{"id":380561,"date":"2026-04-15T11:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T11:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/380561\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T11:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T11:22:10","slug":"phil-gould-names-his-nsw-blues-hooker-despite-being-overlooked-in-recent-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/380561\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Gould names his NSW Blues hooker despite being overlooked in recent years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former NSW Blues<\/a> coach Phil Gould has thrown Apisai Koroisau’s name in the ring for his first-choice hooker for the upcoming State of Origin<\/a> series.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs’ head honcho has continually questioned why the live wire dummy half has been overlooked in the past two series despite red-hot form for the Wests Tigers<\/a> warranting selection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two leading contenders are incumbent Reece Robson<\/a>, who has been steady since moving clubs, but hasn’t cemented his selection.<\/p>\n

The other is Blayke Brailey<\/a>, who is reeling off a Dally M Hooker of the Year accolade last year, taking his game to new heights in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Koroisau has been an elite competitor for the Tigers since his arrival and has been one of their best players week-by-week.<\/p>\n

Since moving to the Tigers, the Blues<\/a> selection panel has looked elsewhere for different options after Koroisau played four times for the Blues<\/a> during his time at the Penrith Panthers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When speaking on Wide World of Sports’\u00a0Six Tackles With Gus, Gould expressed his frustration at why he hasn’t gotten a look-in as of recent.<\/p>\n

“I can’t understand it,” Gould said.<\/p>\n

“I can’t answer you, I don’t know. He would be first picked for me, but I don’t pick teams.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know why he’s fallen out of favour, I really don’t. Particularly too, with his long-standing combination with the other Penrith players that are gonna make the side.<\/p>\n

“I don’t get it, but that’s up to the coaches and selectors. I hope he does [get picked], because I think he’s the best hooker for NSW – but that’s up to them.<\/p>\n

“The bottom line is, I don’t know why he’s fallen out of favour. Maybe they lost a game and thought they needed to reinvent the wheel.<\/p>\n

“But to me, he’s one of the more steadying influences and more influential players. He influences the scoreboard, he brings other players onto the ball, he influences his halves and he has wonderful big-game experience.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what else they are looking at, I’ve got to be honest.”<\/p>\n

Gould is one of New South Wales’ most successful coaches, recording six series wins across two spells between 1992-1996 and 2002-2004.<\/p>\n

He sits at a respectable 14 wins, 9 losses and 1 draw, giving him a 58.3% win rate in the toughest and most competitive rugby league arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given his record, if he believes Koroisau is the best player for the role, expect his frustrations to catch the attention of the Blues<\/a> selection panel.<\/p>\n

The Tigers’ attack has been superb to start the year, with great thanks to Koroisau’s elite deception out of dummy half, which frees up his outside men.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It will be a three-way shootout between Brailey, Robson and Koroisau, with the next few weeks critical on who will get the nod from coach Laurie Daley<\/a> for Game 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When featuring on Nine’s 100% Footy\u00a0on Monday, Koroisau confirmed his ambitions to re-join the Origin representative arena.<\/p>\n

“I think every single player that’s eligible wants to play,” Koroisau said.<\/p>\n

“It’s one of those things, if they ever did need me again, my hand’s up and ready to go … but that’s a result of how I’m doing at club level.<\/p>\n

“I’ll let the footy do the talking and see what happens.”<\/p>\n

He will get the perfect chance to show the Blues<\/a> selectors what he can do when his side takes on the reigning premiers, the Brisbane Broncos<\/a>, in a blockbuster clash in Campbelltown on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NSW Blues coach Phil Gould has thrown Apisai Koroisau’s name in the ring for his first-choice hooker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-380561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}