NRL: Warriors can go all the way - Daley

Chad Townsend of the Warriors celebrates with Sam Tomkins and Shaun Johnson after scoring a try during the round 18 NRL match. Photo / Getty.

Victorious New South Wales State of Origin coach Laurie Daley says the Warriors have as good a chance as any team of going all the way in this year's premiership race.

The former Canberra Raiders, New South Wales and Australian captain is impressed with the Warriors transformation under former club teammate Andrew McFadden's coaching and says maintaining consistency will be their biggest challenge over the closing rounds of the regular season.

"Under Andy they've been very consistent," Daley explained. "The big thing on the Warriors has always been their lack of consistency. There's been a big discrepancy between their best and their worst. Where they're at the moment they're in a pretty good headspace. They're confident, they believe in themselves and they just have to work hard for the next five weeks and try and finish in the top four. If they do that they're as good a chance as anyone."

McFadden's success with the Warriors comes as no surprise to Daley, after witnessing first-hand the good rapport and respect he developed with players while in charge of the Raiders Jersey Flegg [2005] and New South Wales Cup [2006] sides.

"No, I'm not surprised. I knew that a lot of the players really enjoyed his coaching at the Raiders and wanted him to be a part of the staff. Many of them wanted him to stay and were disappointed to lose him and then once he took over from Matt [Elliott] I knew he was going to be a success because the players really enjoyed playing for him."

Daley describes McFadden as a perfectionist, and says his ability to clearly articulate his vision and expectations to the playing group allows them to have clarity and confidence in his instructions.

"He's very hard-working and honest and he wants them to be the very best that they can and strives for perfection. He makes sure their training sessions are spot-on and I think also they've had clarity in their roles. They actually understand what each player needs to do and what his role in the team is and I think that's very important when you're coaching, for each player to know what exactly it is that the coach wants from him."

Those personality traits were evident upon McFadden's arrival at the Raiders in 1997, as an unassuming 19-year-old halfback, tasked with filling in for club legend Ricky Stuart.

"He came in with all that expectation but ended up just being who he was rather than trying to be a Ricky Stuart, and I think that helped him and he turned out to have a very good footy career himself," he explains. "He was a guy that wasn't overly big but very courageous. A guy that wanted to be the best he possibly could, trained rally hard, worked hard on his game and was a guy that everyone enjoyed his company."

After masterminding the Blues' first Origin series win in eight years, you'd forgive Daley if he was content to sit back and relax and bask in the glory of his achievement. That's not the case, however, as he is already thinking about claiming back-to-back titles over the Maroons.

"I've had some downtime. Basically I'm looking to get back into it over the next week or so. Starting to plan again for next year and start to work on some our camps that we have coming up in December and January and get those all sorted. Then I can have a couple of week's rest at the end of the year."