Broncos great says Selwyn Cobbo can be better than Greg Inglis and Latrell Mitchell

In a statement that is sure to have rugby league fans choking on their meat pies, Queensland Origin great Steve Renouf has made the stunning prediction that Broncos rookie Selwyn Cobbo will be better than Greg Inglis and Latrell Mitchell.

The 19-year-old winger-fullback has been compared to the two Indigenous superstars in recent weeks based mainly on his physique and running style, but after a standout performance in the Broncos’ 11-4 first-round win over South Sydney on Friday night, Renouf gave him the ultimate stamp of approval.

‘There’s been all this talk about him being the next GI or Latrell but he’s not them, he’s Selwyn Cobbo,’ Renouf said. ‘I want to see him be the best Selwyn Cobbo he can be.

Cobbo was electric against Souths, regularly punching holes in the Bunnies’ left-side defence  

‘I know he’s got the same build as GI and Latrell when they were the same age, but I think he can be a better athlete than either of them.

‘I know it’s a big call, but he’s got so much time to develop, and you only had to see some of the things he did on Friday night to realise how much ability he has.

‘He’s still young but he doesn’t have the cockiness that Latrell has and that’s a good thing at this stage of his career.’

Following Friday’s game Cobbo spoke of the influence Renouf has had on him.

‘Steve has given me plenty of advice in pre-season,’ he told journalist Peter Badel. ‘He has been really helpful for me. He has told me just to be confident in what I do and don’t go away from how I play my natural game.’

Renouf knew Cobbo’s family growing up in the Queensland country town of Murgon and connected with the rising footy star when he was given a traineeship at Indigenous health foundation Deadly Choices where Renouf is an ambassador.

‘There’s been nothing formal about it,’ Renouf said of his mentoring Cobbo.

‘It’s just something that developed. We chat and I try to give him some advice.’

Steve Renouf says Cobbo has the freakish physical attributes of Latrell Mitchell (pictured) at the same age, but none of the Bunnies star’s cockiness – and ‘that’s a good thing’ 

Greg Inglis is the yardstick for young Indigenous stars after he set the NRL on fire for 16 seasons – but Renouf says Cobbo has the potential to surpass the Rabbitohs and Storm legend

Some of that advice is about what happens on the field, and some about what is about to happen off it.

In a one-team city like Brisbane, where the local fans have been crying out for something to get excited about after two miserable seasons, the expectation for Cobbo to be an overnight sensation has been off the scale.

It was similar to the build-up Broncos then-coach Anthony Seibold gave to teenage fullback Tesi Niu in 2020, describing him as ‘one of the best athletes I have ever seen’.

As journalist Greg Davis wrote in Saturday’s Courier-Mail, ‘The pre-match hype around Selwyn Cobbo almost had him finding the cure for Covid and brokering peace in the Middle East between training sessions at Red Hill.’

While Niu struggled under the pressure before finding his feet, Renouf believes Cobbo, who is so shy that he almost refused the honour of being the first Indigenous school captain of Murgon High because the job included speaking in front of weekly assembly, is level-headed enough to handle whatever is ahead.

‘He’s a really good lad,’ Renouf said. ‘He knows there’s going to be some hype about him now and he can’t get caught up in it. He just has to shut all that outside stuff out and keep playing like he is now, like there is no pressure on him.’

While acknowledging that Cobbo is far from the finished article, Renouf believes his potential is unlimited.

Cobbo (right, tackling Souths’ Jaxson Paulo) also made his mark in defence on Friday night. Renouf believes his potential is unlimited 

‘He made a couple of mistakes on Friday night, but he’ll learn quick. I remember the same thing when I was starting out. Sometimes you don’t have to try to get a pass away, you can just take the tackle. Other times you’re better off just putting the foot down.

‘I know what Wayne (Bennett) would be telling him, “Just back yourself”.

‘He’s pretty quiet off the field but he just loves playing footy. He always wants to have the ball in his hands and he’s got skills that you can’t teach. That run he did down the sideline in the first half, he turned Josh Mansour inside out.

