Being Kissed On The Andrew Hick Should Not Blind The World To Laurie Daley’s Ineptitude and the Blues Failures For 60 Minutes: New South Wales lead the State of Origin series 1-0 and are now heavily favoured to claim the 2026 series but the result should not cover up the reality: Until Queensland were reduced to 12 men, they led 20-6 and were cruising to a win in Sydney with coach Laurie Daley completely bereft of ideas. Changes need to be made and even though it won’t happen, Daley should be the first to go. His performance in the box was a humiliation to everyone in NSW, Daley looking nothing like a coach and more like a fanboy with an inability to understand what was happening to his favourite team. NSW were completely unprepared for the match. They were not ready to play. They had no game plan. Risky selections – Mitch Barnett, Stephen Crichton, Victor Radley – did not pay off. Running with just three props was laughable and then to name Jacob Saifiti as the third one – and not play him – was the act of a mind addled by some severe illness. The media push in the aftermath trying to use the result to justify Daley’s position is so off the planet deluded that the belts and shoelaces of its proponents should be removed. Brent Read said he thought at halftime that Daley should be sacked – that is 20 minutes later than most people south of the Tweet came to that realisation.
There, of course, should be many changes to the team, almost none of which will be made given Laurie Daley’s belief that incumbency keeps one’s position secure unless they pass away, go missing or have a bad haircut.
Mitchell Moses will be back after missing late with a hamstring injury, forcing outstanding debutant Ethan Strange to the bench. Stephen Crichton has no business in the team with Casey McLean simply in irresistible form. Mitch Barnett was dreadful and Addin Fonua-Blake not far behind. Payne Haas will get a game while Jackson Ford and Terrell May must come into calculations. Reece Robson provides nothing and with Blayke Brailey hurt, he will keep his spot, but there needs to be someone more creative in there and that player needs to be Api Koroisau. [Text Wrapping Break]
The Blues just are not going to be any good under Laurie Daley. He is a part-time coach with no real idea. NSW may luck their way to a series win but it will be in spite of a coach who should never have been recalled and who does more damage to the side than good.
NRL Laughable in Defending Klein: It has been a hot debate as to whether Kalyn Ponga should have been sent off. This column does not believe it was worthy of dismissal. To suggest there were no mitigating factors is laughable – Tolutau Koula was falling after being tripped by Sam Walker – and to send him off is pure textualism with the intent of banning the shoulder charge to stop frontal shots with an upward lift and not a covering defender bracing with the possibility of a step inside. Contact was made to the head. A sin bin would have sufficed. Regardless though, the process that led to the send off was laughable and should have seen the spotlight-seeking Klein dumped for Game 2 and every future Origin game through the existence of time. Klein simply ignored The Bunker, no matter what revisionalist history the NRL is pushing. The Bunker never gets ignored. The man in the middle, when sending the discussion upstairs, takes the advice of the team with all the camera angles and not himself who saw it once from a distance. If Klein was inclined to send him off, he should have done so immediately. If he was in doubt, he should have heeded the advice. The NRL seems to want its cake and eat it too. Klein turning the game or not is irrelevant – his failure to follow due process and to make himself the centre of attention again is what should blackball him.
PVL Is Coming And It Is Probably A Good Thing: A lot of people like to decry dictatorship and in some areas they are probably right but when it comes to the governance of a sporting code, dictatorship is far better than democracy. We had a democracy for a long time this century in the NRL – David Gallop answered to a board mixed with News and ARL representatives while the ARLC was formed to give clubs and state boards a say – but the game has absolutely thrived since Peter V’Landys took the reins, marginalised most other powerbrokers in the game, cucked the ARLC and ran the show with his “crash or crash through” approach. Rugby League has long been a game that has attracted tinpot dictators leading to a collection of wannabe bosses typically out of their depth and fighting completely out of self-interest. V’Landy’s is no tinpot dictator. He is the real deal, capable of harnessing power and bringing in mountains of cash and winning significant wars. People may not like his style, they may not like the power he has accumulated but nobody can argue that Rugby League in Australia has ever been in better health, the dominant sport in a country that loves sport on the verge of the biggest television deal in Australian sporting history. It is far from perfect – the game has gotten way too fast, the officiating is an utter debacle, rugby union still exists even if it has been consigned to a fringe hobby for right wing extremists – but V’Landys through sheer willpower has improved the state of the game significantly. He is the only answer now to be chief executive with an executive chairman the best option by panels. He is only going to hire some two-bit yes man as he did with Andrew Abdo if he doesn’t get it so give the man some respect and let him continue to drive the greatest game of all forward.
