I look at things this way. We are on the cusp of having class in every position.
Fullback- Still up in the air. But we have 4 good prospects in (no particular order) Taaffe, Tracey, Chrichton and Wilson. I may have missed options and haven't listed a couple on their way up the grades. But they might become options later in the year if they excel until then.
Wings- between JAC, Kiraz, Wilson, Skelton. Quality aplenty there.
Centre- Xerri, Crichton, Tracey, Taaffe, Skelton.
Halves- Seems like Hutchison, Sexton and Burton are being talked of as the main three options. But Taaffe has some ability there I think Jaemen Salmon has a bit of game time there and we also have some youngsters and Rajab progressing.
Second row- Kikau and Preston are almost walk up starters I'd think. After that I don't know who's likely to earn bench spots.
Props. After the monarch and his protector (King and Knight) we are short on experienced props. I'm hoping that with more attacking threats elsewhere, we might be able to implement strategies to prevent the opposition from numbering up on them. If they're given licence to spread the ball when they see bunched defence it could create chances for support runners and we've got some good ones. But it'll be interesting to see if Hughes lives up to the hype gathering around him.
Hooker- Mahoney and Turpin jump out as the first options. But I'm sure some of our utilities might have some experience at 9 and might jump Turpin in the pecking order if they add options elsewhere. And after 75 NRL games, Turpin hasn't ever won the chief hooking role outright at Brisbane or the chooks as far as I know. But he's averaged just under 15 NRL games a year since 2019. If giving him or a utility a spell to freshen Mahoney up improves Mahoney's ability to make good decisions I'm all for carrying Turpin or a utility with some hooking ability for that reason. I know Hutchison & Mann have Lock, Hooker, halves and centre as their positions. If Hutchison isn't picked at 6 or 7 I'd potentially like to see him or Mann do one stint each half to spell Mahoney and possibly Curren. Seems fit enough to do 15 at lock and 15 at hooker and adds a quality kicking option in either role.
Lock- from the articles I've been seeing, Curren might be first/main choice here. I'm not even sure who his competition is for the 13 jersey at this point. But I think Curren will be a fan favourite. As mentioned. We've got utilities that can cover hooker and lock. I wouldn't mind his backup being a utility with some kicking ability. It'd be nice to have a good kicking option to help out our young halves (if Sexton and Burton get the nod).
I'm sure I've missed some players that should factor in decisions about certain positions. But my point is that we will have some very good competition for most positions. If we can get some strategies in play to support our weakest position it might help them build form as the season goes on.
If we are a bit overwhelmed by opposition props smacking ours in numbers, we should have options to make them pay for it. As part of our attacking arsenal I'd have the fullback and the closest centre positioned ready to support offloads from the props on the early tackles. They don't need to get involved more than a few times per half to be playing on the minds of the defence. And if it results in an occasional line break down the middle by someone with pace it's even better. And on the off chance that we lose the ball we'll have an extra quick player out the back to defending potential line breaks defensively. Little plays like this happening frequently enough to create doubt in the defence.
