Arrow aiming for Blair
JAI Arrow has put it upon himself to be Ash Taylor and Kane Elgey’s guardian angel as the threat of his former Broncos teammate Adam Blair’s grubby antics looms.
Arrow and Blair played NRL together at Brisbane during the past two seasons before signing for their respective hometown teams for 2018.
The duo will now go headto-head in the front-row in a Round 2 showdown between Gold Coast and the Warriors at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday.
Blair has developed a reputation for harassing opposition key players with late hits and cheap shots and drew the ire of even Broncos fans last year when Andrew McCullough became collateral damage in one of his collisions.
Arrow has challenged himself to protect Gold Coast’s halves when the Titans look to back up their Round 1 win.
“I’m looking forward to coming up against Blairy. I was there with him for two years in Brisbane and he was I guess a mentor up there for me and he taught me a lot,” he said.
“He is aggressive – he’s one to pester the halves so I will have to look after them.”
Arrow also identified Blair’s wrestling expertise and kick pressure as other assets needing to be contained.
“He has come from the Melbourne system,” said the former Keebra Park student.
“If I’m trying to stop Blairy from wrestling and getting out of marker quickly to the halves, then that will go a long way towards our halves being able to kick down to corners and hopefully pin them (the Warriors) in the corners.”
Arrow added he took particular pride in outpointing his opposite number, though this round would be no simple task.
The 22-year-old has 25 NRL games to his name.
Blair, by contrast, debuted in 2006 and has racked up 267 first grade appearances, four grand finals and 43 Tests.
“If you play better than your opposite number, you’re most likely going to come away with the win,” Arrow declared.
The match kicks off at 2pm (Qld time) tomorrow.