Minogue a Third chance

JOHN Eales Rugby Excellence Scholarship recipient Matt Minogue has proven himself capable of Queensland Premier Rugby game time as senior Bond University flyhalf Mitch Third battles with his latest injury setback.

Having moved up from Sydney to link with Bond, Minogue scored an opportunity at No. 10 on Saturday in the club’s opening trial match against Easts with Dion Taumata also sidelined.

While Taumata’s calf strain won’t hold him back for long, Third is facing 12 to 14 weeks out as he recovers from an MCL knee injury suffered at training.

That puts Minogue in a battle with second grade stalwart Justin Bernstein for a place in the Bullsharks’ Round 1 23man list.

“He is a young kid that has just moved to the club straight out of schoolboy football,” Bond coach Brad Harris said of Minogue.

“For the last couple of weeks he has predominantly trained with the premier grade squad and each session he is getting better.

“He is a diligent kid. He does his homework, understands his role and it was a good step up for him.”

Flanker Lachlan Vine and prop Peryhn Martin were among others to impress.

Harris spread his squad evenly across two modified format matches against Easts but intends to pick a premier team for their tri-series of trials against Sunnybank and GPS in a fortnight. A camp at Casuarina will come before that.

“Certainly we want to play with more physicality moving forward and we want to build a bit more cohesion in attack,” Harris said.