{"id":739482,"date":"2026-06-16T05:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T05:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/739482\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T05:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T05:13:12","slug":"state-of-origin-news-2026-laurie-daley-shrugs-off-nsw-blues-coaching-criticism-game-two-press-conference-cameron-murray-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/739482\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin news 2026: Laurie Daley shrugs off NSW Blues coaching criticism, game two press conference, Cameron Murray comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laurie Daley<\/a> has brushed off criticism around his coaching, while Blues<\/a> captain Isaah Yeo<\/a> has put the onus on players to start well in game two.<\/p>\n

Despite winning the State of Origin<\/a> series opener, Daley has remained under the microscope given the fact NSW started poorly and only got back into game one when Queensland<\/a> were down to 12 men, with Kalyn Ponga sent off<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga’s send off changed the outcome in Sydney.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

His overall record at Origin level has also been dragged into the spotlight, having lost all-but one of his six series in charge of the Blues.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the pre-game press conference, Daley was asked point-blank about the criticism of his coaching and his record in charge of the NSW side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks for bringing up that record, it\u2019s not great is it? I want what\u2019s best for NSW, I want the boys to win,\u201d Daley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to win, I want them to win and I want the fans to win. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can satisfy everyone from NSW and the boys are really happy with their performance tomorrow night [then I\u2019m happy]. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very funny, I know you hear it all the time and you get excited when you win and disappointed when you lose – there\u2019s no in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

The talk around Daley reached new heights the day before kick off at MCG, with reports from News Corp claiming his pre-game speeches have failed to resonate with the Blues playing group, culminating in poor on-field starts.<\/p>\n

Yeo – who is in his second year as skipper – said the players needed to take the responsibility for how matches start against the Maroons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly is on us as players, we\u2019re the ones out there,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been spoken about over the last two series, we\u2019ve shot ourselves in the foot.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou certainly need to discuss it and learn your lessons, but you don\u2019t want to make too much of a thing about it, because I don\u2019t want us to tighten up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat just means there needs to be individual accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the other big talking points when it comes to Daley is his team selections and the make-up of NSW\u2019s forward pack and interchange.<\/p>\n

Calls have been growing louder for Cameron Murray<\/a> to start at lock, shifting Yeo to the front-row, given the impact the Rabbitohs<\/a> star makes at Origin level.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cameron Murray has been named on the bench.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

But when asked if he had given any thought to shaking things up, Daley remained staunch in his selections and indicated Murray would remain on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo – obviously Cam is a wonderful player and he\u2019s made such a huge impact on the group this year,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeoy will probably find himself up front tomorrow during the game. It\u2019s just the roles they both play and you could have that option, but for us at the moment where it\u2019s at, Cam gives us plenty coming off the bench and that\u2019s the way we\u2019ll go. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re on together, great. If one\u2019s on and one\u2019s off, it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

After sitting there for an extended period while others fielded questions, Murray was then asked about criticism of Daley\u2019s coaching, before also being asked whether he would prefer to start for the Blues or come off the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough one and only question,\u201d the Rabbitohs captain said. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I don\u2019t read into too much of what\u2019s going on with the outside noise, so I\u2019m not too across what\u2019s been said about him. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I am across is what\u2019s been happening within our four walls and how we\u2019re prepping and what we\u2019re trying to build here. <\/p>\n

\u201cLaurie touched on it before, we want to make NSW proud and we\u2019re all doing the best job we can and Laurie\u2019s a big part of that. He\u2019s our coach, he\u2019s our leader and what he\u2019s done for the jersey while he\u2019s played and as a coach has been incredible. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to repay all that hard work as a playing group and get that win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just do what Laurie tells me to do. I do what the team needs me to do and that\u2019s coming off the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laurie Daley has brushed off criticism around his coaching, while Blues captain Isaah Yeo has put the onus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-739482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}