Meet NRL’s tallest timber
The Broncos will unleash the tallest player in NRL history when Brisbane launches its 2024 premiership assault in its pre-season opener this Saturday night.
Standing at 205cm, “Big” Ben Te Kura will spearhead Brisbane’s next generation of young guns in the club’s maiden trial hitout against Wynnum Manly at Kougari Oval.
The NRL has witnessed a slew of big boppers, including 2m quartet Nelson Asofa-Solomona, David Klemmer, Dominic Young and Kane Evans, Jason Saab (199cm), Shaun Lane (198cm) and Titans skipper Tino
(197cm).
Former Wallabies forward Garrick Morgan, who played two games for the South Queensland Crushers in 1995, is believed to be rugby league’s tallest first grader at 201cm.
But Morgan has been usurped by teenage giant Te Kura, whose quest for an NRL debut this year begins this weekend when throws his monstrous frame into hapless Seagulls defenders.
At six feet nine inches, Te Kura is two inches taller than Storm monster Asofa-Solomona and at 125kg, the teenage sensation has the physical presence to match it with the
Fa’asuamaleaui
NRL’s biggest men. The scary part is Te Kura is still only 19 and has room for further growth under a Broncos highperformance program that propelled Brisbane to last year’s grand final.
Te Kura first featured in a Broncos trial as a 17-year-old against Wynnum Manly two years ago and the prop will return to Kougari on Saturday primed to press his claims for an NRL debut this season.
“He’s an enormous kid, one of the biggest I’ve ever seen,” former Broncos skipper Corey Parker said.
“Ben’s got all the skills and I have no doubt he can play NRL in the coming seasons.”