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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Laurie Daley will have to overcome an 11 per cent win record in Origin matches where NSW could have won the shield under his stewardship to engineer one of the biggest upsets in Blues history.<\/p>\n Daley will lead NSW as rank underdogs at Suncorp Stadium<\/a> next Wednesday, having won just one from nine games as coach when the Origin shield was on the line across his two spells in charge.<\/p>\n Win or lose, the July 8 decider is expected to be Daley\u2019s last as Blues coach<\/a> as his original two-year contract comes to an end.<\/p>\n Daley wouldn\u2019t be drawn on his future<\/a> as the Blues began game three preparations on Monday, and whether victory would see him pursue reappointment. An upset on Queensland soil would be his first win in a decider as coach in five attempts \u2013 NSW having lost deciders in 2013, 2015, 2017 and last year.<\/p>\n The Blues have won the first match in five of the seven series Daley has been in charge.<\/p>\n But as highlighted by AAP, only once \u2013 in the famous 2014 triumph<\/a> \u2013 have they capitalised with a series-sealing victory in games two or three under his watch, making for the most unflattering of records with the Origin shield there to be won.<\/p>\n NSW were but 40 minutes from securing the second series win of Daley\u2019s coaching career when they held a 12-8 halftime lead in Melbourne.<\/p>\n A 36-point second-half blitz not only kept Queensland alive, but has given them considerable momentum and warm favouritism for the final clash on home turf.<\/p>\n As a player, Daley captained NSW to their first Lang Park victory in the 1994 decider. The feat was repeated for just the third time in 2024 under predecessor Michael Maguire<\/a>.<\/p>\n While NSW prevailed 14-4 in an epic 2024 contest that didn\u2019t see a try scored until the 65th minute, they completely missed the jump in last year\u2019s decider<\/a>, trailed 20-0 at halftime and lost what was later described as \u201cthe unloseable series\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Skipper Isaah Yeo said mounting criticism of Daley and his coaching<\/a> was \u201cunwarranted\u201d and that lessons from the Blues\u2019 2025 capitulation at Accor Stadium would ring throughout their preparations for game three.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had our reflections on that game three first-off at our camp in February,\u201d Yeo said. \u201cWhen you miss the mark like that, and we certainly did, you have to make sure you learn from it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just lost too many moments, I don\u2019t know whether they seemed big or small for fans watching on TV, but Queensland did a wonderful job of capitalising on them and that\u2019s what we have to take into this next challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n Yeo is one of nine survivors from the Blues\u2019 2024 upset at Suncorp Stadium and both he and Daley spoke of replicating NSW\u2019s first-half effort in Melbourne \u2013 their best of the series.<\/p>\n Asked about flipping the well-worn Origin narrative of Queensland springing upsets, Daley said: \u201cWe just have to win. And I think at half-time in game two, I don\u2019t think there\u2019d be too many people that would have been critical of the way we were going.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we are doing things right. There\u2019s nothing to suggest we can\u2019t go to Queensland and win game three. You\u2019re going to have to dig deep. They don\u2019t give you anything up there or anything for free, so you\u2019ve got to work hard. But the reward at the end of the day is something that you never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout Origin history, the Maroons have dominated game three when the series has still been alive, winning 16 deciders to six from NSW, with the 1999 and 2002 series ending in draws.<\/p>\n Related Article Daley will coach his 21st Origin game next Wednesday, a figure topped among Blues mentors by only Phil Gould (24 games), with the first five campaigns of Daley\u2019s career coming against a cavalcade of Queensland legends and the most dominant side in Origin history.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously Loz has copped his fair share of criticism this series and it\u2019s certainly not warranted to me,\u201d Yeo said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe gives us an unbelievable game plan, he gives us absolute confidence and faith that we can go out there and do a job, and then ultimately it\u2019s up to us to go out and repay that.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a wonderful man, he\u2019s done a lot for this jersey and he\u2019d certainly deserve [a series victory]. It\u2019s on us to deliver that.\u201d<\/p>\n News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Laurie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/e32035ca5bbbdfa37137b97b7a9d6e9653ead815.jpeg\")
Laurie Daley has felt the Origin blowtorch as this campaign has worn on.Steven Siewert<\/p>\n![\"Laurie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20f97c187b8204b0794f632c949f01e5aff17fce92e9087db60e223369a0e61f.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773949213_774_c6acc0581c14a7477781e092516e1810bef13f2c.png\")
Dan Walsh<\/a> is a sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-769325","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\/769325","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=769325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}