The Broncos are set to unleash behemoth Ben Te Kura on Manly Sea Eagles this weekend, with the young forward named on the bench to make his first appearance of the season.
Famously the tallest player currently in the NRL – standing at 205cm – at still only 20, Te Kura has plenty of areas he is looking to develop in his game and has looked to another of the NRL’s big men in Nelson Asofa-Solomona (listed at ) for inspiration.
“Honestly, being a big body, it's hard, I actually reckon it's a lot harder (to play),” Te Kura said.
“You're a lot heavier when you're bigger, so you have to carry around a lot more weight.
“I'm sure he does as well; it's just really overcoming the fitness hurdle, it's the biggest thing, and then once you get that down, you should be pretty much sweet.
“I'm still working on that myself.
“I'd say my strong area, my strong point is my strength, so I'm pretty good in the gym.
“I like attacking more, but defence is definitely more important, but I'd like to say I'm stronger in attack than I am in defence.
“Madge (Broncos coach Micheal Maguire) is all about defence, so it’s something I have to pick up a bit more, because that’s a lot of fitness too.
“In defence, you have to keep working hard.
“It's more just being everywhere, being in every tackle, being able to make repeat efforts.
“It takes a lot out of your gas tank out of big middles.
“Being able to keep up with NRL level, so I worked hard on my fitness during pre-season.”
Sidelined for much of last season with Lisfranc injury as well as having other ailments pop up along the way, Te Kura said going through that main recovery was one of the toughest things he’s had to overcome.
“It's been very tough for me,” Te Kura said.
“I pretty much missed the first half of the whole pre-season, so I sort of had to do a bit of catch-up.
“I pretty much just went straight into an army camp after coming back from my injury, so it’s probably one of the hardest things I've ever done footy-wise (in testing my fitness).
“That was actually my first long-term injury.
“It was tough being in rehab for about four months and then I played three games at the back end of the year.
“That was pretty hard mentally, but it's alright, we got there in the end.”
What helped was knowing he wasn’t alone and still being able to be around the team as he worked his way back to full health.
“I'd say just being around the boys in here at training helped me,” Te Kura said.
“When I first got injured, other boys who had long-term injuries told me ‘oh it's going to be pretty long and lonely if you don't get around the boys’ and so I pretty much came in here every day, even if I didn't have training or just a little bit of rehab and just much hung around the boys.
“Honestly, I was in pretty much that whole time I was in rehab with Delouise [Hoeter].
“I know he was asked earlier in an interview about who helped him through rehab, he mentioned a few names, not me.
“It's kind of crazy because I was the only one with him, but yeah, no, I was with him for most of it … I pulled him up about it too!”
Last week, Te Kura played for the Souths Logan Magpies as they secured a 52-32 win over Western Clydesdales.
Featuring in 10 games so for this season for the Hostplus Cup club, scoring five tries, Te Kura said he had been learning plenty from coach Karmichael Hunt, a former Broncos star who understood what it takes to be in the NRL.
“He's a Broncos legend and he’s a good guy too, he gives a lot of the younger boys opportunities and he knows how to develop players,” Te Kura said.
“He knows what it’s like (to be an NRL player) so he makes it real easy.
“He gives you gives you one job and just tells you to go out there and do it.
“He'll know when you when you need to come off the field and then he understands that us boys at Broncs that go back to Souths, we might be 18th man at Broncos and then have to go back up the next day in the morning, so he keeps it simple.”
The Broncos take on Manly at 4 Pines Park with Te Kura named at 17 on the interchange bench.
Match: Sea Eagles v Broncos
Round 13 -
home Team
Sea Eagles
7th Position
away Team
Broncos
12th Position
Venue: 4 Pines Park, Sydney
