Folau plots his aerial assault
ISRAEL Folau says he will be playing fullback – nowhere else – in Saturday night’s Bledisloe Cup opener against the All Blacks.
And the defiant Wallabies superstar is also vowing to attack the high ball with his customary vigour despite copping a contentious one-match ban earlier this year for a clumsy aerial challenge on Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony.
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika won’t name his starting side until Thursday and has gone to great lengths to keep his side under wraps, but Folau all but revealed he’d be wearing the No.15 jumper in the series opener at ANZ Stadium.
“Well, I’ve been training at fullback. I haven’t been training anywhere else so hopefully, yeah,” he said. “But whatever decisions that ‘Cheik’ makes, it’s best for the team, but I don’t see myself playing any other position other than 15.”
Nor does Folau plan to tone down his aggressive aerial approach after receiving a onegame suspension for making mid-air contact with O’Mahoney during Australia’s last Test match, a series-deciding 20-16 loss to Ireland in June. “I won’t modify anything,” Folau said.
While he’s expected to resign until at least after the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Folau is off contract at the end of the year, so his sixth Bledisloe Cup series could be his last crack at helping the Wallabies regain trans-Tasman bragging rights. WITH the ton of goals wrapped up, can Tom Eltringham (100 goals) or Kye Chapple (102) knock off Matt Walsh’s record for goals in an AFL Cairns season?
It will be a tough ask for both key forwards but with three rounds to play plus finals, there is a chance we could see a record season for goals in 2018.
Walsh’s best season was 2013 when he kicked 134 goals for Cairns Saints.
If either is likely to knock over the Far North footy legend, it will probably be Eltringham as Port Douglas have a bye in their final three rounds while Saints still have three games to play.
Who wins the first week of the finals between the Crocs and Saints will also have a big bearing on goal tallies. ■ A PAIR of Sydney Swans champions are in Cairns this week for a round of 18 with a few old mates. Premiership teammates Michael O’Loughlin and Adam Goodes (pictured) are in town for the first ever AFL Cape York golf day this Friday at Cairns Golf Club.
My money is on O’Loughlin and Goodes wiping the floor with Rick Hanlon and Sean Hunter from AFL Cape York if they take them on in pairs around the Woree course. ■ THE Pyramid Power boys from Gordonvale are making a run at it in the Reserves competition. They are percentage off Port Douglas in top spot after 18 completed rounds, with an impressive 15-3 record.
Power were beaten on preliminary final day last year but could be on the way to going one better in 2018.