Fittler and kids in line for promotion

LAURIE Daley was considering young guns Nathan Cleary and Mitchell Moses as his NSW halves combination next year before he lost the coaching job to Brad Fittler, who is expected to be named as his Blues successor today.

And he said Blues incumbent Mitchell Pearce would feel Cleary, 20, and Moses, 23, breathing down his neck when Origin selection arrives in 2018.

Moses’ stocks are on the rise after his efforts in the World Cup with Fittler‘s Lebanon.

“Those two have played a lot of football now, so it’s not as if they’re young rookies,’’ Daley said. “I didn’t like picking halves until they had 50 or 60 games behind them because it’s too hard. That’s just my opinion.

“But they were two guys pencilled in for 2018.”

And Daley, whose five-year reign as NSW Origin coach came to a shock end this year, also said Fittler would do a “magnificent’’ job as his replacement.

Fittler is expected to get the nod over Michael Maguire today and Daley backed the former NSW captain to flourish in the position after guiding the Generation Next Blues in recent years.