The keyboard warriors were sharpening their knives before the final siren had even sounded at the MCG. After Queensland’s dominant 44-24 victory in Game 2, Laurie Daley, as NSW coaches always do, found himself at the centre of a firing squad. Some of the criticism is fair. Selection calls can be debated. Results demand accountability. But in the rush to condemn the man, too many are forgetting exactly who Laurie Daley is, and what he has given this game.

Let’s start where it always should, on the playing field. Daley debuted for the Raiders in 1987 at age 17 and went on to play 245 first-grade matches for the club, scoring 87 tries and contributing to premiership victories in 1989, 1990, and 1994. He was not merely a participant in that golden Canberra era, he was its heartbeat. At the peak of his power, Daley’s attacking brilliance and reliable defence was the linchpin of three premierships with Canberra. A statue of him stands outside Canberra Stadium to this day. You don’t earn bronze by being ordinary.

His representative record is equally staggering. His representative honours include 23 State of Origin appearances for New South Wales, where he featured in five series wins, and 26 Test matches for Australia, including two as captain. In 1995, he won the Dally M Medal as the league’s Player of the Year, the highest individual honour the competition offers. In February 2008, Daley was named in the list of Australia’s 100 Greatest Players, and in August 2008, was named at five-eighth in the Indigenous Team of the Century. These are not participation certificates. These are the markers of a genuinely elite rugby league mind. 

Critics love to weaponise his first tenure’s overall record, but conveniently forget the context. Daley led the Blues to their first series win in 2014, finally breaking the Queensland dynasty and delivering the Blues their first series win since 2005, becoming only the second man after Wayne Pearce to play, captain and coach a Blues side to a series win over Queensland. That 2014 triumph ended eight consecutive Queensland series wins. That is not the achievement of an incompetent coach. Four of those losses in his first tenure came by a combined total of seven points, fine margins that tell a very different story to the simple win-loss ledger. Perhaps most tellingly, his captain for four of those five series as coach, Paul Gallen, said the chatter about Daley being too nice or lacking passion was misguided and that Laurie was as passionate as anyone. 

The series is level at 1-1. A decider awaits in Brisbane. Daley has been here before, and he has delivered before. The critique of individual selections this week is legitimate, but conflating those decisions with a wholesale dismissal of the man’s credentials is lazy and disrespectful. Laurie Daley has earned the right to be trusted with this job. He still has the chance to prove exactly why.