Brisbane winger Corey Oates will bear surgical procedure for a damaged jaw on Saturday in an enormous blow for the Broncos.
The 28-year-old was collected excessive by North Queensland fullback Scott Drinkwater instantly after halftime within the Broncos’ 28-16 win at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night time.
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Drinkwater was placed on report over the incident.
Brisbane’s outdoors again Jesse Arthars is predicted to return into the beginning lineup for the NRL spherical three conflict on the similar venue with St George Illawarra subsequent Saturday, March 18.
Oates has been a key plank within the Broncos’ renaissance underneath coach Kevin Walters.
He scored a career-best 20 tries final season and returned to Queensland’s State of Origin facet after a three-year absence to play an important position within the collection decider.
Walters stated Oates was “a giant loss”.
“He’s simply powerful. He’s an outdated professional, Oatesy, from approach again,” he stated.
“He’s very dependable together with his carries out of yardage, he is a great finisher and good underneath the excessive ball.”
Arthars was excellent towards Penrith within the 13-12 win in spherical one and had a hand in a key strive after halftime within the win over the Cowboys.
“He’s a unique physique form to what Oatesy brings, however he definitely brings a unique skillset. At instances this 12 months, he has been actually good,” Walters stated.
“He performed final week towards Penrith and caught each bomb, and at the moment he was instrumental with one of many tries together with his pace and acceleration.”
Walters stated Drinkwater’s deal with, as Oates was steaming in direction of the tryline, “wasn’t an excellent incident to have in our sport”.
When requested if he thought a sin-bin was adequate, Walters stated, “in all probability not”.
Broncos captain Adam Reynolds stated he questioned the referee on the choice simply to sin-bin Drinkwater however conceded with every thing taking place at such a excessive pace it was troublesome for officers.
“If you take a look at the replay, it would not look too good,” he stated.
“We lose a participant for the sport and for plenty of weeks, in all probability. Whether or not ten minutes is justifiable, I do not assume so.”
Walters stated he trusted the NRL to make the precise name.
“We are going to get round Oatesy and help him together with his restoration and again to taking part in,” he stated.
Cowboys coach Todd Payten stated he was comfy with the sin-binning of Drinkwater “as long as it’s constant all season lengthy”.
“Scott’s deal with occurred actually shortly. Corey modified path actually late. He was attempting to cease the strive,” Payten stated.
“He has one foot on the deck and no intention to collide with the place he received him. It was undoubtedly an accident. The child was simply doing his finest to cease a strive actually shortly.”
