{"id":726675,"date":"2026-06-10T04:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T04:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726675\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T04:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T04:59:14","slug":"state-of-origin-news-2026-dylan-lucas-to-make-nsw-blues-debut-haumole-olakauatu-dropped-reaction-phil-gould-comments-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726675\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin news 2026: Dylan Lucas to make NSW Blues debut, Haumole Olakau\u2019atu dropped, reaction, Phil Gould comments, analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the 2026 season kicked off, nobody could have predicted Knights<\/a> back-rower Dylan Lucas would be making his State of Origin<\/a> debut.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s no knock on Lucas – he\u2019s a quality young player on the rise and was a rare shining light for Newcastle in a wooden spoon year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dylan Lucas will make his Origin debut next week. \u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

In last year\u2019s Origin series, the three NSW<\/a> edge forwards used were Liam Martin<\/a>, Angus Crichton<\/a> and Hudson Young<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Crichton and Young played for the Kangaroos<\/a> in the year-end Ashes series, while Martin has had a disrupted period due to injury.<\/p>\n

In game one this year, Haumole Olakau\u2019atu was a no-brainer selection<\/a> after his red-hot form at club level for the Sea Eagles.<\/p>\n

Aside from those four men, the likes of Jacob Preston<\/a> and Keaon Koloamatangi<\/a> were widely thought to be ahead of Lucas in the pecking order.<\/p>\n

Even players like Samuela Fainu, Jack Williams, Jackson Ford, Teig Wilton and Josh Curran probably came into this season with higher hopes of a Blues call-up.<\/p>\n

Yet, here we are. <\/p>\n

Olakau\u2019atu played 67 minutes for the Blues in their comeback win, with Lucas the non-playing reserve, gaining valuable experience for the future.<\/p>\n

But fast-forward to Tuesday morning and there wasn\u2019t a person involved in rugby league who foresaw Laurie Daley<\/a> swapping the pair by axing Olakau\u2019atu and promoting Lucas to the starting side<\/a> for his Origin debut. Phil Gould<\/a> was particularly scathing of the change, saying \u201cI don\u2019t understand it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even Lucas himself was in the dark until an hour before the team went public and the fallout since has been telling, with critics lining up to hammer the selectors\u2019 decision. The Knights young gun is unwittingly the face of a significant controversy. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea – when he [Daley] called me through the week, he just told me he would be naming a squad and I found out this morning,\u201d Lucas told media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was super grateful to be here for the game one. To get the news this morning, I\u2019m so excited and can\u2019t wait to get out there … it\u2019s a bit of a pinch me moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is again no knock on Lucas or his talent.<\/p>\n

Since his early days playing in the Illawarra junior rep system before making the move to Newcastle, the 25-year-old has always had potential and has undoubtedly shown glimpses of it since his NRL debut three years ago.<\/p>\n

This season, the Knights gun has scored seven tries in 11 appearances, averaging more than 120 run metres and 37 tackles per game, taking full advantage of running outside Kalyn Ponga<\/a> and Dylan Brown<\/a> for an in-form outfit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dylan Lucas has been a standout for Newcastle this year.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s elevated himself and the thing is with Dylan is that he started in the centres, so he can play there, back-row or in the middle,\u201d Andrew Johns<\/a> said on Nine\u2019s Freddy and The Eighth last week, prior to the team being announced. <\/p>\n

But the head-scratching part of Lucas\u2019 selection isn\u2019t about him – it\u2019s about the man he\u2019s replacing when the Blues look to wrap up the series at the MCG.<\/p>\n

Nobody would argue that Olakau\u2019atu has been the form back-rower of the competition this year and, alongside Blues teammate Tolu Koula, Manly\u2019s best performer.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s averaged 180 run metres per game, made seven linebreaks, scored four tries, produced 10 offloads and operated at 96 per cent tackle efficiency in 11 games.<\/p>\n

In the series opener at Accor Stadium last month, Olakau\u2019atu had 10 runs for 97 metres – the most of any Blues forward in rainy conditions. <\/p>\n

Even taking statistics out of it, Olakau\u2019atu passes the eye test. Opposition players can\u2019t tackle him and certainly don\u2019t enjoy being tackled by him.<\/p>\n

Yet according to Daley, the decision to promote Lucas and drop Olakau\u2019atu was based around form and for the best interests of the NSW team.<\/p>\n

\"Haumole<\/p>\n

Haumole Olakau’atu has been dropped to 20th man.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways difficult to have those chats, but you\u2019ve just got to make a decision based on the best interests of the team and what the team needs,\u201d\u00a0the coach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those hard calls you have to make. We wanted to give Dyl a run in this game and I\u2019m sure he will do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was plenty of conjecture on social media once the team was confirmed by Daley – which isn\u2019t uncommon whenever Origin time rolls around.<\/p>\n

Gould vocalised it on his podcast and reiterated countless times how he can\u2019t fathom Daley opting to select Lucas over Olakau\u2019atu at this stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot understand the Haumole decision,\u201d the former Blues coach said on Wide World of Sports\u2019 Six Tackles With Gus<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the best right back-rower in the game. I don\u2019t understand it and I particularly don\u2019t understand replacing him with a left-sided player. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just not as easy to pick a kid on debut. I don\u2019t understand it, to be honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, I love Dylan Lucas as a player and he\u2019s certainly Origin-class and potential and he will get the chance to prove himself in this game, but I think it would be grossly unfair to play him on the right side. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure about the balance of the team and I cannot understand how Haumole Olakau\u2019atu isn\u2019t in the best 13 players for NSW … it shocks me greatly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision could prove to be a masterstroke by full-time next Wednesday, but as it stands, bringing the Newcastle star in over Olakau\u2019atu feels very odd. <\/p>\n

Again, not because of Lucas\u2019 talent – but because it doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the 2026 season kicked off, nobody could have predicted Knights back-rower Dylan Lucas would be making his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-726675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}