HOW often do you hear coaches in professional sport — in any code, be it rugby league, football, AFL — blame the referees when their team loses?

It’s a rarity to hear any mentor lay all the blame for a loss squarely on the shoulders of their players, and they seemingly stroll into post-match press conferences armed with a list of where they were hard done by courtesy of the men and women officiating.

That was the case after Origin I this year. Queensland beat NSW 6-4 in Sydney and Laurie Daley came out swinging, saying he would demand the same referees from that game not be allowed to officiate for the rest of the series.

“I’ll be asking for those two referees not to be officiating in game two. There’s your story,” Daley said immediately after the loss.

But what’s just as rare as a coach who doesn’t blame the refs is a coach who takes a swipe at those in charge, then apologises for it later and admits they were wrong.

That’s what Laurie Daley did.

Speaking on Fox Sports program NRL 360 on Thursday night, the NSW coach revealed he regretted his attack on the whistleblowers after the series opener.

“After game one I was critical of the referees, but on reflection I’m disappointed in myself because it’s not a great look and as a leader that’s not the way I should operate and it’s not the way I want my team to operate,” Daley said.

“Unfortunately in the heat of the moment I got carried away, so I’m really disappointed with the way I responded.

“It’s a tough job being a referee. We should be encouraging people to be out there and to help our game.”

Listening to Daley speak, it was obvious his regret was genuine and heartfelt.

From the coach’s box, he would no doubt be seeing every Origin game through a blue mist. Queensland counterpart Kevin Walters would be watching it through a purple haze, and the same goes for any other coach in any other code — from their perspective, they only see the moments their team gets the rough end of the stick.

But often it’s the neutral supporters watching from the couch who have a better idea of how much teams have really suffered at the hands of the officials, because they’re able to take the emotion out of it.

In another coaching shock, the likes of which you just don’t see regularly, Daley admitted just that, again taking the refreshing approach of acknowledging that in the end, decisions have a way of evening themselves out.

“Refereeing is more difficult than being a coach,” Daley said. “Honestly, when you objectively review the game things can go your way and they can not go your way, but they tend to even themselves out.”

At least he can’t deny the Blues won out in the refereeing department in game three, as they finished on the right side of 12-3 penalty count.

That gave them a gluttony of possession — 61 per cent of it in the first half alone in fact — and forced Queensland to do a mountain of defence to protect their tryline.

While it seemed like the Maroons’ gutsy defence would pay off, they cracked in the final stages, letting Michael Jennings sneak through with just over a minute remaining to secure NSW’s first win of the series.