The game s commissioner Peter V landys told
The Sydney Morning Herald he will put forward a proposal for NRL players be vaccinated in the third phase of Australia s rollout. That would see star players get the sought-after jab before the vast majority of the population, prioritised alongside healthcare workers, aged care home staff, the elderly and other vulnerable people. Emergency workers have got to get it first and the most vulnerable have got to get it first. Who is after that? Well, that s where we come in, V landys told the
Herald. Under no circumstances are we going to jump the gun and go before emergency workers and the most vulnerable.
8. Tino Fa asuamaleaui, lock: 32.6km/h 10. Tristan Powell, edge: 32.0km/h (Burleigh v Runaway Bay, RLGC GF) The Gold Coast Titans have moved to correct one of the biggest recruitment misses of their recent history by entering the race for off-contract Maroons winger Xavier Coates. The 19-year-old flyer is now one of the NRL s fastest players but slipped under the Titans radar as a late bloomer at Currumbin Eagles. Brisbane Broncos scouts were the first to identify Coates potential as a 16-year-old and poached the prospect to Red Hill in 2017. His meteoric rise, through the Tweed Seagulls national championship-winning under-18s and an international debut for Papua New Guinea, to a 100 per cent tryscoring strike rate for the Maroons in the 2020 Origin series - all by the age of 19 - has made the Gold Coast product rugby league s most wanted man.
again in week three to book a rematch with the Broncos in the grand final.
Minor premiers Brisbane went into the match as hot favourites, with the kind of star-studded line-up that would be hard to imagine during the salary cap era (the cap would be reintroduced for the merged National Rugby League competition in 1999).
Brisbane s backline featured present or future representative stars Darren Lockyer, Allan Langer, Kevin Walters, Wendell Sailor, Steve Renouf, Anthony Mundine, and Michael Hancock off the bench. The starting pack included Shane Webcke, Gordon Tallis, Brad Thorn, Andrew Gee and Darren Smith.
The Sharks side wasn t too shabby either, led by Australian internationals Andrew Ettingshausen, Mat Rogers and Jason Stevens, Kiwis forward Tawera Nikau and star fullback David Peachey. And while the Broncos boasted much of the Maroons Origin side there was a similar flavour to the Sharks outfit as well, with five Queenslanders in the side.
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Michael Bell left the Mackay Cutters as an 18 year old to begin his would-be professional rugby league apprenticeship with the North Queensland Cowboys.
Now 21, he returns home with the world at his feet and an NRL berth within reach, should he be ready and willing to claim it.
Bell is one of 12 Cowboys players allocated to the Cutters for the 2021 Intrust Super Cup season, joining a list of local products ready to be called upon by coach Michael Crawley should they not be tapped for an NRL start.
Mackay rugby league products Reuben Cotter, Shane Wright and Mitch Dunn have all shared time between the Cowboys and Cutters in seasons past, using the Queensland Cup as a platform for bigger and better football honours.
Wayne Bennett (centre) could eventually be replaced by Cameron Smith (left) or Billy Slater.
Rugby League by Travis Meyn
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Subscriber only The Maroons have devised a radical plan to replace departing coach Wayne Bennett which could see Origin legends Cameron Smith or Billy Slater take the reins of Queensland. The 71-year-old supercoach has opted to focus on his NRL commitments with South Sydney ahead of what is his final season in charge of the Rabbitohs. Former North Queensland Cowboys coach Paul Green is favourite to replace Bennett as Maroons coach for the 2021 Origin series, which will revert back to its traditional mid-year slot.