Broncos great offers half words of advice
BRONCOS playmaking legend Darren Lockyer has urged Kodi Nikorima to be more vocal against the Cowboys tomorrow night as the underfire halfback braces for a daunting showdown with Johnathan Thurston.
While Brisbane’s $1 million man Anthony Milford has copped brickbats for his roundone performance, Lockyer said Nikorima cannot escape scrutiny for his quiet display in the Broncos’ 34-12 loss to the Dragons.
The jury is out on whether Nikorima can be Brisbane’s long-term No.7 and the pressure will be amplified tomorrow night when the 23-yearold is asked to outpoint Thurston in the Queensland derby.
Playing behind a beaten pack last week at Kogarah, Nikorima had just 35 possessions, almost half of Ben Hunt’s 57 as the big-money Dragons recruit returned to haunt his former Broncos teammates.
Champion playmaker Thurston can regularly be seen barking orders at his Cowboys colleagues and Lockyer, the 355-game Broncos legend, warned Nikorima not to go into his shell.
“What would help Kodi is being more vocal and organising players around him,” said Lockyer, the last Broncos playmaker to steer the club to a premiership in 2006.
“When I was in the halves, I found the more I talked to the forwards and setting up plays, the more I got involved.
“Sometimes you don’t only get involved by touching the football, you can get involved with your voice and the way you direct your teammates.
“I’d like to see Kodi as well as Anthony (Milford) talking more, that would show me they are engaged in what’s happening out on the field.”
For all his doubters, Nikorima’s record as a starting playmaker is promising. Of 14 matches in the Broncos’ No.7 jumper, Nikorima has won 10 games for a success rate of 71%, evidence he knows how to steer an NRL team to victory.
But Nikorima accepts he is not the finished article as an elite NRL playmaker.
Quiet by nature, the Kiwi Test utility is working hard on his communication and says it’s vital he takes more control against Thurston’s Cowboys in a bid to ease the strain on Milford.
“We can definitely share the workload a bit better,” Nikorima said.
“There is a lot of pressure on ‘Milf’ this year and it’s important I take the pressure off him.
“With ‘Macca’ (hooker Andrew McCullough) and Darius (Boyd, fullback), we are trying to share the playmaking roles and in time our spine will click.
“It’s going to be a massive challenge this week.”