The Willie M Team of the Week: This week’s team of fools and flops: [Text Wrapping Break]
1.Reece Walsh (Bri)[Text Wrapping Break]2.Jason Saab (Man)[Text Wrapping Break]3.Tom Chester (NQ)[Text Wrapping Break]4.Reuben Garrick (Man)[Text Wrapping Break]5.Cody Ramsey (Roo)[Text Wrapping Break]6.Luke Brooks (Man)[Text Wrapping Break]7.Sam Walker (Roo)[Text Wrapping Break]8.Preston Riki (Bri)[Text Wrapping Break]9.Kurt Mann (Bul)[Text Wrapping Break]10.Leo Thompson (Bul)[Text Wrapping Break]11.Siua Wong (Roo)[Text Wrapping Break]12.Kitione Kautoga (Par)[Text Wrapping Break]13.Jack De Belin (Par)[Text Wrapping Break]—————————————–[Text Wrapping Break]14.Tallyn Da Silva (Par)[Text Wrapping Break]15.Jack Underhill (Bul)[Text Wrapping Break]16.Ben Hunt (Bri)[Text Wrapping Break]17.Griffin Neame (NQ)[Text Wrapping Break]—————————————–
Coach: Cameron Ciraldo (Bul)
Referee Gradings: This week’s gradings:
Todd Smith (C-)
Jarrod Cole (D+)
Peter Gough (D)
Grant Atkins (C+)
Wyatt Raymond (C+)
Ashley Klein (C-)
Gerard Sutton (D+)
The 2026 Field Goal Update – 11: Sadly no field goals were kicked this week and not a single player has kicked two field goals through half the season.
Fun Fact #1: There are 12 surnames who played in the first season in 1908 and the current 2026 season: Anderson (Tommy and Grant), Brown (Arthur/David and Dylan/Nathan), Cook (Henry and Damien), Elliott (Charlie/William and Adam), Jones (Lou and AJ), King (Bill and Josh/Max), O’Donnell (Tommy and Kai), Smith (Many), Sullivan (Mick and Jayden), Walker (Alex and Sam/Cody/Dylan), Walsh (Pat and Joey/Reece) and Williams (James/R and Jack).
Fun Fact #2: Josh Mantellato holds the record for most points in a reserve grade season, scoring 308 in 2012.
Fun Fact #3: The biggest winning margin in reserved grade came in 1913 when Souths beat Mosman 102-2.
Rumour Mill: Jake Averillo is expected to sign with the Wests Tigers for 2027 and beyond after being squeezed out of the Dolphins. Connor Watson is set to have a gap year at St George Illawarra before moving to Papua New Guinea. Murray Taulagi will likely be moving to the Sydney Roosters in 2027.
The Coaching Crosshairs: There is significant speculation doing the rounds that Trent Robinson is set to move on from the Roosters sometime in the next 18 months. Robinson has long been linked to a return to France, a country he has close ties to with his wife French and Robinson involved in the Les Chanticleers hierarchy. He has without question been Nick Politis’ favourite coach but results over the last eight years have been underwhelming and sometimes it is best to part with both parties still affectionate towards the other. Robinson is an elite coach who would very soon get the Catalans job while it would allow the Roosters to go all-in on trying to get Ivan Cleary involved in the club.
Moronic Coaching Decision of the Week: Cameron Ciraldo is doing nothing but showcase himself as a complete pretender with his refusal to accept any responsibility for the state of the Bulldogs. Rather than accept that Canterbury’s predicament is primarily a result of roster mismanagement, coaching tinkering, horrid communication and perhaps the worst assistant hire in the history of Rugby League in Adam O’Brien, Ciraldo used Saturday’s press conference to chuck a hissy fit about officiating. The Bulldogs certainly copped some dud decisions but the reason Canterbury lost to the Tigers was another incredible display of ineptitude with the ball inside the opposition 20 and a lack of resilience defending on their own tryline. Players aren’t held accountable. No team has worse attacking shape. Players seem unclear on their roles. This is all coaching. It is absolutely embarrassing and will not improve while Ciraldo buries his head in the sand, only coming up to deflect blame from himself. He won’t get fired by Phil Gould – Gould never admits his wrong – and unfortunately for Canterbury fans the only hope is the Bulldogs go so bad for so long that the clowns running the club realise Gould hasn’t the slightest idea on how to build a top grade roster and Ciraldo doesn’t have the conviction or the smarts to coach an NRL team.
Watch It: One of the great flashes of brilliance to ever hit Rugby League was Ewan McGrady. McGrady played just 64 first grade games – just three seasons playing 15-plus games – yet won a Rothmans Medal, scored 27 tries in his first 39 games and set an indelible mark in the memory of all Rugby League fans of a certain age. Watch his career highlights here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LW3vBK61B8&t=278s