CLIFFORD DOMINATES AGAIN
HE’S dominated junior representative football, now Jake Clifford wants to prove he can do it in the NRL.
The Tully product put together another impressive audition with a man of the match performance in the Junior Kangaroos’ 40-24 win over New Zealand on Saturday.
North Queensland have the welcome selection headache of deciding whether to give the 20-year-old first crack at Johnathan Thurston’s vacant No.7 jersey or go with the tried and tested in Michael Morgan.
Clifford’s superb display in Auckland capped off a “surreal” year where he announced himself as one of the young stars of the game.
The 20-year-old captained his country on Saturday and he was also named best on ground in Queensland’s breakthrough under-20s Origin win over New South Wales this year.
Throw in playing six NRL games alongside his childhood hero in Thurston and being named the Queensland Cup’s halfback and rookie of the year, and 2018 couldn’t have panned out much better.
He played in the halves alongside Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans for the Prime Minister’s XI against Papua New Guinea last week, before spearheading the Junior Roos to victory.
“It’s been a very big year and one I’ve enjoyed. To make that Origin game and make my (NRL) debut, it’s been pretty surreal,” Clifford said.
“When I got told I was (Australia’s) captain it was a pretty special feeling. He (Kangaroos coach Neil Henry) knows I like to be a leader and being a halfback and leading the boys around, he just said to do my thing.
“I missed out (on the Junior Kangaroos team) last year and making my first Australian team was definitely something I wanted to achieve.”
Clifford now has his eyes on locking down the Cowboys No.7 jersey and showed plenty of promise when Morgan’s season-ending biceps injury opened the NRL door.
Morgan was named Dally M halfback of the year in 2017.
“That’s what I’ll be working toward is to try and cement that No.7 jersey, but it’s going to be tough and we’ve got a lot of hard competition up here,” Clifford said.
“Te Maire Martin’s a very good footy player and Benny Barba’s coming into the team.”
Cowboys centre Enari Tuala was one of the Junior Kangaroos’ standouts with two tries playing on the wing.