The Canberra Raiders and North Queensland Cowboys have run out resounding winners in Friday night's double-header of Week 2 in the NRL pre-season challenge.
With so many fringe, reserve grade and jersey flegg players running around, it was tough to know exactly where to look or what to take out of either result, but there are still plenty of key talking points.
Here they are.
2. Daine Laurie will push for minutes in Canberra
One of the quieter signings of the off-season was that of Daine Laurie leaving his role as a back-up at the Panthers across multiple positions, to likely perform the same task in Canberra.
The thing with Daine Laurie though is that, at a lot of clubs in the competition, whether in the halves, outside backs or fullback, he is better than a reserve player.
Laurie certainly won't be playing at fullback or five-eighth in Canberra given Kaeo Weekes and Ethan Strange are locked in, but there are real questions around Canberra's number seven jumper for the new season.
He isn't a halfback by trade, and it looked like he was playing the role of a five-eighth more than a halfback on Friday in a win over the Storm, but the fact he was named there suggests he has been getting some reps during the pre-season.
It indicates Ricky Stuart is, maybe rightly so, a little nervous with his options to replace Jamal Fogarty being Ethans Sanders or Coby Black.
Regardless, Laurie's performance suggests he has fit in well at the green machine and will, at the very least, be part of the first six-man bench of the year.
