JT WANTS MILF TO LIFT
COWBOYS champion Johnathan Thurston has warned Anthony Milford about the pressures of being a $1 million player and says it is time for the Broncos pivot to start controlling games.
Milford is under enormous pressure to step up as Brisbane’s No.1 playmaker this season – starting tonight when he opposes Dragons recruit and former halves partner Ben Hunt at Kogarah.
At just 23, Milford last season entered a new salary stratosphere when he inked a four-year, $4 million extension, making him the first player in Brisbane’s 30-year history to sign a $1 million contract.
Not even the Broncos’ greatest playmakers – Allan Langer, Darren Lockyer and Wally Lewis – were able to secure annual deals worth $1 million. But with the price tag comes expectation. Thurston was one of the first players in the NRL to enter the Millionaire’s Club and he says Milford is about to confront the weekly demands.
“There is pressure, it’s not just on the field either,” Thurston said. “It’s also what you bring off the field when you are getting those dollars.
“We all know what Milford can do, but it’s about him getting the best out of himself and the boys around him as well.
“He should start to learn how to control games now and how to close games out.
“Milf has to learn how to get his team back into a game when you are behind by 10 or 12 points. That’s what you need in the halves.”
A debutant at Canberra at 18, Milford enters his sixth NRL season and plays his 119th top-grade game tonight.
Milford made his Origin debut at five-eighth for Queensland last season. But with Hunt defecting to the Dragons, the jury is out on whether Milford can take the next step from individual game-breaker to chief shot-caller who steers Brisbane to a seventh premiership.
Former Broncos hooker Michael Ennis believes Milford has stagnated in the past two seasons.
Milford has dropped weight over summer and coach Bennett backed him to go to another level this season.
“His training would suggest he is maturing more each year,” Bennett said. “That’s just part of growing up.”
MILF HAS TO LEARN HOW TO GET HIS TEAM BACK INTO A GAME WHEN YOU ARE BEHIND BY 10 OR 12 POINTS. THAT’S WHAT YOU NEED IN THE HALVES. JOHNATHAN THURSTON