Staggs went off early with some quad tightness... think it's been the same thing that made him miss the internationals and all stars game.
Don't think the broncos were too worried, but he'll have two weeks to rest it before round 1
That finish by Jojo... how is Cobbo going to do that as a left hand carry on the right or Arthars as a right hand carry on the left.
Jojo even put a fend on with his left hand... our wingers won't be able to do that unless they switch the ball to their non-preferred hand
This the guy that the bunnies fan was talking about awhile back?
I think he was already on the books... not sure if it's the head of football type role they were looking at previously through guys like Peter Parr, etc.
Piakura is getting close to jumping above RIki for me... was way underwhelmed by Riki again this game.
All the second rowers were playing with more intent than Riki... Riki did have some nice defensive moments though... covered Reynolds on the inside early in the game and there was another read...
I was thinking that if Madge can make first graders out of Gos and Shiba, then we've instantly bumped up our depth and balance can look better straight away.
Piakura is a weapon off the bench, but can't yet play 80... he'll get there eventually, but we need a starter to cover that spot until he...
That's a waste of a bench spot though... trying to win in NRL is hard enough, why handicap it by playing with 16 each week and covering a potential injury.
I don't think he'll be too crazy with his bench. I think Piakura gets one spot if Gos is definitely starting, which I think is great. He's been showing great impact in the trials already.
Willison gets one of the middles spots... and then it's a toss up between Jensen, Marty and BTK... I feel...
He looked way out of his depth.
This is where previously we may have just kept him on, because good bloke, has been there all preseason, we probably won't need to play him anyway, etc.
But I'm wondering if Madge saw that and went "nope we need a better back up than him"
I don't like having to...
It looked like Smoothy spent more time at 9 than Billy... was also happy to see Smoothy get some time at lock... didn't think he looked out of place either.