A Call for Professionalism in State of Origin Team Announcements
Former New South Wales (NSW) coach Phil Gould has raised concerns about the “amateurish” way State of Origin team announcements are handled, following what he described as an “embarrassing” live stream this week. The incident has sparked a broader conversation about the need for more professional and structured processes when unveiling the teams for the prestigious series.
The latest round of team announcements by both NSW and Queensland took place on Monday morning, marking a shift from previous years where the Blues would typically announce their squad on Sunday nights. This change was partly due to the delayed finish of the final game of Magic Round, which ended at 8:30 pm. However, the method used to reveal the teams has come under scrutiny.
Instead of a traditional media conference or high-profile event, the NSWRL opted for a live stream on its YouTube channel. Coach Laurie Daley stood awkwardly alongside chief executive Dave Trodden, reading out the 20-man squad. The process was far from polished, with technical issues and a lack of visual elements that could have elevated the occasion.
One notable error occurred when Daley named former Maroons hooker Casey McGuire instead of young centre Casey McLean, a mistake that quickly went viral. The situation was further compounded by the fact that Trodden’s microphone malfunctioned for the first minute of the stream, and the team had to field questions from viewers who submitted them through YouTube.
Nine commentator Mat Thompson expressed disbelief at how the Blues handled such a significant moment. He urged the NRL to improve the way teams are announced, highlighting the lack of professionalism in the event.
“I’m assuming this would be a big media conference, so you can imagine my surprise when I go to the NSWRL website and up pops Dave Trodden and Laurie, standing on what I’d described as a table you would stand at a pub,” Thompson said on Wide World Of Sports’ Six Tackles With Gus.
“Laurie reads the team out straight down the camera, no graphics, nothing else. Dave Trodden is trying to MC the thing, his microphone didn’t work for the first minute and on the back of that, they take questions from people sending through on YouTube.”
Thompson emphasized that State of Origin is a multi-billion dollar game, and the way teams are announced should reflect its importance. “This is a multi-billion dollar game and State of Origin is the pinnacle of it. Can we please do better than that? That was embarrassing.”
He also questioned why the announcement wasn’t held at Nine, the broadcast partner of the game, suggesting that Laurie Daley could have announced the team on national television. “It should be an event, we should have both teams announced at the same time.”
Gould, regarded as one of NSW’s greatest coaches, echoed these sentiments, calling for a complete overhaul of the current system. He pointed out that while there has been an obsession with getting the teams first in recent years, the process still lacks structure and professionalism.
“We’ve talked in previous years about the obsession with the media of getting the teams first and announcing the team on the weekend,” Gould said. “We had a number of rumours and innuendo over the weekend and none of them were right. I think from that perspective, the coaches did a good job of keeping the teams in-house as much as possible, even though these things do leak out.”
Gould also highlighted that the announcement should not be left to the QRL and NSWRL to handle independently. “The announcement shouldn’t be up to the QRL and NSWRL to do it their own ways. Both coaches should be in one room with the chairman or whoever and the NRL should conduct it. It should be an event and there should be a better and more professional way to do it, other than the way we’ve done it seemingly forever.”
He concluded by emphasizing that the current approach has missed great opportunities and continues to be “done very amateurishly, it always has been.”
