Jones gets comfortable in Wilkie’s old position
NO ONE can fill the big shoes of Colin Wilkie alone but Connor Jones says learning from the experienced utility has set him up for success in the role.
The 22-year-old hoped to bring some of the calmness and awareness of the recently retired Italy World Cup player in a bid to make the position his own with another impactful performance against Mackay today.
Jones said he now had a better sense of when to run or deliver the ball to the dangerous halves in Todd Carney and Jake Clifford.
“Obviously it’s pretty sad that Silks has retired, he’s been really good for the club and really good to me especially, helping me come through the ranks,” he said.
“He’s very experienced and he’s done a lot but we’ve got a pretty big squad and hopefully we can fill the gap.
“Obviously Cliffo and Carney are very good at managing the game and guiding us around the park as well as Ryan Ghietti, so my job at the moment is just to get on the field and provide a bit of spark and knowing when to get out of dummy half and run it and knowing when to give it to those boys and let them do their thing.
“What you don’t see is how much they talk and how much that influences the team and they’ve been playing really well together.”
Jones said the repeat efforts the fans might not pick up were the reason for optimism surrounding the Pride, but there was no time to relax with the Cutters clash coming up.
“We’ve got Foley Shield on the line, so it’s a bit of a grudge match,” he said. “They did get one on us last year, but we’re a different team this year.”