Kevin Walters and Adam Reynolds have both sung glowing endorsements of young gun Ezra Mam as the race to be named in the Broncos' Round 1 team heats up.
It has been one of the biggest battles of the off-season, with incumbents Tyson Gamble and Albert Kelly joined by Mam - who was outstanding in the Queensland Cup for the Souths Logan Magpies last year, but is still only 19 - and recruit Billy Walters, all fighting for the spot alongside star Adam Reynolds.
It has been widely suggested that Mam may be too young to start the season in the five-eighth role, but a stirring display in Brisbane's opening trial against Wynnum Manly where he scored a try and laid on a few more has set tongues wagging.
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Walters rebutted that claim though, suggesting to The Courier Mail that "if Mam is good enough, he is old enough."
“In my eyes, if you are good enough you are old enough and from what I saw of him last year in the Intrust Super Cup, he has had another 12 months of development,” Walters told the publication.
“He just had a pre-season with us so I’d be confident if he was the guy we went with at five-eighth for Round 1.”
There has been little question the influence Reynolds has had over the Broncos during the pre-season either, with the former South Sydney Rabbitoh coming off a grand final.
Walters himself has spoken glowingly of Reynolds at every opportunity, with the halfback resuming pre-season earlier than he was originally supposed to as he set about helping to rebuild the club who have finished in the bottom four each of the last two seasons.
Reynolds told the publication that Mam "had caught his eye" during pre-season.
“Ezra is one guy who has caught my eye in pre-season,” Reynolds said.
“He has great awareness ... Ezra has the world at his feet.”
While it won't be Reynolds team to pick, and both Gamble and Kelly impressed last year in a beaten side, the temptation to play Mam will exist for the Broncos and likely only get stronger if he has more good performances in the coming fortnight with pre-season trials to be played against NRL-level opposition in the Gold Coast Titans and North Queensland Cowboys.
