{"id":788427,"date":"2026-07-09T04:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/788427\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T04:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:23:12","slug":"state-of-origin-2026-nsw-blues-boss-dave-trodden-fires-up-at-critics-after-laurie-daley-press-conference-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/788427\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin 2026: NSW Blues boss Dave Trodden fires up at critics after Laurie Daley press conference | EXCLUSIVE"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Laurie Daley<\/a> blasted the critics who had come for him and his Blues<\/a> team for weeks on end in his post-game press conference on Wednesday night<\/a>, the boss of the NSWRL watched and listened from one wing of the room.<\/p>\n

CEO Dave Trodden hung off every word Daley had to say after NSW\u2019s 30-12 demolition of Queensland in the decider<\/a>, smiling and nodding in approval as the Blues icon took aim at \u201cpersonal\u201d jabs, \u201chidden agendas\u201d, faceless reporters and the obsession with tearing down champions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

NSW coach Laurie Daley at full-time on Wednesday night.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

Then, once the press conference had rumbled to an end and photos with Daley and the State of Origin<\/a> shield had been taken, Trodden leaned into his own tirade.<\/p>\n

He said Daley was 10 times the person any of his critics would ever be, labelled as \u201ctotally insulting\u201d the narrative that the legendary playmaker had only been re-appointed as Blues coach because of their friendship, and said the naysayers were left with egg on their faces.<\/p>\n

Notably, Daley didn\u2019t name names in his takedown of certain media coverage. In Trodden\u2019s mind, it spoke volumes of the coach\u2019s character.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the context of what has been said about Laurie, I thought he was very dignified in his response,\u201d Trodden told nine.com.au in the NSW sheds.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could have taken the same approach that some journalists took toward him by personalising the criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he had, there would be some people and their families feeling exactly what Laurie has been feeling over the last couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of it has been way beyond what is acceptable, in my view.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, criticise selections, criticise tactics \u2013 criticise all of those things \u2013 but a lot of what has been written about \u2018Loz\u2019 has gone way beyond that. It is personal, he doesn\u2019t deserve it and, frankly, New South Wales doesn\u2019t deserve it either.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I thought he made the points he needed to make, but he did it in a really dignified way and was a lot kinder to some people in the press than they have been to him. It says everything you need to know about Laurie Daley the man.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is 10 times the person that any of those people who criticise him will ever be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most stinging piece of media coverage aimed at Daley during the series was a report in Brisbane\u2019s The Courier-Mail published on the eve of game two.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

NSWRL CEO Dave Trodden in 2022.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

The report claimed multiple anonymous sources had confirmed NSW players were uninspired by Daley\u2019s pre-game speeches, and said his addresses had been \u201cputting the Blues to sleep\u201d.<\/p>\n

It followed three consecutive disastrous starts by NSW, who had been outscored 66-12 in the first halves across games two and three of the 2025 series and this year\u2019s series opener.<\/p>\n

Trodden went his hardest in the interview with nine.com.au when asked about Daley\u2019s return to the Blues coaching job.<\/p>\n

One narrative peddled on Fox League\u2019s NRL 360 during the series was Daley had only scored the job as Michael Maguire\u2019s replacement in December 2024 because he was mates with Trodden.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a narrative that undersells Daley\u2019s pedigree as a coach and leader, and tarnishes the integrity of Trodden and the rest of the NSWRL decision-makers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is just totally insulting. We are an organisation that turns over $50 million a year \u2013 does anybody seriously think for a second that is how jobs are handed out?\u201d Trodden said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a strict process for those appointments. It was actually two coaches who were appointed: one was John Strange (as the women\u2019s coach) and the other was Laurie Daley. People expressed interest, they were graded against a board-agreed criteria, there were then interviews conducted by a subcommittee which oversaw the whole process, consisting of two board members, and then that subcommittee reported to the board, and the appointment was made.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople also forget that it wasn\u2019t just the appointment of Laurie Daley; it was the appointment of Laurie Daley with Craig Bellamy<\/a> as his principal advisor. There weren\u2019t too many people at the time saying that\u2019s a silly decision. They were all saying, \u2018How on earth did they manage to recruit Craig Bellamy?\u2019 People love to revisit history and put their own spin on it to suit their own narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trodden said that narrative was \u201cuntrue\u201d, and \u201cso far from being true it wasn\u2019t even funny\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a very well-run, process-driven organisation,\u201d Trodden added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just don\u2019t do things like that in our organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if the critics had egg on their faces, Trodden replied: \u201cWell, I think they do, but it would be interesting to know whether they think they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is difficult sometimes to convince those people that they are wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will have all the reasons and all the excuses about why we shouldn\u2019t have won when they thought we couldn\u2019t win. But who cares?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Laurie Daley blasted the critics who had come for him and his Blues team for weeks on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-788427","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\/788427","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=788427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}