‘I’m not taking the piss out of Laurie’: Matt Johns reacts to coaching Blues

June 28, 2026 — 5:00am

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Rugby league commentator and former Blues five-eighth Matthew Johns is one of TV’s funniest men but it’s time for him to stop treating the NSW coaching job as a punchline.

Blues coach Laurie Daley has spent the week meeting his senior players, including Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo as they try and find a way to beat Queensland in Origin III in Brisbane on July 8.

Daley is also dealing with the conversation that this is his last hurrah. And that he can’t coach. It’s brutal. And the circus around his future had fire poured on it by Johns.

When asked on his Sunday Night Show last weekend by co-host Bryan Fletcher if he would be interested in coaching NSW next year, Johns said: “Absolutely not. If Joey (Andrew Johns) does it, I’ll help Joey out. That’s it.”

It hasn’t gone down well in Blues circles. Not for the first time Matthew has flirted with the idea of coaching NSW. This is done with the caveat that his brother Andrew will do it with him. So if Andrew says he doesn’t want to do it - which he has said before and said again - then Matthew doesn’t have to do it.

The feeling is Matty gets some laughs out of it and benefits from the publicity for his show on Fox Sports.

“I can promise you I’m not taking the piss out of Laurie,” Matthew said.

“I made the coaching comment in jest and I couldn’t believe the fall-out and the phone calls I was getting about it. It was a throwaway line and no part of it was meant to disrespect Laurie. I have all the time in the world for him. I wouldn’t want to cause him any trouble.”

Here is a message for Matthew: don’t duck behind your brother. If Daley doesn’t want the job, Matthew should put his hand up and do the gig on his own.

Behind the clown act from Matthew is a brilliant football mind. We see that in his analysis. It’s sharp. It’s to the point. He is also a great communicator. He can play the media like a fiddle. If you want someone who can bond a group, it would be Matty. He could also work on a message that gets under the skin of Queensland. He ticks every box.

He also knows key characters in the Queensland side inside out. He could find weaknesses in coach Billy Slater, hooker Harry Grant and captain Cam Munster. He knows all of them very well.

Matthew knows Billy from his time as a specialist coach with the Storm. If he took on the Origin job, he can still work in the media and get one of his sidekicks to fill in. And if he is genuinely concerned he can fob it off as a one off before Ivan Cleary is available in 2028.

There are obviously more realistic contenders like NSW assistants Boyd Cordner or Matt King but if there is a one-off appointment – a gap year solution – between Daley and the next coach, Matthew should stick his hand up and help the state.

“I think you need to be coaching fit,” he said. “To do a job like that you’d need to be doing something else in the coaching world. I did think about it with Samoa a few years back. And yes, tactically I think I have an idea. But the communication these days with younger player is different. I’d be speaking English, and they’d think I was........

© The Sydney Morning Herald