The battle for places in Brisbane’s 17-man roster for the club’s season opener against Parramatta next month heats up at the weekend with coach Anthony Griffin warning players to step up or miss out.
Griffin took a 23-man squad, including eight regular first graders, into camp on the Gold Coast on Tuesday for Saturday night’s trial against the Titans at Pizzey Park.
Prized recruit Jamal Idris will make his anticipated debut for the Gold Coast after being named in a near-full strength team for the trial.
Also playing his first match for the club will be former South Sydney and Melbourne Storm centre Beau Champion, while the squad also includes Scott Prince, Luke Bailey and Greg Bird along with five-eighth William Zillman and backrower Mark Minichiello.
Queensland State of Origin forward Ashley Harrison and Matt Srama are the only notable omissions from the squad due to niggling injuries.
Brisbane will have a final hit-out against Melbourne in Hobart the following weekend which will determine who gets the up for grabs starting jumpers – including whether Corey Norman or Ben Hunt fill Darren Lockyer’s prized No.6 shirt.
“Everyone wants to concentrate on the halves but we’ve got some front-rowers who are going into battle this weekend and some quality back-rowers and centres,” said Griffin.
Having Wallace back in the No.7 should give Norman and Hunt more freedom to express themselves at five-eighth.
“It’s up to those two guys to grab their opportunity whether Pete’s there not,” said Griffin, facing some tough decisions in the coming weeks.
Griffin said Wallace needed to “get on the front foot” straight away.
All Star representatives, headed by skipper Sam Thaiday, have been given another week off to make sure they get over the effects of last weekend’s physical match,
In a major boost, veteran Test prop Petero Civoniceva and classy utility Matt Gillett have been pencilled in for the Storm trial.
“Their recovery process has been very good and they’re way ahead of schedule so they’ll get some time next week in Hobart,” said Griffin.
“It’s good to give them that hit-out in Hobart because it would have been hard psychologically going into round one without some contact or confidence after their surgeries.”
The only players who could consider themselves good things to make Griffin’s opening side would be fullback Josh Hoffman, winger Jharal Yow Yeh, centres Justin Hodges and Jack Reed, halfback Peter Wallace, Civoniceva, hooker Andrew McCullough, Thaiday and experienced lock Corey Parker who played his way back into Queensland’s Origin side last year.
Kiwi representatives Gerard Beale and Alex Glenn, Origin and Test prop Ben Hannant, impact forwards Ben Te’o and Josh McGuire and 2010 rookie of the year Gillett are all in the battle to make the final 17.
