Laurie Daley lifts lid on 2026 Origin campaign, NSW future

Off-contract NSW Blues coach Laurie Daley has given an eye-opening interview following the successful 2026 State of Origin campaign.

Speaking on the Chiming In podcast with Steve Gillis, his long-time agent, Daley was candid and relaxed as he spoke about everything from criticism of his coaching and pre-match speeches to his opinions on star players Isaah Yeo and Nathan Cleary.

Daley revealed all, well almost, still refusing to be drawn on his NSW coaching future despite re-iterating that he already knows in himself what he wants to do in 2027.

“First and foremost, I’m off contract, I haven’t got a contract for next year, but I know exactly what I want to do,” he said.

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Daley stressed that the spotlight right now should be all about the NSW Blues players and the fans, not the coach.

“I think after the (2026 series) win it should be celebrated, the fact that these players have done something very special throughout the series,” he said.

“It’s all about the playing group and making the people of New South Wales happy and putting a smile on their face — that’s what we should be celebrating, rather than just finding the next storyline to go with.”

“The NSW Rugby League might want to go in another direction and that’s cool,” he added, before explaining his pride in the 2-1 series result and his confidence that the Blues could always get the job done in Brisbane.

“No one thought we could win, but inside our group we thought we could win,” he said of the lead-up to the Game III decider.

“We were very positive throughout the week, we knew what we had to do… and that’s exactly what we did. So while there was plenty of pessimism around, we were certainly optimistic in the camp that we could win.”

‘I just wanted to get some things off my chest’

Gillis then asked Daley about his pointed words towards some sections of the rugby league media in the Game III post-game press conference and, specifically, was it pre-meditated?

“No, it just happened,” he chuckled.

“I actually said to (Isaah Yeo) going there ‘I think I’ll leave it for another day’, but then the emotion and the adrenaline kicks in.

“I just wanted to get some things off my chest and make it clear that I wasn’t happy — sometimes because of my personality people think that I haven’t got a hard edge and they can say whatever they want and I’ll accept it.”

Asked if he can take criticism, Daley again laughed.

“Of course I can. (As a coach) you make tactical decisions, you’ve got to wear that. Team selections, you’ve got to you got to wear that,” he acknowledged.

“But just because your team is different to mine, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. You can have your debate and you can go through whatever happened in a game and be critical of the tactics if it didn’t work, everyone’s cool with that.

“Then there’s the other side where it’s a little bit personal.”

‘It’s disappointing, but what do you do?’

As for the mid-series rumours that Daley’s pre-game speeches were putting his players to sleep, he confirmed he’d only been told about it by others — but was never given a right of reply or even a phone call from the journalists involved.

“I was disappointed, but it certainly didn’t hurt me,” he said.

“I think when people aren’t inside your camp, they have no idea what’s going on.

“You could make up something about a coach tomorrow and if you get it in the paper people would read it, believe it, and away they go. So, yeah, it’s disappointing, but what do you do?

“At the end of the day, what I said to (the NSW players) before game three must have put them to sleep too… they played all right,” he grinned.

Indeed they did, Loz. Indeed they did.

Laurie Daley lifts lid on 2026 Origin campaign, NSW future

‘I just wanted to get some things off my chest’

‘It’s disappointing, but what do you do?’

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