NSW Blues announced a change of guard on Tuesday morning, with Laurie Daley stepping down as head coach and appointing long-term assistant Matt King to take charge of the state.
Daley called it time following a remarkable series win, where the Raiders legend copped plenty of scrutiny throughout the series, but got the last laugh.
With King now in charge of retaining the State of Origin shield in Sydney for 2027, he turns his attention to who he will fill his coaching ranks with to ensure the Blues go back-to-back.
The Blues' greatest ever Andrew Johns has publicly called for one former player to come in and assist during the 2027 series.
Johns wants to see former Blue James Maloney come into the coaching staff alongside Boyd Cordner and Brett White.
Known as a larrikin off the field, Maloney has a great personality to bring the squad together while also demonstrating an elite level of knowledge for the game, shown with two premierships as five-eighth with the Roosters (2013) and the Sharks (2016).
On top of that, Maloney has played with a core group of Penrith players who will no-doubt feature in selection conversations next year, including Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo and Liam Martin.
“Someone who would be really good, the yin and yang, is Jimmy Maloney," eighth Immortal Johns said on Nine's Freddy and The Eighth.
“Jimmy has obviously played with Nathan (Cleary), he's played with a lot of those Penrith blokes and he played at Origin level.
“You need that, because it's so serious - and it should be - but you need someone like that and his timing is perfect.
“He knows when to be the village idiot and when to be serious.”
Maloney has donned the sky blue 14 times during his NRL career, and guided NSW to back-to-back series wins in 2018 and 2019.
The 40-year-old former star was brushed in Game 1 of the 2019 series, but was recalled for the final two games of the series where he steered his state around the park and claimed the shield in the Sydney decider.
He also previously served as an assistant coach for the Cowboys in 2024.
King will be stepping into a unique situation in the Origin series next year when Game 2 is played outside of Australia for the first time professionally.
The second fixture will be played at Auckland's Eden Park to ramp up the competition for the NRL's 20th team, which will most likely be located across the Tasman.
Game 1 will be held in Brisbane, while Sydney will host a potential decider.
