{"id":759227,"date":"2026-06-25T11:21:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759227\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T11:21:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:21:27","slug":"state-of-origin-news-2026-nswrl-boss-dave-trodden-defends-blues-coach-laurie-daley-defends-personal-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759227\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin news 2026: NSWRL boss Dave Trodden defends Blues coach Laurie Daley, defends personal relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"

NSWRL<\/a> boss Dave Trodden<\/a> has launched a passionate defence of Blues<\/a> coach Laurie Daley<\/a>, denying their personal relationship was the reason he was hired.<\/p>\n

Daley, who is in the midst of his second stint in charge at State of Origin<\/a> level, has been the subject of criticism and debate throughout the series.<\/p>\n

\"SYDNEY,<\/p>\n

Blues coach Laurie Daley is under immense pressure.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Despite winning the first game, admittedly against a 12-man Queensland side after Kalyn Ponga was sent off<\/a>, NSW were blown away in game two.<\/p>\n

The pressure has been mounting on Daley and there\u2019s a growing push for him to step away from the position at the end of the 2026 series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to remember any coach at any time recently that\u2019s copped it as bad as he has,\u201d Trodden told 9News Sydney on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the stuff that\u2019s been directed at Loz has been really personal, really unwarranted and really disappointing, quite frankly. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t deserve that, either as a person or as a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

The harshest piece of criticism came from a News Corp report that claimed Daley\u2019s pre-game speeches were uninspiring and \u2018putting players to sleep\u2019.<\/p>\n

Trodden is adamant the coach knows how to motivate his players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just nonsense,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have this totally misconceived idea about what happens in the dressing room before the game. The reality is, with almost every coach, they go around before a game providing last-minute messages to players. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome players might need to be revved up, some might need to be calmed down. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the last-minute messaging, more so than the big Churchillian speeches.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the battered Blues now staring down the barrel of a second-straight series loss, some of the criticism has now turned to Trodden, who brought Daley back into the fold nine years after his initial coaching tenure ended.<\/p>\n

But the long-time chief executive refuted claims his close ties to Daley was the reason behind the appointment, labelling it as \u2018demeaning\u2019 to all parties.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

NSWRL chief executive Dave Trodden.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a high regard for Laurie and I don\u2019t shy away from that,\u201d Trodden said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of the relationship I have with Laurie, I\u2019m not embarrassed by it at all. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe annoying thing is people make observations which are totally unfounded and totally untrue, without even bothering to check what the processes are. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt demeans Laurie, it demeans the board and it demeans everyone in the organisation and that\u2019s a bit hard to cop.\u201d<\/p>\n

NSW will look to regain the shield with a major upset on July 8 when they travel to Suncorp Stadium for a decider against Billy Slater\u2019s side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NSWRL boss Dave Trodden has launched a passionate defence of Blues coach Laurie Daley, denying their personal relationship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-759227","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\/759227","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=759227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}