets in history.
“We didn’t want to be outworked in that series,” Daley told the Backstage podcast in February. “If we were beaten, it would be on talent — not effort.”
NSW won that series on heart, tackling their way to victory in games one and two, conceding just two tries.
It’s a coaching performance for which Daley doesn’t get enough credit. It sits just below Paul Vautin’s effort in 1995 when he coached a Queensland side without its Super League-aligned players to a shock series win in 1995.
Daley coached three deciders during his first tenure: a 10-12 loss in 2013; a 52-6 hammering in 2015; and a 22-6 defeat in 2017.
When Fittler was ushered in for the 2018 series, his timing could not have been better.
Immortals-in-waiting Cameron Smith and Johnathan Thurston had retired from representative football and Billy Slater was injured. The Maroons’ forward pack was young and out of its depth.
At the time same time, a fresh crop of Blues talent was starting to flower. Fittler debuted a record 11 players in game one, including Latrell Mitchell, Nathan Cleary, Tom Trbojevic, Angus Crichton, Jack de Belin, Damien Cook, and Josh Addo-Carr. The Blues won the next two series.
This time around, Daley has more talent than Fittler, including a mixture of experienced Penrith players who have won premierships. He also has a young bull called Payne Haas, the best prop in the game.
There’s also a been a significant cultural shift among the playing group, so he doesn’t have to worry about his men getting on the sauce days before the game. Daley struggled to find a Blues player who wanted to drink beer with him and the coaching staff after the game-one victory.
Daley also knew what he wanted this time around.
He ignored the SuperCoach crowd before game one, overlooking the stats of Wests Tigers prop Terrell May that might work in fantasy football but not Origin. He resisted calls to get rid of props Max King and Stefano Utoikamanu, who failed to fire in Perth.
“When you start chopping and changing, and you’re not consistent with your selections, the players pick it up straight away,” Daley has said.
If that’s the case, the Blues haven’t dwelled too much on their defeat in Perth.
“I must say, and I remember him being like this as a player, he was disappointed we lost, but he moved on quickly,” Bellamy said. “He’s always had an ability to come out of a loss and get back on the positive side. I can’t do anything about that now … He could do that as a player, too, and does it now as a coach. Get on with the next job.”
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