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Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Mitchell Moses and and Jarome Luai cop brutal truth amid Nathan Cleary return
Mitchell Moses and Jarome Luai have been handed an early challenge to start the 2025 season with Brent Read suggesting they will be fighting for one NSW position with Nathan Cleary set for an Origin return. Moses produced his best ever representative performances last year having led NSW to a series victory under Michael Maguire. He then backed-up his performances for Australia having led the team to a Pacific Championship title. Moses felt right at home in the representative arena, despite missing most of the season for the Eels due to injury. However, it didn't take long for questions to be asked about his long-term position in the team if Cleary returns. The Penrith No.7 is considered the best playmaker in the game, but has never stamped his authority on the Blues jersey. Moses achieved what Cleary had not done last year and won an Origin decider. Luai partnered Moses and also produced his best game in the sky Blue jersey. And while it is way too early to lock down a candidate, Phil Rothfield and Brent Read have gone head-to-head over who will be selected. Next year, all three will be playing halfback for their clubs and could be in a running battle with each other. And Phil Rothfield was quick to ask who would be the No.7. "We have Nathan Cleary who didn't play this year vs Mitchell Moses who not only won Origin and played sensational, also played for the Kangaroos," Rothfield posed on Triple M's Footy Talk. While Rothfield found the debate interesting, Read was blunt with his reply and didn't even entertain the idea of Cleary missing out on selection if fit. "This is not a debate at all. Nathan Cleary will be seven," he said. "The debate will be Mitchell Moses or Jarome Luai at six." Rothfield said Daley had recently given Moses praise and suggested the coach is very loyal, which could work in Eels star's favour. Luai was one of NSW's best last year as he lifted his game to silence his critics. However, Luai will be playing halfback at the Wests Tigers in 2025, which adds more intrigue to Laurie Daley's decision. Fans are undecided if Moses and Cleary could work together at No.6 and No.7 with new Blues coach Daley not speculating just yet over who is in the lead. One telling move Daley made is not including James Tedesco in his pre-season camp. While Tedesco did represent NSW in Game 1 last year, Maguire opted to drop the Roosters fullback for the remainder of the series. Tedesco lost his captaincy with Dylan Edwards coming in and producing two excellent games to cement his position as the No.1 fullback for the state. However, Daley stunned fans when not including Tedesco in his pre-season meet and greet for the wider Blues squad last week. Reporter Michael Carayannis suggested he found it odd one of the best fullbacks in the game and the former captain was included in the wider squad. "Interestingly, there was no James Tedesco. There was 20-odd players. Tyran Wishart was there...I don't like forecasting Origin in February but I did find it interesting Tedesco wasn't part of the camp," Carayannis said on SEN Radio on Monday. "I thought he produced arguably his best season in the last couple of years. He was outstanding for the Roosters. So much can happen..." Daley has not ruled out including players from outside the wider squad, which leaves the door open for Tedesco to return. However, it appears Edwards will be favourite to once again wear the No.1 jersey after also starring for Australia after the NRL season.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
'There's the door': Broncos legend calls out players after ugly Michael Maguire claim
Broncos great Corey Parker has slammed the reports players are 'unhappy' with Michael Maguire's training methods suggesting the players need to buy into the new coach's methods after last year. Maguire was introduced as the new Broncos coach when it appeared standards had slipped at the club in 2024 after missing out on the top eight. The likes of Reece Walsh, Payne Haas and their teammates have been put through their strides in a tough 'military' style camp ahead of the 2025 season. Doubts were raised about Walsh's conditioning upon pre-season return, but the fullback quickly quelled any doubt as he appears in tremendous shape to start the season. However, not everyone has bought into Maguire's methods. Recently, Maguire hit back at his critics after reporter Rothfield took aim at his tough pre-season camp. And Rothfield has now claimed players 'aren't that happy' with the methods as he suggested the Broncos could suffer from burn out towards the end of the season. "I'm worried about the Broncos," Rothfield said on his Footy Talk podcast. "I think they needed a hard edge but Madge is so hard, so demanding, so. tough. We saw this happen at the Wests Tigers. We saw this happen at Souths. I can see them (the Broncos players) burning out and I'm hearing that the players aren't that happy." And Rothfield's huge claim has not sat well with Broncos great Parker. Speaking on SEN Radio, Parker - who spent 16 years at the club - ripped into the notion Broncos are being pushed too hard and was all for Maguire's tough love. "To win a competition you need a lot of things to go right," Parker said on Friday. "You can't win a competition in January, but you can lose a competition in January. Over the summer, you have one opportunity to get your playing group battle-hardened for the season that is going to come. They are highly-paid are paid to train. "With the Brisbane Broncos they needed a circuit-breaker and it was in the way of Michael Maguire. People know what type of coach Maguire is, but he is also fair. He cares about the individual. And sometimes change does get the eyebrow raised." Parker went further and claimed if players aren't happy with the pre-season then they don't need to represent the Broncos. "I would assume it would be along the lines of 'if you aren't happy that's ok, there is the door'. Because if you want what you got last to do the same thing," Parker said. "Now they have got a different result, in the way of a circuit-breaker with Maguire. Trust in the process. "Yes there are going to be some disgruntled players talking to their Madge hears this he'd go, 'That's OK, if anyone doesn't like what's going on here, that is fine. There's the door'. