Burleigh to bear brunt of Storm
BEWARE the wounded Tiger says Burleigh coach Rick Stone as his Bears prepare to face a winless Brisbane Tigers in the Intrust Super Cup match of the round this weekend.
Forced to play without their glut of Melbourne Storm affiliate players, the Tigers were put to the sword by Townsville in Round 2 but welcome back a host of big names in time to face the Bears at Langlands Park on Sunday.
“Any team that’s 0-2 and desperate for a win is dangerous and I count Easts in that category as well,” Stone said.
“They were a bit out of sorts against Townsville without their Melbourne Storm boys, and came up against a pretty hot Norths Devils in week one, so we’re expecting a big improvement from them for sure.”
The Tigers have made eight changes to the team which lost 30-0 to the Blackhawks – seven of whom are full-time Melbourne Storm players.
Of those seven, two – Ryley Jacks and Brenko Lee – are known commodities to the Bears, having played for Burleigh during the 2019 premiership-winning season while contracted to the Gold Coast Titans.
Outside back Lee played 20 games for the Titans over two seasons and Jacks appeared in 13 matches in 2019.
“I played with Brenko at the Canberra Raiders as well, so we go way back,” Bears skipper Luke Page said.
“He’s won a premiership with the Storm last year and played Origin … both he and Ryley are quality players.”
Jacks is a lock to start in the halves for the Tigers on Sunday, however Lee’s place in the
side is still up in the air. He, Aaron Pene and Dean Leremia have been named in the reserves for Melbourne’s clash with Canterbury in Sydney on Saturday night.
If the Tigers go into Sunday’s clash as-named, they will field an all-Storm contingent of outside backs, sans fullback Gerard Beale who retired from the NRL at the end of 2020 after 196 games.
“We’ll only have three or four Titans boys coming back to us, so it will be mostly Burleigh players,” Page said.
“But I back our boys 100 per cent.”
The Bears will be without the suspended Blake Leary however both John Palavi and Jeff Lynch are available for selection after recovering from injury.
“Whether they play or not will be dependent on which Titans boys we get back,” Stone said.
“We’ll likely get Sam (Stone) and Jonus Pearson – maybe Beau (Fermor).”