{"id":557143,"date":"2026-08-03T05:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T05:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/557143\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T05:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T05:42:09","slug":"plenty-of-challenges-laurie-daley-steps-down-as-blues-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/557143\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Plenty of challenges&#8217;: Laurie Daley steps down as Blues coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Laurie Daley has ended months of speculation by officially quitting his role as NSW State of Origin coach.<\/p>\n<p>The NSWRL on Monday paid tribute to &#8220;true blue&#8221; Daley while announcing he would be stepping down after NSW successfully won back the shield from Queensland following a turbulent 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/07\/09\/new-south-wales-win-state-of-origin-decider\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">claimed the series 2-1<\/a> after becoming only the fourth team in Origin history to win a decider at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.<\/p>\n<p>In doing so, Daley became the only NSW representative to win a series decider in Brisbane as both a captain (1992, 1994) and a coach (2026).<\/p>\n<p>But the Blues legend endured relentless criticism for his coaching style and selections throughout the series, raising serious doubts about his desire to carry on in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;NSWRL owes a massive debt of gratitude to Laurie for the service he has given to his state as both a player and a coach,&#8221; NSWRL chief executive David Trodden said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players to have ever pulled on a sky blue jumper, becoming the first NSW captain to lead his state to three consecutive series wins in 1992-94.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He has also led NSW to arguably two of the greatest Origin series wins of all time as a coach, after ending Queensland&#8217;s eight-year winning streak in 2014 and overcoming adversity to steer the Blues home in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Those wins transcended football. They lifted and reinvigorated the whole state. He deserves to leave the NSW Origin arena as the hero that he is.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Overall, Daley finished with two series wins from six during two stints at the helm.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve always considered it an absolute honour and privilege to be involved with the NSW Blues State of Origin team, whether that was as a player or a coach, and I&#8217;ve always been ready to answer the call for my state whenever they needed me,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We faced plenty of challenges in the 2026 series and I&#8217;m proud of the way the players banded together to overcome them and save their best performance for game three in Brisbane to secure a memorable series win.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I thank the fans for their passion and their support, and I can&#8217;t think of a better way to move on with the Shield back where it belongs in NSW.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">The morning&#8217;s headlines in 90 seconds, including another earthquake wakes thousands, a Kiwi runner sets an ultramarathon record, and the lucky escape for a New York scooter rider. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laurie Daley has ended months of speculation by officially quitting his role as NSW State of Origin coach.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[33339,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-557143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-blues","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}