July 19, 2026 — 3:00am
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The on-air attacks from rugby league commentator Braith Anasta on the hiring of Laurie Daley as Blues coach originate from a personal issue he has with the Origin-winning mentor.
Daley is one of the nicest men in rugby league and he has no enemies in a game that is fuelled by hatred and feuds.
Rugby league commentator Braith Anasta (left) and NSW Blues coach Laurie Daley.Fairfax Media
Well, it turns out he has one person who can’t cop him – the outspoken host of NRL 360, Anasta.
It was Anasta who hammered Daley about how he got the job last year – implying it was because of a friendship with NSW chief executive David Trodden. But he went harder on his 180 podcast.
Following the Blues disappointing 44-24 game two loss to Queensland in Melbourne, Anasta said of Daley’s selections: “I don’t know if it’s stubbornness, arrogance or just being dumb. Or having the capabilities or ability to coach at this level.”
That’s a hard-line approach. To describe Daley as dumb is personal and offensive.
Anasta also said: “Everyone’s talking about Loz and poor Loz, and he’s copping it right? And do I feel sorry for him? Well, I’m not sure. I’ve had some dealings with him in the past and he’s a great bloke, but he knows how all this stuff works.
“And he’s pulled one on me before, back in the past when he was a selector for NSW. So he’s not Mr Innocent, let’s get that straight.
“One of his best mates is Dave Trodden, head of the NSW Rugby League. Answer me this: if they are not mates, does he get the job? Who cares if you’re a ripper bloke. You’re a good bloke … f—en coach NSW. This is business … We are getting our pants pulled down, but ‘he’s a good bloke’.”
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Daley was NSW Country Origin coach from 2008 to 2012. According to the NSWRL, Daley was a state selector from 2008 to 2010. Anasta played his last game for the Blues in 2008. That season, he won the Rugby League Players’ Association player of the year award. He didn’t play for the Blues in the next five seasons.
Surely, it would have nothing to do with an old selection grudge. Anasta was replaced in game one in 2009 by Terry Campese and then Trent Barrett.
There is no point in trying to contact Anasta as he has previously said he won’t respond to any inquiries from your correspondent.
Benji in on May brothers’ PNG joke
Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall is all about respect and that’s why he says he will pick Parramatta- and Papua New Guinea Chiefs-bound Jarome Luai for the rest of the year.
It’s a great approach to have. But where was the respect when the Tigers coach was in on a prank when brothers Terrell and Taylan May set up a situation to pretend they had signed with the Chiefs?
Benji delivered a set-up speech to his team.
Benji Marshall address the Tigers squad as part of the prank from the May brothers.YouTube
“It’s a tough one, because there’s a lot happening,” Marshall told Tigers players after the May boys addressed the team.
“But if it’s best for you and your family, I can’t be angry about it. Even though it’s gutting to lose two of our brothers, but the way they explained it to me, it’s just too good for them not to go.”
Turns out, it was all a big laugh. After pretending they were leaving, the twist was that the Mays were staying put and the “yahooing” that followed was lapped up by the group.
And Luai had to sit there and endure his coach and teammates making light of what was an agonising decision for him to make.
Jarome Luai and Benji Marshall.Fairfax Media
It’s fair enough if the players wanted to do it – but the coach? It’s more of an act for “the boys”.
Luai, only a week or so earlier, had spent considerable time sweating over making the biggest decision of his life – to move his family to Papua New Guinea and away from his loved ones, friends and comfortable life.
Yet Benji oversaw a situation in front of the entire playing group and staff that reduced Luai’s decision to a punchline, which was then plastered all over social media by the players and the club itself.
Believe what you want about the coach-player relationship, but there is an insight into what Luai had to absorb and move through.
Marshall knows how agonising it can be to sign a contract elsewhere. In 2013, he refused to apologise for posing for a photo in an Auckland Blues Super Rugby jersey while still contracted to the Wests Tigers. He didn’t see anything wrong with it at the time. He claimed, “We’re not in finals contention, so it was the time to do it”.
It’s interesting that the Wests Tigers have taken such offence to Luai receiving third-party deals that stem from his decision to join PNG in 2028.
South Sydney’s Alex Johnston also has third-party commitments in PNG that predate his announcement to join the Chiefs. The Rabbitohs had no issue with Johnston taking Peter Mamouzelos and Sean Keppie over to Port Moresby on a recent bye week.
The Tigers, for that matter, didn’t have an issue when former player Justin Olam would regularly return to PNG to partake in third-party commitments.
The Tigers also didn’t seem to mind when the shoe was on the other foot – when Luai signed a lucrative contract with clothing company Canterbury (CCC) after he announced his forthcoming defection from Penrith to the Tigers in 2024.
Another perspective
The Panthers knew the third party was in response to his decision to join the Tigers, but still agreed to approve the long-term deal despite Luai having 12 months to run on his contract. CCC then happened to join the Tigers as their apparel partner soon after.
At least the Tigers deserve extreme praise for the way they handled the Luai exit publicly. Putting Marshall and Luai up for media was a lesson on how to handle his departure. Simple but effective.
Chiefs still have eye on Cleary
The PNG Chiefs’ pursuit of Zac Lomax is another masterstroke by the club – and they are building a considerable stock of talent with an eye to landing the big fish, Nathan Cleary.
