Cowboys dynamo quickest on draw
TRAVIS MEYN AND PETER BADEL GIDEON Gela-Mosby is the fastest man in the NRL.
That is the view of Cowboys veteran Gavin Cooper, who rates North Queensland’s latest weapon quicker than Broncos “Jet” James Roberts and Storm sensation Josh AddoCarr.
Gela-Mosby will line up for his third NRL appearance tonight when the Cowboys confront Ivan Cleary’s Wests Tigers at 1300SMILES Stadium.
He has scored two tries in his two NRL matches, continuing on from a scintillating under-20s career that included 53 tries in 44 games.
But the NRL is yet to see Gela-Mosby in full flight.
The 20-year-old product of the Torres Strait Islands claims to have once recorded a time of 10.24sec over 100m, just shy of the Olympic qualifying mark of 10.16sec.
The NRL has some genuine speedsters, but 12-season veteran Cooper believes GelaMosby is the quickest
“In terms of football quick, he’s the fastest I’ve seen,” Cooper said.
“When Souths took an intercept last week, he actually slipped over when he turned to chase and he still made up the ground very quickly to stop a try.
“There’s not too many quicker in the game, in my mind. Gideon tells me he got beaten in a race by Addo-Carr when they were at school, so we’ll wait and see if they ever play each other. He’s not just a guy who runs fast.
“Anyone who watched him at the Nines will see that Gideon is a natural footballer, he has instincts that you can’t teach. You either have it or you don’t and he is very clever.
“He is still learning first grade, it’s a different environ- ment in terms of pressure, but he is getting better with Jango (Javid Bowen) and the more time they spend together, the better they will be.”
Cowboys coach Paul Green has been pleased by GelaMosby’s initiation in the NRL.
He retained the 20-year-old ahead of Kalyn Ponga for last week’s win against South Sydney, despite opting for Ponga during the 2016 finals series.
Bowen and Gela-Mosby have formed an encouraging combination in the absence of experienced duo Justin O’Neill and Antonio Winterstein.
But the highlights reels are not what excites Green. He wants to see his youngsters get their hands dirty when it matters most.
“Javid and Gideon are developing nicely,” Green said.
“They’re making the big plays at the moment but they’ve probably got to work a little bit harder on the little plays. The ones the punter at home doesn’t see but their teammates do.”
Meanwhile, new Wests Tigers coach Ivan Cleary is adamant five-eighth Mitchell Moses will play hard for his teammates tonight, despite asking for an immediate release.
Moses has signed a twoyear deal with Parramatta from next season and wanted to link with the Eels this year, but the Tigers rejected the request. Asked if Moses was still fully committed to the cause at Friday’s captain’s run, Cleary said: “I haven’t seen anything there to suggest otherwise.