Back to the future never works – and it won’t work here.
Despite being given an obscene five series with just a single series win, Laurie Daley is back in charge of New South Wales, ringing in another era of underachievement and underwhelming play from a state that has made the two its calling cards.
To the shock – and likely dismay – of a state, Daley was named ahead of younger, more talented and more in-touch coaches who have far more upside to coach the Blues again.
His record and the fact he has been working in gambling media that has prevented him from having any formal role in the game was no deterrent to the geniuses at the NSWRL.
One need only head to the NSWRL site and click on the Board of Directors to see how the search led them to a failed 55-year-old coach with no NRL experience who does not work inside an NRL system.
The all-white, seven male/one female board are nearly all north of 60. It is quite apparent that all the NSWRL brass look for in a coach is an iconic player with Ricky Stuart, Laurie Daley and Brad Fittler exclusively at the helm since 2011 with the exception of last year when Michael Maguire guided the Blues to a win. The Blues won just four of 13 series under the ‘legends’.
It is a trope that has failed time and time again – and the common thread over the Daley and Fittler years has been their total lack of understanding of both the intricacies of the current game and preparing the current generation of top-level talent. Yet back to the well the Blues go.
In an attempt to replicate what Queensland did with Mal Meninga, the NSWRL brass have burnt series after series without truly understanding the model that worked.
Meninga didn’t succeed with Queensland – and subsequently – because he was a legend. He succeeded because he brought little ego to the roles, essentially offloading game plans and training sessions and tactics to those who know better. None of Stuart, Daley or Fittler were able to sublimate their ego and bring in talented offsiders who knew what they were doing.
The excuse that has generally been rolled out is that Queensland have had a better team. That has been partially true. During the early part of the Daley era, Queensland were at the tail end of their unprecedented dominance and did hold a talent edge.
It is also true that the Blues coach has contributed significantly to New South Wales not picking anywhere near their strongest 17. Self-immolation is not an excuse – it’s a problem – and it’s a problem that looms large once again.
Daley has been strongly lauded by the NSWRL PR department and his patsies in the mainstream media as the coach who ended Queensland’s run of dominance. That is, indeed, a fact. What is also a fact is that Queensland then kicked off another era of dominance by winning three straight series – all against Daley’s Blues.
Laurie Daley. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
The hallmarks of Daley’s coaching reign during his first stint at the helm of the Blues were a completely inept attack and a hardcore conservatism in regards selection that it appeared as if making a change would bestow upon him a painful, fatal ailment.
Daley led the Blues 15 times. New South Wales surpassed 20 points just twice. They were kept to eight or fewer six times. Nine times the Blues failed to break 12 points. During the Daley era, New South Wales averaged an anaemic 12.6 points per game. On nine occasions the Blues had scored six or fewer first half points. In the long history of Origin, it really doesn’t get much worse than that.
Arguably more damaging was the blind loyalty Daley showed that lacked both gumption and common sense. Players like Matt Moylan, Dylan Walker and Blake Ferguson were undroppable at stages while a player like James Tedesco was continually overlooked. Daley would pick players out of position and then hide behind incumbency to keep them in the team.
With Daley at the helm, New South Wales did not play to win – they played not to lose.
That is to say nothing of the culture Daley instilled, which Phil Gould was highly critical of at the time, saying he did not want Penrith players involved in the Blues setup.
It is stunning that the Blues brass did not learn from Maguire.
Yes, he leveraged the Blues job for a plum club gig but he did win a series and he did it by doing things his way, most notably moving camp from the Eastern Suburbs to the Blue Mountains. While Maguire did not get everything right, it was apparent from the get-go that he was better equipped to lead a series of elite stars into a series.
New South Wales were as prepared, as settled, as inspired as they have been in two decades last year.
Daley had his crack. He had five. He failed four times. His selections were poor and his resistance to change was damaging. His teams could not score. His culture was slammed. Yet he is back in charge.
Queenslanders must be rubbing their hands in glee.