It’s an “if you build it, they will come” approach. It’s a long shot, but if they can boast some serious players in their line-up before November 1, it may at least give the champion Panther a reason to think. And that’s without the millions per year he will make. Cleary is going to start putting thought into his future soon.
“I’ll start doing that in the next couple of weeks,” Cleary said.
The PNG Chiefs have eyes on recruiting Panthers superstar Nathan Cleary.Getty Images
Cleary is showing no inclination to leave for overseas rugby. He has admitted the stress Laurie Daley was under throughout the Origin series has made him wonder whether he’d like to see his dad do the job.
Ivan Cleary has made it clear he has aspirations to coach at representative level, once he completes his commitments with the Panthers next year.
Nathan and the Blues players saw the heat on Daley. And Nathan couldn’t help but think about his dad in the job.
“I saw the stress and pressure that Laurie went through … and it did make me think about why would someone want that,” he said.
Laurie Daley gives Nathan Cleary one last hug before parting company at Sydney airport.Steven Siewert
“I did think it was something that Dad would never do because of everything that goes with it. But then you see the euphoria that comes after a win. So you get it. But I know how important it is to him to finish well in his final year as coach of the Panthers. And NSW is in good hands with Matt King, Boyd Cordner and Brett White.”
We checked on reports that Penrith had denied Cleary and Isaiah Yeo the right to explore their worth on the open market early. The request was never made, and as a result, it was never denied.
NRL keeping eye on media conflicts of interest
Peter V’landys says the clampdown on media commentary in the new broadcasting rights deal has nothing to do with Bulldogs general manager Phil Gould.
“Not one bit,” he said. “Poor Gus, he gets blamed for the potholes in Pitt Street.”
The NRL has a clause in its $5.3b broadcast agreement with Nine (the publisher of this masthead), Foxtel Group and Sky NZ that deals with media figures having a role within the game that the governing body thinks leaves them with a conflict of interest.
What’s more, the identities will need to be on a register detailing links to players and clubs, which will be provided to the NRL. It will take in player managers, NRL employees, club officials and directors. Television networks will need to remind their employees of their responsibilities.
This column first revealed how the NRL was trying to control the media some months back by seeking to get access to program rundowns. And V’landys has been unapologetic when we have talked to him about his influence on Nine’s Today show – complaining about the AFL getting too much prominence. Now “the media conflict” clause is in the seven-year broadcasting deal.
How it will be enforced and punishments handed out will be interesting. But you can expect an independent person to be brought in to assess perceived conflict.
The example the NRL give when briefing media is the way Braith Anasta and his Fox colleagues went after the Dragons and their coach Shane Flanagan in 2025, when he wouldn’t play halfback Lachlan Ilias in first grade, preferring son Kyle Flanagan. Anasta doubles as a player manager and Ilias is one of his clients. The half has since switched to the Titans where he has made eight appearances in the NRL this season.
The Fox attacks on Flanagan led to Dragons chairman Andrew Lancaster, who is also a Nine board member, criticising the media. Anasta returned serve, slamming Lancaster before retracting his comments and issuing a public apology.
The NRL hold Lancaster in high regard – he is also a Nine board member and friend of V’landys. That Anasta v Lancaster episode doesn’t sit well with the NRL.
It’s a big reason why the clause is in play.
But if you read the News Corp press they are going overboard trying to brainwash the public into thinking it’s because of comments Gould made about Lachlan Galvin when he called the then Tiger “the best teenage footballer I’ve ever seen”. Galvin subsequently joined the Bulldogs after a public fallout with the Tigers.
Lachlan Galvin and Jarome Luai at the Tigers in April 2025.Steven Siewert
But Galvin didn’t sign with the Bulldogs because of public praise from Gould. To say he did is an easy assumption, as mindless as recent mentions saying Gould is still a commentator in State of Origin. He hasn’t called a game in years. He does sit on a panel dissecting Origin, and all of his comments are headlines in News Corp.
Gould has praised and will continue to praise players in his role. And you can expect him to be critical of the game and its rules.
Rugby league heading to Disney+
The second-biggest streaming company in Australia is getting involved in rugby league. League content will be available to the large Disney+ subscriber base for the first time. A new show – ESPN League Central – will be on Disney. It will feature Shane Flanagan and two very popular podcast hosts in James Graham and Nathan Durkin, who runs the Rugby League Guru.
Disney+ is tapping into their audiences and the show is produced by The Bye Round. It will kick off on Wednesday, July 22.
PVL stuck in economy
NRL boss Peter V’landys secured a $5.3 billion broadcasting deal for the game this month, but that didn’t entitle him to travel to Brisbane for Origin III in business class.
V’landys was in economy with the punters. The best part of that was that the person in front of him jammed their seat back on him for the majority of the flight.
Young the favourite for Dragons job
Individual player improvement will be given as the reason St George Illawarra interim coach Dean Young gets the Dragons job if he lands it as expected in the coming days.
There would have to be a considerable shift in the way that Young is viewed for him to miss out. The Dragons have seen plenty they like from Young since he took over from Shane Flanagan in April.
A decision could come as soon as Monday. Young has player buy in and support from the recruits.
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