New North Queensland coach Todd Payten said that he was focused on protecting Taumalolo's longevity<\/a>, yet will come under enormous pressure to rethink his plans if the champion lock's output remains so diminished.<\/p>\n "Obviously they were disappointing the other night and there's talk about reducing Jason's minutes for more impact. I think if you're going to reduce his minutes … I look at his best performances and it's late in halves where he becomes very dynamic," Broncos legend Lockyer said on Wide World of Sports' QLDER<\/em>.<\/p>\n "Particularly with the [six-again] rule changes, when he's up against fatigued defences in the middle, I think that's when he's most dangerous.<\/p>\n "So potentially, maybe if you're going to reduce his minutes, do you start him off the bench? Bring him into the game [after] 15 minutes."<\/p>\n Lockyer said that Taumalolo, signed on a 10-year deal for $1 million per season in 2017, clearly remained a specialist middle forward; despite calls for him to play on the edge to reduce wear and tear. He suggested that Taumalolo could play 50 minutes a game by being deployed for the last 25 minutes of each half.<\/p>\n "He's a middle. You look at that common vision you have of Jason, just coming down the middle with a big left foot or a big right foot step," Lockyer said.<\/p>\n "He ran for 73 metres the other night, he typically runs 200-plus. It's one game and I'm sure they're going to play with it but if you're going to reduce his minutes, I reckon start him off the bench, [bring him on] 15 minutes in and just tell him to go hard."<\/p>\n Rugby league great Peter Sterling previously suggested<\/a> that Taumalolo was being wasted on "grunt work" in the middle of the field.<\/p>\n "I can definitely see where Sterlo's coming from, from an attack point of view, having him run at a smaller halfback out a little bit wider is fantastic," Brisbane great Sam Thaiday said on QLDER<\/em>.<\/p>\n "But having to make the decisions in defence is pretty hard. It's a specialty position when it comes to defence, you have to defend shape, a lot of movement there as well.<\/p>\n "I think he's made for the middle of the field. I just think the Cowboys need to find a way to bring him into the game a little bit more, maybe come up with a few different ruck plays around the middle.<\/p>\n "And also push some of those middle forwards a little bit harder to maybe get Jase a quick play-the-ball."<\/p>\n Taumalolo was also criticised by Payten for taking shortcuts in defence. The crack was branded "brave" and "unprecedented" by Sterling<\/a>, while NSW coach Brad Fittler warned Payten not to coach with an eye towards his own job security.<\/p>\n Yet legendary coach Phil Gould said that Payten was right<\/a> to put the onus for team standards upon his biggest-name star.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Cowboys should bench $10 million superstar Jason Taumalolo if they want maximum impact from fewer minutes, Darren Lockyer says. Taumalolo played just 51 minutes […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45776,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45774\/revisions\/45776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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