Eagle to cop it same as the rest
THE first Rugby League Gold Coast team in line to face former NRL prodigy Daniel Mortimer will treat him like any other rival player opposite them.
Former Titan Mortimer is expected to debut in the halves for Currumbin on Sunday against Ormeau at Brien Harris Oval after officially joining the club on Wednesday.
“I only found out about it (on Wednesday night) so it’s obviously been a talking point and it adds a new dimension to their game I guess,” Shearers coach Julius Kuresa said.
No matter how big a profile the 29-year-old brings to the Eagles, Kuresa declared his side will not treat Mortimer any differently – especially given the work they need to do to address the defensive woes that reared their head in a 40-4 Round 1 loss to Runaway Bay.
“We don’t want to focus too much on him because if you do that, there are threats across the park with Currumbin,” he said.
“Our defence was awful last week. It’s just about making sure we make our first-up tackles and we’ll be treating him like every other player that’s on the paddock for them.”
With a massive roster turnover, there was always going to be a need to allow time for Ormeau to gel. However, an impressive recruiting raid has filled their side with talent including ex-Intrust Super Cup players Jesse Malcolm, Sione Alofi, Anthony Gray and Kingi Akauola and their coach is demanding better.
“It was a bit of a wake-up call for some of the guys; after a pretty promising pre-season, I think some of us may have got ahead of ourselves and we just got a smacking,” Kuresa said of the Bay defeat.
“It was disappointing the way we lost but it was the wake-up call that the guys needed, that you are only as good as your last game.”
Currumbin are coming off a 22-18 loss to Southport.