‘Mistake kindness for weakness’: Daley’s Mr Nice Guy persona staunchly defended

Michael Clarke has rubbished the suggestion Laurie Daley is too nice to succeed in the Origin arena and warned his gentle nature should not be confused with a lack of killer instinct and toughness.

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Speaking on The Big Sport Breakfast, Clarke defended Daley’s nice demeanour and believes he can emulate the toughness he showed as a player whenever he needs to in the Origin coaching cauldron.

“There’s a lot of people probably on a daily basis that mistake Loz’s kindness for weakness,” Clarke said on Tuesday’s show.

“It’s certainly not weakness. He’s just a great guy, ultra-polite. He’s a gentleman, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t got that toughness inside him.

“We saw that as a player and I can tell you sitting beside him all these years, that passion, that hardness, that’s there and I think we’ll continue to see that.”

Daley’s five-eighth during his one series victory in 2014, Josh Reynolds explained why Daley is the ideal replacement for Michael Maguire.

“It does annoy me,” Reynolds told Sky Sports of Daley’s critics.

“It’s because people are already coming out saying, ‘He’s already had his crack, this and that’.

“Coming up against this Queensland side, I’ll be brutally honest, it was daunting.

“But Loz put the faith in our team to say, ‘Enough is enough, I know these guys are big names. I know these guys are going to have a game plan to tear us apart’. But it wasn’t about that.

“Loz gave us all jobs. He knew how to get me going. He knew how to get Greg Bird going. He knew how to get Jarryd Hayne going in that series.

“I just know this core group of players are going to get a guy that cares about ‘em. That’s all you need.”

Daley answered the question on everyone’s lips following his hire as the new Blues coach while also lifting the lid on the key decision which helped New South Wales end Queensland’s eight-year Origin reign in 2014.

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Daley was officially introduced as NSW coach at a press conference on Monday. It will be Daley’s second stint as Blues coach after five years in charge between 2013-2017.

A co-host on Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast, Daley appeared on the show for a ten minute chat on Tuesday morning.

Daley was asked by BSB colleague and former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke on what he learned during his first stint and whether Blues fans should be concerned over his lack of recent coaching experience.

“I think you learn when time goes by and you think about decisions you made, you think the about preparation,” Daley said.

“I finished coaching back in 2022 when I coached the Indigenous All Stars so it’s only been about two years (out of coaching). The All Stars game is similar to Origin, although not the same, it’s preparing a group of men to go out and play rugby league.

“Origin’s a different environment to the NRL. Emotionally you must be heavily attached.

“There are a lot of leanings out of it though. If you know the mistakes you made, you wouldn’t do it again, you correct those mistakes, you steel yourself to go again and you just know you are just better for making those mistakes.

“Sometimes, the harshest lessons are made in the heat of the battle and unfortunately if you get it wrong, you’re exposed. But this time around, I’m confident I’ll get the majority right.”

During his five-year run as Blues coach, Daley won just the one series and lost four, although among the nine games the Blues lost while he was in charge, there were several close defeats.

That one series win came in 2014 against an all-conquering Maroons side that had won the previous eight series.

In what was a decision that received plenty of criticism at the time, Daley put his faith in the then Bulldogs halves pairing of Trent Hodkinson and Josh Reynolds for Game I of the 2014 series.

Hodkinson was an Origin rookie while Reynolds may as well have been as well, given he only played 23 minutes for the Blues in 2013.

Reynolds was on the BSB panel on Tuesday and he asked Daley whether he’ll give the 2025 Blues halves ‘ownership’ of the team like he did to Hodkinson and himself in 2014.

“It’ll be different this time around,” Daley admitted.

“When I selected yourself and Trent, a lot of people were unsure about how that combination would go and one thing I really wanted to do was to give guys trust in you that you could actually control the game. If they got that by you delivering all the messages throughout the week then they’d be very confident you’d deliver on the night.

“The guys in the frame now (Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai, Mitch Moses), they’ve been a part of Origins, they’ve won Origin series, grand finals so they come in with a bit more experience under their belt.

“While they’ll still run some of the attacking sessions, that will mostly be driven by the coaches.”