Senior Coach Craig Hodges spoke with the media this morning ahead of tomorrow’s match against the Melbourne Storm at Cbus Super Stadium.
Here are ‘Five Talking Points’ to look at before the game tomorrow
1. The response to Brennan’s departure
“I’ve been really happy with the response (from the group),” Hodges said.
“They got their heads into training pretty quickly and are pretty focused on the game tomorrow.
“We’ve simplified it a lot. We want them to get back to the core basics. It’s been an up and down few weeks.”
2. The opposition
“I don’t think you can read into that too much (the resting of five State of Origin players).
“I don’t think they’ve (Storm) ever not turned up. They’ve played a lot without their representative players over the years.
“Nobody in our shed will be taking them lightly for those reasons.
“Regardless of what has gone on at our club it’s always exciting to play Melbourne and that draws out the best in you as well.”
3. The changes that have been made
“There are some changes being made by all of us. There are some changes to our mentality, some changes to the side, some changes to our training.
“We’d be crazy with what has happened to not have changed something. We’ll find out in the heat of battle tomorrow (if they have worked).
4. Club debut for Sam Stone
“It is always exciting when young blokes get an opportunity. Those fellas don’t bring any baggage of the last period or even the last few years.
“He’s a Gold Coast boy, it’s exciting for him to make his club debut.
“He comes in looking for an opportunity and he brings with him a good skill set.”
5. Leilani Latu’s first appearance in 2019
“Yeah, he hasn’t got a lot of opportunity in the past and he’s excited to have been given one.
“Again, he can bring some energy and enthusiasm. He has spoken about it and showed at training what he can bring so he now needs to take that out on to the field.
“For all of us it’s about action now and it’s about what we do, not what we say.”