‘His defence in the second half on Friday night was really good too. He has confidence and he can read the play. He’s not afraid to come in off his wing to shut down the attack.

‘You could see it on Friday night. He just wants to play the game. He always wants to be involved.’

Which is something Gold Coast fans wouldn’t be saying about their million-dollar man David Fifita in the wake of the Titans’ 34-28 loss to the Parramatta Eels on Sunday.

If Cobbo’s enthusiasm and desire to go hunting in attack and defence were a revelation, Fifita’s performance was very much at the other end of the scale and rates as one of the most notable ‘downers’ in the opening round of the season.

While Titans officials claimed an ongoing injury was the reason Fifita was unable to put in an 80-minute effort in the latter part of last season, there could be no excuse for his half-hearted contribution on Sunday.

Gold Coast’s million-dollar man David Fifita turned in a performance worth about 50 cents against Parramatta. The sometimes devastating ball-runner was invisible in the second half

Fifita broke through the Eels line to help set up a Titans try – but other than that, he was half-hearted in his side’s narrow loss to one of the early premiership favourites

He made just one incisive break which led to a try in the first half and was virtually unsighted in the second in a performance that will give Titans coach Justin Holbrook and his support staff plenty to think about over the next few days.

They won’t be the only ones mulling over footage of the weekend’s games with a fine tooth comb. You can rest assured that NRL bosses Peter V’Landys and Andrew Abdo, the match review committee and referees’ co-ordinators will have plenty to discuss.

At the top of the agenda should be how to crack down on the third-man-in ‘cannonball’ tackle.

It raised its ugly head in the trial match between the Roosters and Wests Tigers when the Tricolours’ Lindsay Collins took out the legs of Tigers half Jackson Hastings while he was being held.

We saw it again on Saturday night when Melbourne forward Trent Loiero cannoned into the legs of Tiger Luciano Leilua, and the Cowboys’ Heilum Luki launched himself into the lower back of defenceless Bulldogs’ fullback Matt Dufty as he was being held by North Queensland tacklers in the last game of the round.

Luciano Leilua cries out in pain as he’s hit in a cannonball tackle by the Storm’s Trent Loiero on Saturday night. Cracking down on the hits should be top of the NRL’s agenda 

Luciano receives treatment after the hit. His teammate Jackson Hastings also fell victim to a cannonball in the trials, with Matt Dufty also copping it against the Cowboys

The punishment for the three tackles that were described by commentators as ‘dangerous’, ‘ugly’ and ‘not what we want to see’, were a $750 fine for Collins, $1000 for Loiero, and not so much as an on-field penalty for Luki’s tackle because as it connected with Dufty’s unprotected kidney region and not the lower legs, it was not against the rules.

Calling the Storm-Tigers game on Fox, Michael Ennis said of the Loiero tackle, ‘We need to get those sorts of tackles out of the game.

‘They’re just really, really ugly and it’s going to do someone real damage. We just can’t keep rolling the dice. We can’t keep waiting until someone does an ACL to then outlaw it.’

When the NRL has decided what to do about the cannonball, it will probably take a close look at the play-the-ball.

For the first time in living memory, referees looked to be launching a crackdown on players not touching the ball with their feet during the first three games of the round.

With memories being revived of the notorious crackdown on head high tackles which decimated player ranks during last year’s Magic Round, for some reason the refs then seemed to ignore incorrect play-the-balls for the remaining games.

Maybe they were too busy trying to get up to speed with the new head injury assessment rules which, if the cases of the Roosters’ Victor Radley and Bulldogs’ Braidon Burns are anything to go by, consist of players getting a head knock, telling their team trainer that they are okay and then, after playing on for a few minutes, being told by a doctor in the bunker that they are in fact not okay and they should get off the field.

Superstars in waiting, millionaires playing like paupers, cannonballs, refs and the bunker to get upset about … isn’t it great to have the footy back?