July 26, 2017 4:48pm
JOSH McGuire fears Corey Norman’s danger as a pure footballer with Parramatta presenting two road blocks to the Broncos’ top-four ambitions.
Norman was the field-goal hero of Parramatta’s nerve-jangling one-point win over Wests Tigers last Sunday which kept the Eels in seventh place with six rounds to go.
Brisbane play Parramatta in Sydney on Friday night and again on August 24 at Suncorp Stadium in the second last round of the season.
“Parramatta are a big test. They are a skilful team with Corey Norman, who I played a lot of football with here,’’ McGuire said.
“Normie is a cheeky little bugger and a good football player. That’s what he is — a football player. He tends to be in the right place at the right time.
“Hopefully he doesn’t play too well against us on Friday night.’’
Corey Norman celebrates kicking the winning field goal against the Tigers.Norman is headed for finals football as an Eels for the first time in his fourth season since leaving the Broncos for more pay and better opportunity in a playmaker role.
The 26-year-old, regarded by Brent Tate as Queensland’s post-Cronk era answer as chief playmaker, has found a rush of form, ranking equal first over the past four rounds on Fox Sports Stats’ line break assist rankings, with four.
Norman is equal fourth for try assists (four) over that four-week period.
While the Eels will miss fullback Clint Gutherson for the rest of the year with an anterior cruciate ligament rupture, they still possess strike players out wide.
Winger Semi Radradra ranks first over the past four weeks in the NRL for line breaks with eight, while on the other flank the promising Bevan French is second with six. Radradra is equal second for the season, the last of his Eels contract, with 18 line breaks, behind only Canberra winger Jordan Rapana (22).
Some recent free-scoring rounds, particularly last week’s 42-12 win over Canterbury, have lifted the Broncos to third for tries this year, averaging 3.9 a game compared with Parramatta’s 3.2 average, which is good for 12th place.
“We want to keep on building and this is the first full week of training together for quite a few weeks,’’ said McGuire, who was rested along with Matt Gillett for Brisbane’s match immediately after Origin III.
Josh McGuire during Broncos training. Pic Darren England.“We have four games at home (out of the last six before the finals) and Gold Coast down the road, which feels like a home game for us.’’
Brisbane will be keen to welcome back Darius Boyd from a broken thumb if he negotiates this morning’s last training session without pain.
“If Darbs is on board for us, it’s a big plus because he does a lot of different things for us,’’ McGuire said.
“He’s our captain and he takes a lot of pressure off Anthony Milford and Ben Hunt.’’
Replies
He's pretty much stating the obvious. With Guth out now, Corey must and will step up.
Let's hope the injury to Gutho makes Norman step up. He isn't running the ball as much as he should, given that it's one of his strengths. He should be pretty close to full fitness after the MCL injury too so he just has to step up and start playing like he did for us in mid 2016.
Agreed with all this TFF. Well said.
Gutho probably doesn't possess anywhere near Corey's talent but is 100%. Dozy Norman is around 60% ....if he could concentrate and go for 80 minutes he could be the best player in the world.
Josh Reynolds, Mbye, Aidan Sezer, Josh McCrone .. all nowhere near as good as Normie. Opinions are like assholes and everyone has one and Fongy appears to have more assholes than most!
Darius is back
Roberts re-signs.
We've lost Gutherson.
I'm not tipping us this week. I hope I'm wrong but I've got a feeling.
Fong mate lets be clear; last season we won 10 and lost 6 with Corey and i am pretty sure that is correct; and i can recall he played with various halves including Foran, Kelly, Taka, Edwards. That is not a bad record tbh; i agree he may not be leading as he has but Moses has brought in good balance.
Norman has the balance now with Moses IMO. Let's be clear he has not had the stability as other clubs; and now Moses is here combinations can take time and we have done v well to be where we are;
I apologise Frank then; but i think we did well last season all things considered. He was there when we beat the Cows (and also lost to them); Canterbury 2 times; Canberra, Manly, Easts, Titans, and was also there when we lost on the bell to Souths and to Cronulla; and when all things considered we were unlucky; so i think he did ok against the good teams. He let me down personally more with his actions off the field. We also played a fair bit last season without Peats for injury i think and then we let him move.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next