Laurie William Daley AM (born 20 October 1969), also known by the nicknames of "Lozza" and "Loz", is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and a former player who played as a and in the late 1980’s, 1990’s, and early 2000’s.
He represented Australia on 26 occasions and has since been named as one of the nation's finest of the 20th century. Daley played for the Canberra Raiders during their most successful period in the 1990s.
Background
Daley was born in Junee, New South Wales, Australia to a white father from the small village of Nangus, New South Wales and an Aboriginal mother of the former Aboriginal Mission Wantabadgery, Wantabadgery, New South Wales.
Laurie is the third youngest of eight children. He is the only boy amongst seven sisters.
Daley was playing representative rugby league before his 19th birthday in 1988 when he was selected to represent NSW Country in the annual City vs Country Origin game. He was the second highest try-scorer in the 1989 NSWRL season with sixteen tries, only one less than teammate Gary Belcher. He tasted premiership success with the Raiders 1989 in an extra-time game which saw Canberra defeat the Balmain Tigers 19–14, and in the ensuing celebrations the Winfield Cup was smashed, not by Daley dropping it as was reported by the press, but when it fell from the rear tray of Ford T bucket hot rod both were riding in when the hot rod hit a bump in the road. In the post season he travelled with the Raiders to England for the 1989 World Club Challenge, playing at centre in Canberra's 18–30 loss to Widnes at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester.
Daley played his first games for New South Wales in the 1989 State of Origin series.
1990s
Part way through the 1990 NSWRL Premiership season Daley made his first appearance for Australia at against France in the NSW country town of Parkes, scoring a try on début. He would then play against New Zealand a month later in Wellington. At the end of the 1990 season where the Raiders won their second consecutive Grand Final, Daley won the Raiders' player of the year award and was then selected for the 1990 Kangaroo Tour. He missed Australia's opening loss to Great Britain at Wembley Stadium due to a broken hand suffered in a previous tour match against Leeds, but played centre for three tests on tour (two against Great Britain and one against France). The broken hand, and later a hamstring injury which saw him miss the second Test against France, restricted him to just 6 games on tour, 3 club games (against St Helens, Wigan and Leeds) and the 3 tests.
During the 1990 season, Canberra coach Tim Sheens shifted Daley from centre to five-eighth at the Raiders and popular theory was that he was being groomed to eventually take over the Test five-eighth role from Wally Lewis who was coming to the end of his career. Daley helped the Raiders to back-to-back premierships when they defeated Penrith 18–14 in the Grand Final at the Sydney Football Stadium. Following the Kangaroo Tour, Daley suffered a number of niggling injuries during the early part of the 1991 season, though he played well enough to retain his place in the NSW side for the 1991 State of Origin series (won 2–1 by Queensland), and although overlooked for the opining Trans-Tasman series test against New Zealand in Melbourne, was recalled into the side in the centres for the final two tests in Sydney and at Lang Park in Brisbane. After losing in Melbourne, the Australians (with Daley one of their stars) won 44–0 in Sydney and 40–12 in Brisbane. Canberra then limped into the Finals in defence of their crown, but suddenly found form and won high scoring games over Manly-Warringah and North Sydney to again face Penrith in the Grand Final. However, with Ricky Stuart taking a groin injury into the game and Daley doing the same with a dodgy hamstring, the Raiders were eventually no match for the Royce Simmons and Greg Alexander inspired Panthers who won the day 19–12. Daley's injury meant he was ruled out of the season ending Kangaroo tour of Papua New Guinea.
During the 1992 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand, he helped Australia retain The Ashes. Affected severely by a knee injury in 1992, which saw him unable to fulfill his contract at Wakefield Trinity, and miss Australia's World Cup final win over Great Britain at Wembley following the 1992 NSWRL season, 1992 also saw Daley take over the captaincy of the NSW Origin team and after being knocked out during the first game in Sydney, Daley recovered to lead the Blues to a 2–1 series win over Queensland now captained by Canberra teammate and Australian team captain Mal Meninga.