Central North Rugby: Brodie Nankivell impresses against Pirates

As the season has gone on, the fullback has only affirmed that.

"He's a freak," Koerstz quipped after Nanvkivell was a standout for them in Saturday's their loss to Pirates.

The teenager was as electric as his fluro yellow boots, his weaving run through the Pirates defence midway through the second half thrilling the Lions supporters.

Earlier he had stepped back on the inside and wrong-footed two Pirates defenders to get the Lions back in the game late in the first half.

But it wasn't just in attack that he was impressive. Early in the game he pulled off a try-saving tackle on Pirates centre Sam Collett.

"The good thing for Brode's is he's really starting to develop into a whole package rugby player," Koerstz said.

"He's got an awesome boot, a really good running game and a really good defensive game and now with the confidence being able to chat at the back...

"It's all positive and I think a young guy like that you just want to let him express himself."

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The Lions' rookie of the year two years ago, Koerstz believes Nankivell is "only" going to get better.

"I don't think we've seen the best of him yet," he said.

Nankivell's performance wasn't the only thing for Koerstz to like about Saturday with the Lions taking it to the premiers.

Ultimately going down 41-22, the way that after being starved of territory and possession early when they did finally get in their half they were able to put some points on "the really positive thing".

"The guys identified when we get the chance to play our game and get in the right parts of the field, we've got the game and the game plan and the cattle to do it," Koerstz said.

"You just can't give them that (19 points) start."

One of the features of their fightback was their offloading.

"What was really good today with our offloads was we've been a little bit guilty of pushing the one that's not on and not throwing the one that is on," he said.

"But today we really identified the right time to throw it and got some good gains off it."

On the other side of things, their lineout wasn't great and the scrum was under a lot of pressure.

"We always knew they'd come at us hard in the scrum," Koerstz said.

The positive was they didn't - to his recollection - lose a feed but they struggled to hold Pirates on their feed, conceding a few penalties.

Things don't get any easier for the Lions with a red-hot Walcha this weekend.

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