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. It's got to be difficult." Speaking last month after some criticism over his methods, Maguire was quick to praise the players and how they have rallied together during a tough pre-season. "It was a really good camp. We did various challenging things but it was also about connecting together and they (the players) were really good," he said on SEN Radio. "They learned a lot about each other and there was a focus on leadership. The senior players connected with the younger players and vice versa. So it was a very beneficial camp. Sometimes it was just sitting around having dinner together." At the end of 2024, there were reports suggesting Walsh had not returned to Broncos pre-season in top shape. This prompted Haas to defend the fullback and claimed everyone was buying into Maguire's high-standards. And this report was quickly put to be when, reporter Joel Gould dismissed concerns around Walsh and claimed the fullback was looking ready to go ahead of the 2025 season. "I was actually at a press conference when someone asked about that...I have watched Reece Walsh train at the Broncos - week-in and week-out - and I don't see any difference. He may have come back not as quick and not as good as some of the other players," Gould said. "I don't see anything other than Walsh putting everything into looks good and Walsh doesn't look off the pace. If he was, he has fixed it."
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Reece Walsh in huge scare as Michael Maguire cops Broncos 'burning out' swipe
Reece Walsh has sent a massive scare through Broncos camp after a nasty incident in pre-season training, as Brisbane coach Michael Maguire's no-nonsense methods have again come under question. Maguire has made no apologies for his rigorous approach to pre-season training with the Broncos, despite copping backlash from veteran journalist Phil Rothfield about his 'old school' methods. The Broncos' new coach has been pushing his players hard in the off-season and put the squad through a military-style camp focused around fitness and hard work, as well as team bonding and leadership. Maguire is renowned as a hard task master - cut from a similar cloth as veteran Storm mentor Craig Bellamy - and the Broncos sessions under the former premiership-winning coach have been brutal by all accounts. Brisbane-based reporter Peter Badel is a regular attendee of Broncos trainings and says they have "featured high-octane collisions as intense and brutal as a bona fide premiership game." But reporter revealed that Walsh was on the wrong end of one such incident that left teammates fearing he'd suffered a serious injury, in what would have been a disastrous blow ahead of the new season. "Reece Walsh flew into mid-air to defuse a high kick and smashed into a Broncos teammate with a ferocity that stopped Brisbane's training session in its tracks," Badel reported. He said a "dead silence" fell over the squad, before Walsh dusted himself off and rose off the canvas, before high-fiving teammates to signal he was OK. While no harm was ultimately done, it should serve as an ominous warning for Maguire about the risks of his no-nonsense approach. With greater risk often comes greater reward but Rothfield is among those who've expressed concerned around Maguire's approach, and fears the coach could be "burning out" the players and that a number of them have already objected to his methods. "I'm worried about the Broncos," Rothfield said on his Footy Talk podcast. "I think they needed a hard edge but Madge is so hard, so demanding, so. tough. We saw this happen at the Wests Tigers. We saw this happen at Souths. I can see them (the Broncos players) burning out and I'm hearing that the players aren't that happy." Rothfield pushed fellow league journalist Brent Read to give his take on the situation and he admitted that while Maguire's hard-nosed approach had been a "shock" to the system of some players, he downplayed concerns about them burning out. "There's some rumblings... but that's not a surprise Buzz because I think we all anticipated... Madge getting in and shaking the place up and there would be some who may not react to that as well as some others." RELATED: Kalyn Ponga in eye-opening All Stars move after Mal Meninga snub Bulldogs launch radical proposal for NRL jersey change only seen in Origin Broncos stars Payne Haas, Patrick Carrigan and Kobe Hetherington have been among those to talk up Maguire's influence in pre-season training, as well as veteran skipper Adam Reynolds, who's described it as one of the toughest of his career. The coach was brought in to lift the standards at the club and he's certainly doing that, with Maroons great Billy Moore commenting recently that they look to have a much harder edge about them in 2025. Maguire will get his first proper look at some of Brisbane's fringe squad members when they play "feeder team" Burleigh on the Gold Coast on Saturday night. Among those hoping to impress the coach will be back-up halves Jock Madden, Josh Rogers and 18-year-old Coby Black, as well as the NRL's tallest player Ben Te Kura - the 20-year-old 205cm giant who burst onto the scene in the NRL last season. The Broncos will also play trials in February against Gold Coast and Canterbury, before their NRL season gets underway against the Roosters on March 6. with AAP
