Nudgee came within one win of another GPS premiership in 2020 but couldn’t match it with BBC in the biggest game of the season last year.

Andrew Scotney welcomes back a handful of exciting players from that campaign though and will unleash the next generation of Nudgee stars when round one begins this weekend.

Overview with Andrew Scotney: 

“We’re pretty happy with where we are at at this point. We’ve been pretty solid through the trials and we had a great camp,” Scotney said.

“We do have four or five boys who are looking to be ready for round one who are coming back from injuries, but we’re hoping they’ll be right to go.

“We played trials against Churchie, TSS and Brisbane State High and we had some good wins but trial form doesn’t account for too much come round one. It just means you’ve been solid through the trial period.

“Last year we had an opportunity to win a premiership against BBC in the final game and we just weren’t good enough on the day. You’re always disappointed when you have a chance to win something and don’t but I was still really proud of the effort the boys put in.

“Everyone was experiencing challenges last year and I think the boys handled that really well and played to the best of their ability.

“It’s definitely added some hunger to the boys that are returning this year, they want to go one better.”

What style of rugby can we expect to see from your side this year? 

“We’re pretty consistent with the style of rugby we play. We want to try to move the ball where we can because we have some threatening outside backs.

“This year I think our forward pack are showing some really good signs that they’ll be a pack that we can play towards at different times throughout the season.”

2021 Squad: 

“We’ve got a lot of year 11 boys in the squad this year then we’ve got some senior boys that have a bit of experience.

“Daniel Maiava has been with us for three years now, then we’ve got four or five others returning from the team last year.”

Players to watch: 

“Our halfback Willem Johnstone is in for a big season. He was injured for all of last year and he’s shown a lot of improvement in the trial games.

“He’s the son of Brett Johnstone who played 50 odd games for QLD. Willem was picked in the QLD U18s team earlier this year but that game got cancelled.”

“Daniel Miarva, who I mentioned earlier. He’s in his third season of first XV rugby and trained really well over summer which has him in the best shape that he’s been in heading into a season.”

Bold prediction for the season ahead:

“TSS and BBC are teams that are traditionally challenging at the pointy end of the season and I don’t think this year will be any different,” Scotney said.

“Churchie will be a side that improves quite a bit. We played them in a trial and they looked nice and organised. State High will also be an improving side, they’ve got a lot of quality players.

“For us, our first two games are really important. We play Brisbane State High and then BBC in the first two weeks.

“We need to prepare really well for both of those games and hopefully we can get through each match and come away with two wins.

“If we can do that, then we’ll be in the mix.”