{"id":753722,"date":"2026-06-22T21:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/753722\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T21:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:58:13","slug":"nrl-news-2026-phil-gould-slams-terrible-six-man-bench-rule-nsw-blues-selections-interchange-rotations-cameron-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/753722\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Phil Gould slams \u2018terrible\u2019 six-man bench rule, NSW Blues selections, interchange rotations, Cameron Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phil Gould<\/a> has lashed the \u201cterrible\u201d six-man bench rule<\/a> and believes coaches at both State of Origin<\/a> and club level are \u201csecond guessing\u201d how to utilise it.<\/p>\n

The importance of bench rotations has become a huge talking point in the wake of last week\u2019s Origin clash at the MCG, with criticism being levelled towards NSW coach Laurie Daley<\/a> for the way he used his interchange.<\/p>\n

\"NSW<\/p>\n

NSW coach Laurie Daley.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

On the flip-side, Maroons<\/a> coach Billy Slater<\/a> has been lauded for his selections and bench rotations, especially when Cameron Munster went off for a HIA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the six-man bench rule was brought in to give teams coverage in more positions in the event of injury, Gould believes it has only muddied the waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely – I think club coaches are coming to terms with that as well,\u201d the Bulldogs boss said on Nine\u2019s 100% Footy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause they\u2019ve got so many options on the bench, sometimes they can second guess themselves. What\u2019s happening is, they\u2019re not putting their fourth player on until very late in the piece, because they want to cover their bases. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think sometimes they are second guessing themselves. If they only had the four replacements, they\u2019d work their way around it and get people to fill in. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes they make the right call and sometimes, it\u2019s the wrong call.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like the six-man bench, I\u2019ve never liked it. I think part of the strategy of coaching and picking a team is to cover all your bases and do it from there. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the six-man bench is poor for club football, we\u2019ve got players who are not getting enough football and it doesn\u2019t coincide with the NSW or Queensland Cup draws, so they can\u2019t get a game that weekend … it\u2019s really bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been influenced by coaches that want to keep four big men on the bench because they can\u2019t play 80 minutes … but they still want a half or outside back in case one of them gets injured, they want some insurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve gotta be able to have players who can play 80 minutes and play other positions if they need to, particularly in Origin.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy thing with the bench and everyone I picked in Origin, I wanted them all to be 80-minute players … we\u2019ve already seen it in this series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Gallen<\/a> agreed with Gould, describing the six-man bench rule as a \u201cget out of jail free card\u201d for coaches when things don\u2019t go to plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been a fan,\u201d the Sharks legend said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think about some of your best victories in your career, you\u2019ve gotta deal with some adversity and things that go against you.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have a six-man bench, it\u2019s like a get out of jail free card.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Api Koroisau failed to get on the field in Origin.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The other issue that has arisen during Origin is that an extra four players are potentially missing club football to sit on the bench for 80 minutes.<\/p>\n

Last week, interchange players Api Koroisau<\/a> and Jack Bostock didn\u2019t get on the field for the Blues, but weren\u2019t allowed to feature in club land a few days prior.<\/p>\n

It was the same scenario for Reece Walsh<\/a> and Murray Taulagi with the Maroons.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir fans are missing out, their club teammates are missing out and it\u2019s hurting their chances to go ahead and play finals,\u201d Cameron Smith<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

That prompted Gould to describe the current system as \u201cterrible\u201d before calling for a representative window to be installed to avoid Origin wreaking havoc.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gotta fix this, we\u2019ve been dealing with this Origin draw thing for a long time … let\u2019s not get into that argument,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Queensland will head into game three on July 8 as heavy favourites to retain the Origin shield on their home turf at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phil Gould has lashed the \u201cterrible\u201d six-man bench rule and believes coaches at both State of Origin and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-753722","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\/753722","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=753722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}