ANZAC Round: Resilience, Rebuilding, and the Road to State of Origin
4/22/20261 hr 2 min
As the nation prepares to pay tribute to our service people, we sit down with former 2nd Commando Damien Thomlinson for an unforgettable conversation on survival, perspective, and true toughness.
Plus, we break down a massive week in the NRL: the Dragons enter a new era with Dean Young at the helm and Kade Reed set for his debut, Latrell Mitchell’s stunning form, and the mounting injury toll ahead of the State of Origin series.
Don’t forget the Billy Slater Podcast every Monday and Stories of Origin Season 5 with Nathan Cleary available Monday 27 April.
Six Tackles with Gus is thank to TAB.
01:00 – ANZAC Round: Honouring sacrifice.
06:00 – Latrell Mitchell: Is he currently the best fullback in the game?
09:00 – Injury update: The toll ahead of Origin.
13:00 – The Storm: Are they in danger of missing the 8?
16:00 – Kieran Foran: Coach of the Year contender?
17:00 – Dean Young: The right man to lead the Dragons?
24:00 – Kade Reed’s NRL debut.
28:00 – NRLW Queensland Origin team discussion.
30:00 – Feature Interview: Former 2nd Commando Damien Thomlinson.
44:00 – Round 8 Preview
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMathew Thompson· Host0:00
Hello there. Welcome to Six Tackles With Gus for another week. Great to be back with you. Thanks to Tab for their ongoing support. So much to talk about ahead of the ANZAC round this weekend. Plenty happening at the Dragons as well. We'll get Gus to dissect all of that, but one era has ended with Shane Flanagan exiting as coach, and another era about to start with Cade Reid elevated to make an ANZAC Day debut. The young halfback thrown, uh, right into the deep end. Well, welcome Gus.
Phil Gould· Host0:31
Matthew Thompson, how you doing?
Mathew Thompson· Host0:33
We're going very well, thank you. It's a big weekend. You can feel the anticipation ahead of ANZAC ground, as we always do.
Phil Gould· Host0:39
Yeah, my favorite round of the year. Um, it's the most important day on our national calendar every year. ANZAC Day, um, quite rightly gets bigger and bigger as more people understand, uh, what it means and, um, what people in our past have done to give us the life that we have today and, uh, it's great that r- rugby league gets to be a part of it. Rugby league was first played on ANZAC Day back in 1927, and pretty much every ANZAC Day since, I think during COVID we missed a couple, but, um ... And in fact, more games have been played on ANZAC Day than any other day of the year.
Mathew Thompson· Host1:12
Mm-hmm.
Phil Gould· Host1:12
Um, there used to be the one ANZAC Day round of game each year, but now the every round celebrates with the ceremonies, and I think that's a wonderful thing.
Mathew Thompson· Host1:20
Mm.
Phil Gould· Host1:20
And right throughout this weekend, every game will start with the ANZAC ceremony and, of course, the big game on Saturday between, uh, the Roosters and the Dragons, which has become now a traditional