‘Should never play again’: Gorden Tallis’ brutal claim after Laurie Daley ‘hit piece’

Gorden Tallis has fired up over the “hit piece” taking aim at Blues coach Laurie Daley on Tuesday ahead of Game 2 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday.

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In fact, the Queensland Maroons great went as far as to claim if a New South Wales player has leaked criticism of Daley’s approach to the media he should “never play again”.

That came in the wake of a stunning report from Code Sports, which claimed that Daley’s pre-game addresses lacked “oomph” and that he was too passive during training.

The report — which NRL 360 host Braith Anasta described as “personal” and a “hit piece” — cited multiple sources inside the Blues camp, although no specific names were mentioned.

“Just name the source. Never hide behind a source,” Tallis said, while he also disputed the idea that Daley’s pre-game addresses should have any real impact on the end result.

Instead, Tallis put the onus on the playing group, going as far as to say that any rugby league player should “go play another game” if they need a motivational speech to get fired up.

“That comes down to the player,” Tallis said.

“I’ve played a long time in that arena. I had to be told to wait for the game... you get emotional, you’ve got your family, you’ve got your friends. They just spoke about a jersey presentation and they get what it means because you’re in the inner sanctum.

“You should not need to be motivated to play for this state or anybody. We are so privileged to run out in any jersey in rugby league and if you need to be motivated to run out in any jersey in our game, go play another game.

“No coach ever had to tell me the game is at 7.30pm and you have to get ready to go into battle.”

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Tallis left his most scathing remark for any player who may have leaked information to the media, declaring if they did they “should never play again”.

Code Sports reporter Michael Carayannis, who did not write the piece, pointed out that it may not have been a case of a player directly leaking the information.

Rather, they may have told a teammate in club land who then told a friend who then told someone else and then from there it got to the media and that may have happened in the case of multiple different players.

But either way, Tallis stood by his message and insisted even if that was the case, the player should have been a “man” and told Daley how he felt.

Foxsports.com.au writer Paul Crawley, however, hit back at suggestions Code Sports needed to name its sources, while also questioning whether the speculation would have an impact on Daley or the playing group ahead of Wednesday’s game.

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“You talk about the fact you’ve got to aim it up with people talking on the record. We all know that’s not how it works,” Crawley said.

“We wouldn’t have a TV show if you were stacking up everything with someone that wants to go on the record. If he has got sources there saying that to him you can’t ignore that there is a problem with the New South Wales team.

“I don’t know how you could completely forget about it. Even if you didn’t manage to put it out of your mind, at some point it would come back and play on your mind.”

For what it’s worth, Blues assistant coach Boyd Cordner was emphatic in defending Daley when he appeared on NRL 360 on Wednesday night, calling his preparation for both Games 1 and 2 “unreal”.

“We know how much of a good coach Laurie is, the way he’s prepared us throughout Game 1 and then this camp too has been unreal. He has the utmost respect of the playing group and us as a staff... there’s no concerns in our camp at all,” Cordner said.

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