{"id":802730,"date":"2026-07-15T22:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/802730\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T22:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:50:12","slug":"state-of-origin-news-2026-phil-gould-backs-billy-slater-to-continue-as-qld-maroons-coach-suggests-player-rebuild-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/802730\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin news 2026: Phil Gould backs Billy Slater to continue as QLD Maroons coach, suggests player rebuild, exclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phil Gould<\/a> believes the Maroons<\/a> could be facing a rebuild period for next year\u2019s State of Origin<\/a> series, but is backing Billy Slater<\/a> to remain as coach.<\/p>\n

Slater\u2019s men went down in the Origin decider last week, despite entering the clash as overwhelming favourites on their home turf at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

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Billy Slater reacts after game three.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

It marked the second-straight time Queensland had lost a decider in their own backyard, with the Michael Maguire<\/a>-led Blues getting the job done in 2024.<\/p>\n

There have been major question marks over whether Slater would remain in charge<\/a>, especially after his \u201chandshake deal\u201d comments before game three.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Wide World Of Sports\u2019 Six Tackles With Gus<\/a> for the first time since the decider, Gould was asked where Slater\u2019s future lies and what Queensland need to do heading into 2027 and his response could raise some eyebrows.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could see the devastation from Billy Slater at losing that game, he knows how much it means to the Queensland people,\u201d the former NSW coach said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly hope he does it again \u2026 but Billy is at that point now where he\u2019s had a couple of losses and he\u2019s experienced winning too. He\u2019s got a little bit of a rebuild to go there on that Queensland side, which I\u2019d like to see him oversee. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s one of the great Queensland sides, I\u2019ve never felt that. I wasn\u2019t gonna say that earlier in the series … but I was really confident.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the team from game three, the Maroons only had two players – Cam Munster<\/a> and Kurt Capewell – over the age of 30, compared to five from NSW.<\/p>\n

Gould hinted at those two players not being in the Queensland side for much longer and believes Slater needs to shake up his edge forward stocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s gonna have a new, young halves pairing going forward – Sam Walker<\/a> and the young boy from the Cowboys [Tom Dearden<\/a>] are gonna be the future,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think they need to look at their back-row, they need some more strike and work ethic there. I felt that the back-rowers for NSW were outstanding. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a great believer in back-rowers being a very important part of your team \u2026 Liam Martin and Hudson Young were outstanding in that game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capewell has been a great servant for the Maroons over the past seven years, but turned 33 last weekend and could be usurped by the likes of Cowboys star Heilum Luki and Dolphins tearaway Kulikefu Finefueaiki<\/a> next year.<\/p>\n

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David Fifita could return to Origin in 2027.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

David Fifita<\/a> is also back playing good football for South Sydney, while try-scoring freak Jeremiah Nanai likely has a mortgage on a Maroons jumper long-term and Sharks enforcer Briton Nikora<\/a> had some good moments in his debut series.<\/p>\n

As for captain Munster, he should likely remain in the five-eighth role to begin next year\u2019s series, but will face immense pressure from Walker and Dearden. <\/p>\n

The 31-year-old has already cemented his legacy as one of Queensland\u2019s all-time greats and has even hinted at passing the torch to his younger counterparts soon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phil Gould believes the Maroons could be facing a rebuild period for next year\u2019s State of Origin series,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-802730","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\/802730","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=802730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}