Laurie Daley has outlined his probable skippers should Blues captain Boyd Cordner be ruled out of the Origin decider in Brisbane.

Cordner is facing a stint on the sidelines with a calf injury and is no certainty to play in what is dubbed one of the biggest games in Origin history.

The 24-year-old was superb throughout the opening two games as a player who leads by example rather than with words as evidenced with his stellar on field performances.

Daley said should Cordner fail to recover in time for Game Three on July 12 at Suncorp Stadium he had players ready to lead.  

“I think there’s a lot of guys who could certainly do the job and the guys that spring to mine are the ones that were in contention pre-Boyd,” Daley said.

“Guys like Josh Jackson, Aaron Woods, James Maloney, they’re the the guys that spring to mind straight away. I think all those guys are capable and we have got a really strong leadership group. Fingers crossed Boyed will be right. We need him and he’s been an inspirational leader for us.”

 

One man who will not have the famous ‘C’ next to his name is Mitchell Pearce with Daley adamant his No.7 will have enough on his plate trying to steer NSW to just their second series win in 12 years.

“I think without putting too much pressure on Mitch, he just needs to concentrate on his game and there are other plays that could and probably will do it if required,” Daley said.

“But, it’s something that we’re hopeful we don’t have to look to and hoping Boyd will come into camp and away we go.”

The Blues dominated the first three halves of the series before dropping their bundle in the second stanza to allow Queensland to run them down 18-16 in Sydney.

NSW were guilty of playing protective football as the Queensland Origin curse seemed to get the better of the southerners after leading 16-6 at the break.

Daley was confident his troops could muster victory in enemy territory as evidenced in their dominant 28-4 Game One win in Brisbane.

“I think we’ve shown what we are capable at when we are at our best,” he said.

“We had a patch of about 20 minutes in the second half when we just didn’t play a lot of football and there are probably a few reasons behind that but I think the squad we have together is certainly capable of winning and I am confident we can go up there and win. 

“It’s going to be difficult and it’s never an easy game up there and you’d think the fire would be burning in the boys and they’ll come into camp ready to go.”