Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="GCBRONCO, post: 2727343, member: 1808"] [URL]http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl/teams/broncos/forward-corey-parker-will-captain-the-brisbane-broncos-in-2016/news-story/b185746b3e854ba36605f8972ca45817[/URL] COREY Parker has achieved his childhood dream by clinching the Broncos captaincy. The Courier-Mail can reveal the battle for Brisbane’s leadership post is over with coach Wayne Bennett officially nominating Parker as the man to skipper the Broncos this season. The Broncos will officially unveil Parker as their new leader at a press conference on Friday morning. Bennett considered a number of candidates to succeed Justin Hodges including halfback Ben Hunt, fullback Darius Boyd, Sam Thaiday and hooker Andrew McCullough. But the master coach could no longer ignore the claims of Parker, who will finally be Brisbane’s main man after sharing the co-captaincy with Hodges two years ago. The coronation of Parker represents the final frontier for Brisbane’s ironman who has won premierships and dominated at the highest level for Queensland and Australia. As a 10-year-old, Parker rushed to Brisbane airport to greet his heroes after halfback legend Allan Langer steered Brisbane to their maiden premiership in 1992. Now Parker will walk in the footsteps of Langer _ and the 33-year-old is determined not to be a one-season wonder as Broncos skipper. Parker has begun negotiations with the Broncos to play on in 2017, a scenario that would see the 321-game veteran surpass Darren Lockyer (355) as the most capped player in NRL history. Boyd captained the Broncos in last week’s World Club Series clash against Wigan but privately Bennett believed Parker was always the man for the leadership post. It is understood Bennett told Parker he had the job a fortnight ago before the Maroons forward left for England with his Broncos teammates. Parker recently expressed his desire to captain the club after making his debut as an 18-year-old, bald-headed prop 15 years ago. “Brisbane is a place I love and cherish,” Parker said. “To be able to captain the guys, that would be great. “It comes down to one man (who decides the captaincy) and that’s Wayne as we all know. “Wayne’s been asked ‘has he got a captain’ etc. And it still amuses me that the media tries to pry things out of Wayne Bennett. “He’s been around for an eternity and he does things how he wants to do it. The bottom line is whoever gets the captaincy of the Brisbane Broncos is going to be in the best interests of the side. “Last year we went from where we were as a group to where we finished as a group due to the senior playing group and everyone else buying into that example. “It’s nice to have the backing from your teammates.” [/QUOTE]

Verification

Active Now

No members online now.

Total: 121 (members: 0, guests: 121)

Reply to thread

Log in

Active Now