There’s been a changing of the guard at Nudgee, with just two players from last year’s joint-premiership winning side returning in 2023.

But coach Andrew Scotney seems confident he has enough cattle ready to step up and challenge in what he is predicting will be one of the tightest GPS competitions in recent memory.

Overview with Andrew Scotney: 

“Things are coming together fairly well. I think we’ve trialled well so far, then we’ve got our rugby camp during the holidays and then a bye in round one, so we’ve still got a bit of time to get ready,” Scotney told Rugby News. 

“All the trials we’ve played have been really tough. We wanted to challenge the boys in the trials and we’ve certainly got what we asked for. All the games have been close and we’ve had to work hard to score and to stop our opponents from scoring.  

“We’ve been consistent through the trials, which is pleasing, and we’ll look to continue that through the season. 

“We have a three day camp at school coming up. We train against the Brothers’ colts side as part of that and then we finish the camp off with a trial against Gregory Terrace, which we always get a lot out of. 

“I was happy with last season. We finished with a share of the premiership and the boys really dug deep to get that. 

“We started the year well but then suffered a few injuries to some of our better players. I thought the group rebounded really well and showed a lot of resilience.”

2023 Squad: 

“We’ve only got two boys returning from last year. Macarius Pereira has just been named in the QLD U18s squad, then Maddox Maclean is also back at inside centre. 

“With only two boys returning, it creates a lot of opportunity for others to play their way into the first XV, which isn’t always the case. 

“We’ve got some boys who were playing seconds last year, then our 16As won the premiership in 2022 so quite a few will come up from that side.”

What style of rugby can we expect from Nudgee this year? 

“We traditionally like to move the ball around quite a bit but last year we transitioned and relied quite heavily on our maul, after we had some injuries in our backs. 

“That worked quite well for us. 

“I think we’ll try and float between playing with the ball, kicking well and playing in good areas of the field and then creating pressure from our set piece.”

Which sides pose the biggest threat this season? 

“It’s going to be a close competition. All the trials that we’ve played have only had a try in them. When you look across the competition, there are probably four or five sides who could win it and that’s not always the case. 

“It’s going to be tight. 

“We trialled against Churchie and we know they’ll be good. BBC will be strong, so will Toowoomba and Gregory Terrace. 

 “It’s going to be competitive and the most consistent side will most likely end up with the premiership.”