After just one year of success under Michael Maguire, the NSW Blues are once again without a coach, after their latest hire jumped ship to take up the vacant Brisbane Broncos job.
Predictably, the speculation for the next coach came thick and fast, with a number of current and former names offered up to keep the good times rolling.
One coach who many have suggested is three-time premiership coach Ivan Cleary, in the midst of a fifth-consecutive grand final campaign - and while the rules currently prohibit current coaches from entering the Origin arena, Phil Gould has made an impassioned plea to the NRL to rethink this approach.
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Gould makes case for Cleary as Blues coach
There has been no coach more successful over the past half decade in the NRL than Ivan Cleary, the mastermind behind the Penrith Panthers dynasty.
According to NRL icon Phil Gould, his success should open the door for a dual-role coaching the Blues, saying on his podcast Six Tackles With Gus that he is more equipped than anyone.
"I can't see why not," Gould said.
"The set up [at Penrith] is pretty much plug-in and plug-out. I think if Ivan Cleary didn't turn up to work for a week, the whole thing would keep functioning.
"I think it should be an aspiration and I don't think he should have to retire from club coaching to be a representative coach, given his record.
"I think those great coaches like Cleary and [Craig] Bellamy could honestly coach Origin, but it's a distraction for their club. I think it would be second nature for Cleary or Bellamy to step in and do that job and I think it would be the best course of action.
"I don't know why they changed that and why at some stage they worried about it.
"I actually found it easier to coach the rep team when I was a club coach. You're in the rhythm of training and preparing, you know the players from the other teams, you know the referees... you're already locked in to 90 per cent of what you're going to be doing.
"What I found when I wasn't full-time coaching, it was like having three grand finals thrown at you in the middle of the season with little preparation to do it."
Cleary and the Panthers will play the Melbourne Storm in the 2024 NRL grand final this Sunday.
