A surprising contender has reportedly thrown his name in the ring to replace the outgoing Michael Maguire as the new head coach of the NSW Blues for the 2025 State of Origin series.
Since Michael Maguireย confirmed his departure from theย NSWย Bluesย to link up with theย Brisbane Broncos, several names have emerged as his potential replacement.
While there has been no confirmation on who is the likely replacement for Maguire, several contenders have been linked to the job, such as Phil Gould, Matt King, Laurie Daley, Paul McGregor, Brett White, and Michael Ennis.
NRL coaches Craig Bellamy, Ricky Stuartย andย Ivan Cleary have already ruled themselves out as candidates to replace Maguire as they would rather focus on their club team and don't need the distraction of coaching in the Origin arena.
Now, former Canterbury Bulldogs coach Dean Pay has thrown his name in the ring to become the new head coach of the NSW Blues, despite last coaching at the top-level in 2020, per Fox Sports.
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Unbeaten for five consecutive years as the U20s NSW coach, Pay was formerly an assistant coach under Kevin Walters at the Catalans Dragons in the Super League and the Parramatta Eels under Ricky Stuart.
However, he didn't have the best luck when given the head coaching reins at the Bulldogs, where he only won 19 out of a possible 57 matches from 2018 to 2020.
During his playing days, Pay was known as a ball-playing forward and strong defender. Between 1989 and 1999, he made 184 appearances for the Canterbury Bulldogs and Parramatta Eels and was inducted into the Eels Hall of Fame in 2002.
A key piece of the Bulldogs' dominance in the early 1990s, he is also a former NSW Blues (12 matches) and Australian Kangaroos (10 matches) representative, meaning he knows what to expect in the State of Origin arena.
