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Raiders rattle Panthers in the rain | 02:26
Footy is finally back and while there were only three trial matches over the weekend they provided plenty of talking points.
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Pre-season form is always tough to gauge but it looks like the Warriors have tuned up nicely over the summer after a forgettable 2024 as Nathan Cleary’s little brother got his first taste of the NRL.
However, they’re already sweating on the fitness of one star player and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was late scratching after being named to play on the wing.
The Raiders upstaged the four-time reigning premiers thanks to a 21-year-old recruit, while some Broncos fringe first-graders put their case forward to the new coach.
Here are all the biggest talking points out of the first weekend of pre-season trials.
RAIDERS ROOKIE SHINES
Parramatta fans would have watched through their fingers as halfback Ethan Sanders guided his new club Canberra to victory over Penrith on Saturday night.
The Eels allowed the promising playmaker to leave the club at the end of last season as they battled to avoid the wooden spoon.
Sanders, who just turned 21, was stuck behind Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown so he headed for the captain chasing more minutes.
Sanders is unlikely to start the season in the halves but he showed that he has all the class to be a long-term No.7 in Canberra as he overcame an early missed tackle to lead the team’s generation next to victory.
This wasn’t the Penrith team that has won four titles in a row, but it was still good to see him lead the Green Machine around the park, with the young playmaker setting up the opening try when he dummied, took on the line and offloaded to Simi Sasagi who crashed over.
The Raiders have invested heavily in youth, and Ricky Stuart would have been impressed by his troops, with fullback Chevy Stewart showing all the speed and bravery under the high ball that earned him a crack in the NRL side last year.
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WING CLIPPED
Warriors star winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak is racing the clock to be fit for the club’s season opener in Las Vegas.
The try-scoring machine started against the Sharks on Friday night but was forced off inside the opening 10 minutes with a wrist injury.
Watene-Zelezniak began the match with both wrists strapped and appeared in discomfort when he landed awkwardly outside the field of play having flung a ball back inside.
The 29-year-old who has scored 39 tries over the past two seasons was immediately ruled out and was spotted with ice on his left wrist.
His replacement, Taine Tuaupiki, waltzed over for a try in the second half as the visitors drew 12-all with the Sharks where Luke Metcalf stood tall in his first game at halfback.
Stand-in skipper Mitch Barnett was also forced from the field in the first half and had to change his blood-soaked jersey thanks to a cut just below his mouth.
BABY BRONCOS
The Broncos rested all of their stars, but several players on the fringe of coach Michael Maguire’s best 17 were given some game time.
Hooker Tyson Smoothy, prop Ben Te Kura and centre Josiah Karapani all featured against Queensland Cup side the Burleigh Bears on Saturday.
Jock Madden started at halfback but was disappointing in his 60 minutes on the park and could fall further down Brisbane’s stacked playmaker pecking order.
Fullback Latrell Siegwalt impressed with a try as he attempts to stake his claim to back up Reece Walsh given there is a vacancy after Tristan Sailor’s off-season departure to the Super League.
Siegwalt was a revelation in the Queensland Cup last year with his play being rewarded with a train-and-trial from the Broncos.
Maguire was pleased with the result, highlighting his team’s scramble defence.
“The boys worked hard for each other,” Maguire told Code Sports.
“There were times we were skittled on the edges but they scrambled. That’s something we’ve been talking about all pre-season.
“There are areas of our game we need to have a look at, but that’s why you have trials.
“We worked really hard defensively which is a positive.”
CLEARY 2.0 MAKES DEBUT
All eyes were on Jett Cleary, with his parents in the house to see the young playmaker work his magic for the Warriors on Friday night.
Nathan’s younger brother is keen to make a name for himself across the ditch, but the halfback didn’t have too many opportunities after coming on in the 60th minute.
The 19-year-old’s only major involvement was sending a line dropout sailing out on the full in the final 60 seconds which went unpunished.
Nathan made his NRL debut as an 18-year-old but Jett is unlikely to also crack first grade as a teenager and the Warriors will take their time with the young gun.
THE COMEBACK KID
Sione Fonua, known to his teammates as Johnny, started in the centres against the Raiders on Saturday night as he continues towards his dream of cracking the NRL.
Fonua, 25, was a teenage superstar and played in the New South Wales under-18 side back in 2017, before walking away from the game in 2020.
Penrith great and the club’s current deputy chairman Greg Alexander was calling the game on Fox League when he revealed just how far Fonua has come in recent years.
“He was an Eels junior, Johnny Fonua, and then gave the game away,” Alexander said.
“He played a first-grade trial against the Panthers in 2020 and that was it, he quit, he’d just had enough of the game.
“Disappeared for three years, came back to Brothers out at Penrith last year.
“He was 130kgs at a stage in his time off and out of the game (but) has impressed the coaching staff that much… he’s going to be at Penrith for quite a time.
“They’ve got no doubt that he can play first grade now, if they had to pick him in first grade, they would (be comfortable with it).
“Great story about a boy who just fell out of love with the game but was a teenage superstar.”
PAPALl’I THE PANTHER
There was nothing flashy from Panthers recruit Isaiah Papali’i on the left edge, but he did more than enough to suggest he’ll be a key signing for the premiers.
Papali’i has joined Penrith in a bid to rediscover the form that saw him selected in the 2021 Dally M Team of the Year.
The former Eel had seven runs for 41 metres in his 50-minute stint, with Papali’i likely to get more game-time next week alongside another recruit in teen sensation Blaize Talagi as they build on their new combination.
