It is very rare for coaches to get a second chance at Origin level. 

The NSW Rugby League has decided to give Laurie Daley another whirl at the helm of the Blues. 

Seemingly the main reason is that there were very few highly credentialed candidates who were willing to throw their hat into the ring.

And Daley’s passion for the role has outweighed his middling record at this level of one series win from five attempts. 

There are two ways to look at his first stint as NSW coach from 2013-17. 

The Daley defenders will say he was on a hiding to nothing up against a Maroons dynasty filled with future Immortals and Hall of Famers like Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Justin Hodges, Sam Thaiday, Matt Scott and Cooper Crook in their prime. 

And that even though he only got his hands on the shield once and ended up with a 6-9 record in games, he did better than his immediate predecessors. 

He took over from Ricky Stuart after he’d won just two games and lost back-to-back years at the helm, Storm guru Craig Bellamy copped three straight defeats in his 2-7 record while Graham Murray endured the same returns as Stuart at the start of the Queensland golden era in 2006-07.

The Daley dread critics will remind Blues fans that the team seemed to play a very basic style during his time in charge with Paul Gallen overplaying his hand as a forward as they were often out-thought and outplayed by the Maroons.

If not for Crook breaking his arm in Game 1 of 2014, which caused mayhem at the Maroons, there’s a fair chance that Queensland could have won 13 on the trot rather than their already unprecedented record of 12 series with the one blemish from 2006-2016. 

It is a tough time for Daley to take over the reins in the sense that Michael Maguire lit a spark in the Blue flame last season with his no-holds barred approach to Origin. 

Laurie Daley. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

His methods backfired in the opening match when Joseph Aukuso Suaalii was sent off in the early stages but paid dividends in the next two games as the Blues staged a rare come from behind series victory.

Daley faces the eternal question of whether to pick players on form or reputation with less than three weeks to go before he will announce his team for Origin I in Brisbane on May 28. 

All decisions should start with what he will do at halfback. Will he bring Nathan Cleary back on reputation as the NRL’s most influential player? Or will he show faith in Eels star Mitchell Moses who played one of the best individual games in Origin history to guide the Blues to glory last year?

Moses has had only one game back from his foot injury but it was like he had never missed a minute as he engineered Parramatta’s Easter Monday upset over Wests Tigers.

Jarome Luai is the third member of the three into two conundrum that Daley will face unless one of the trio is injured or suspended. He has been in good not necessarily great form since switching from Penrith to the Wests Tigers and does not necessarily deserve to be dropped after silencing many of his critics last year by shining without Cleary by his side.

But if the Blues take the bold approach of picking two specialist halfbacks as their playmakers, the combination of Cleary and Moses will present Maroons coach Billy Slater with plenty of pre-game nightmares. 

Moses has plenty of experience at five-eighth after playing the first four seasons of his career in the No.6 jersey jersey at the Tigers. 

Some players like Eels teammate Dylan Brown cannot have an impact when they switch from one halves position to the other but for genuinely elite stars like Moses, and Cleary for that matter, they are more than capable of making that subtle adjustment. 

NSW Blues coach Michael Maguire talks to Jarome Luai and Mitchell Moses in 2024. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

No one batted an eyelid when Thurston played halfback for the Cowboys year after year but switched to five-eighth for the Maroons so that Cronk could wear the No.7 jersey.

At the Origin level all that matters is that playmakers are adaptable whether that’s attacking on the left or right edge, being at first or second receiver or being the primary kicker in general play or the secondary option. 

There has been some talk that James Tedesco, a relic from Daley’s first go around as Blues coach, could be reinstated at fullback.

Even though he has been playing well for the Roosters at club level, if Daley and his selectors pick him ahead of Dylan Edwards then the NSWRL board needs to resign en masse or quickly reconvene an urgent meeting to find another coach who can step into the role. 

Edwards has been a touch down on his usual stratospherically high standards for Penrith recently but he is still undoubtedly the best fullback in the NRL and he proved last year that his enormous work rate and ability to generate metres from the backfield is second to none and suitable for the Origin arena. 

The fourth part of the NSW spine is also not an open and shut case with Daley indicating Cowboys rake Rhys Robson faces a challenge for his spot from the likes of Tigers veteran Api Koroisau, Roosters utility Connor Watson, Cronulla’s Blayke Brailey and Wayde Egan from the Warriors.

Egan is one of those players who is made for Origin with his relentless work rate and efficient service out of dummy half but he also looks like one of those unlucky types who will never quite get a look-in at this level. 

It would be a risk for Daley to switch Robson out for an alternative at dummy half and even though Watson also fits the criterion of a starting Origin hooker, his extraordinary versatility makes him the ideal bench player. 

He has the ability to play in any position on the field and has done so at club level apart from prop. 

With nimble players like Cameron Murray and Reuben Cotter excelling in the interstate skirmishes during the six-again era Watson would be more than capable of playing as a middle forward, particularly if he has big boppers like Payne Haas, Terrell May and Spencer Lenu as part of the rotation.

The rest of the team pretty much picks itself – Hudson Young backing up Angus Crichton and Liam Martin on the edges, Tom Trbojevic and Stephen Crichton in the centres, Jacob Kiraz’s aerial ability earning him a wing spot with Brian To’o and Isaah Yeo taking over as captain from Jake Trbojevic who is probably pushing it just to make the bench.

There have been only four Blues coaches who have been given a second run at Origin with Ted Glossop and Frank Stanton interchanging in the early years, Phil Gould – who mostly enjoyed success from 1992-95 before coming back for 2002-04, and Stuart taking over the following season and then re-entering the fray after he quit as Kangaroos coach.

For those who witnessed Daley in his prime as a player, he was one of the most dynamic players of his era in the 1990s.

A fine leader, especially at Origin level, and you won’t hear anyone say a bad word about him. 

This is his second and last chance to prove that he can also cut it as a coach at rep level.

And while Slater had a hiccup last year when he made some strange comments and bizarre decisions after being unsettled by Maguire’s mind games, he appears destined for an NRL coaching career if he chooses.

For Daley, an NRL gig is extremely unlikely down the track but he could become one of those rare players who experience success in the representative arena as a player and coach as long as he’s learned the lessons from his first foray.