Tyrone a Blues bolter
GARTH Brennan believes Tyrone Peachey’s display in Gold Coast’s 38-14 win over Newcastle served as a firm reminder to NSW Origin coach Brad Fittler that he is the NRL’s premier utility player.
Peachey started at left centre but moved into the second row when captain Ryan James was helped off with what is suspected to be a season-ending knee injury.
He then switched to right centre when Anthony Don exited the field for a head injury assessment, before moving back to left second row when Don returned.
All along, Peachey never looked out of place, fronting up in defence and posing a threat in attack.
Brennan revealed he actually said sorry to Peachey at halftime for all of the reshuffling, to which he got an answer every coach loves to hear.
“I said: ‘Mate, I apologise.’ And he said: ‘Coach, I’ll do whatever is best for the team.’ That’s why I’m sure Freddy will be watching today and see, well he is the best utility in the game and he has to be in my Origin team,” Brennan said.
The decision to play winger Phillip Sami on the bench in AJ Brimson’s absence raised some eyebrows but Brennan declared that was the luxury a player like Peachey afforded.
“(Peachey) is too good to be on the bench,” he said. “So instead of having a utility on the bench like most teams have, I have just got mine in the starting team.”
Despite his coach’s words, Peachey insisted that Origin was not remotely on his radar at this point.
“I’m not really thinking about that at the moment,” he said. “The Titans were coming last a couple of weeks ago, so if we’re playing good footy at the Titans all that sort of stuff will come off.”
Gold Coast will be chasing three wins on the trot when they head into a Round 7 match at Tamworth against a Wests Tigers outfit described by Peachey as the “best defensive team in the comp”.
Scans tomorrow will reveal the damage to James’ knee, with Brennan fearing “it doesn’t look good”.