Billy Slater and Laurie Daley under fire over ‘cringe' Origin coaching trend

News.com.au

22-05-2025

What is it about Origin that makes coherent humans speak like a random password generator? It's barely 48 hours into this year's series preamble and already the coaches are waffling duckspeak like they're trying to order dim sims from the lizard people.
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Whether it's slippery wordplay, vague filibustering or just being overly defensive, Billy Slater and Laurie Daley are either glitching out, speaking code or possessed by some kinda concussed ghost.
Usually we'd just attribute it to bonding, but these unconscious riddles are more than a symptom of being awake at 4am with Cameron Munster.
Put simply, the pressure cooker of the interstate series has become so asphyxiating that even its most uncomplicated contributors are now communicating like they're dead from the neck up.
In the fair dinkum department, Queensland is supposed to be the steadier of the two states when it comes to navigating Origin's muscular politics, especially when headed by a slick operator like Slater.
But fast forward two years and this once unflappable country boy is now talking enough rubbish to earn himself a seat in the senate- and it's not just his bizarre pressers.
As we know, selection time is usually saved for ridiculing NSW, but this year it's Queensland and its coach copping its fair share of flak.
With the Maroons squad featuring unexplained omissions, sacrificial bolters and players out of position, it's apparent that it's not just into the microphone where Slater's been talking out his Bulli Pass.
By overlooking the in-form Corey Horsburgh and feeding in a ten-game rookie in Robert Toia, it appears he's also lost his marbles at the selection table because his Queensland side is looking decidedly New South Welsh.
Horsburgh's omission was predictably explained by Slater with as much clarity as a fish tank full of pumpkin soup.
'Only 17 players can play for Queensland in Game 1, but that doesn't mean those players that missed out won't get another opportunity,' the coach roboticised.
It's not just these vague cookie cutter explanations that have grown so slippery that it's even annoying Queenslanders.
Nope, it's also Slater's frequent David Brentisms that are numbing Origin's coarse charm, that which began with last year's 'We're still Queenslanders' farce.
Stuff like 'If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough' and 'we need to just get our footy on' are so painfully meaningless it should warrant a translator and an RBT at all his interviews.
Add how David Fifita took last year's axing 'like a true Queenslander' and the cringe-worthy monopoly claimed on resilience because of bushfires, and it's clear Slater's unflappable approach from his honeymoon period has been replaced in his psyche with a flyblown donkey.
Of course, Daley has not been immune himself either.
He's wasted no time enacting standard Origin paranoia by flashing the hairy eyeball towards the evil media despite working in the industry barely 26 seconds ago.
Worse still, he's brought it all upon himself with the baffling omission of Terrell May, with the trail of pre-snub leaks and lemony explanations leading to questions of whether the coach is now picking teams based on vlog traffic.
Daley's claim in response that May just needs to 'keep banging down the door' would be acceptable had the Tigers prop not ripped it off its hinges and set it alight.
We're talking about the bloke running second in the Dally M and how he can't even earn a start on Daley's extended bench- but hey, this is Origin and we don't speak in English anymore.
Why can't the coaches just tell the truth and give us an unvarnished explanation on why they're off certain players?
It's simple.
Because Origin build-up has become a passive aggressive game of eggshells where one errant comment can be perceived as weakness, hostility, or some kinda cooked insinuation that Buzz Rothfield is doing your dirty work.
Even though there's nothing clandestine about Origin anymore, everyone still carries on like it's the Cold War.
Despite a modern game where most of these blokes live in each other's pockets, the fear of relinquishing an advantage means coaches are hermit leaders reading off scripts to protect their states from imagined rats and filth.
This is why Slater is talking in tongues and overthinking like an edgelord, a stark shift from tradition because thinking has never been Queensland's strength.
We should've seen the writing on the wall when Kevin Walters hired the Coach Whisperer or any time Brad Fittler spoke.
Origin build-up is sending us mad with boredom, and the only option is to write a cheque and antagonise again.
Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic yearning for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges were magic and the Mondays were mad. He's never strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt.