{"id":666992,"date":"2026-05-12T23:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/666992\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:26:11","slug":"nrl-2026-broncos-forced-to-hand-nrl-debut-to-19-year-old-after-12th-player-ruled-out-of-magic-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/666992\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Broncos forced to hand NRL debut to 19-year-old after 12th player ruled out of Magic Round"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phillip Coates<\/a> – the 19-year-old brother of Storm superstar Xavier – is set to make his NRL<\/a> debut for Brisbane in Magic Round after fellow teenager Antonio Verhoeven became the latest Broncos player to be ruled out. Michael Maguire<\/a>‘s reigning premiers will be missing 12 players from their top-30 squad for Sunday’s game against the Warriors after Verhoeven succumbed to a shoulder injury. Skipper Adam Reynolds returns after missing last week’s loss to Manly with concussion.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old Verhoeven injured his shoulder during his starting debut on the wing last week. He got through the 80 minutes in the loss to the Sea Eagles, but was ruled out on Tuesday when the Broncos named their squad to take on the Warriors, joining Jack Gosiewski as the latest members of a bulging casualty ward at Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\"Broncos<\/p>\n

Broncos coach Michael Maguire (R) is set to hand an NRL debut to a 19-year-old flyer with Brisbane missing 12 players for their Magic Round clash with the Warriors. Pic: Getty<\/p>\n

(Getty)<\/p>\n

Gosiewski was taken from the field in the closing stages of Brisbane’s 32-4 loss to Manly after a head knock that was later deemed to be a Category 1. That triggers a mandatory 11-day stand-down for the Brisbane forward, and sees him join the likes of Payne Haas, Kotoni Staggs, Ben Te Kura, Deine Mariner, Corey Jensen, Blake Mozer, Brendan Piakura, Billy Walters, Grant Anderson and Delouise Hoiter, who are all missing for Magic Round.<\/p>\n

The loss of Gosiewski will once again force Maguire into a reshuffle of his forward pack, with Xavier Willison moving into prop from the back-row. Jaiyden Hunt is the new face in jersey No.11, while Josh Rogers joins Brisbane’s six-man bench as another playmaking option at Maguire’s disposal if needed.<\/p>\n

Broncos teen flyer Phillip Coates set for NRL debut<\/p>\n

But it’s the 19-year-old Coates’ NRL debut for the Broncos in place of Verhoeven on the wing that is sure to excite fans. The young flyer has regularly been compared to his older brother Xavier, who played 32 games for the Broncos before joining Melbourne in 2022, where he’s gone on to score 62 tries in 76 games for the Storm.<\/p>\n

\"Phillip<\/p>\n

Phillip Coates (L) is set to make his NRL debut for the Broncos in place of fellow 19-year-old winger Antonio Verhoeven (R). Pic: Burleigh Bears\/NRL<\/p>\n

(Getty)<\/p>\n

The younger Coates has been turning heads for the Burleigh Bears in the Queensland Cup, and the Broncos have huge raps on the academy star after handing him a one-year extension earlier this year. Maguire indicated recently that the teen phenomenon was ready to step up to first grade and says he’s “confident” he’ll handle it against the high-flying Warriors on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been watching his brother in the NRL for a while so now it\u2019s his turn,” the Brisbane coach said. \u201cI like to let the players showcase their talents, and I pick players because I know they can perform.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Coatesy\u2019 has worked really hard in the background to get to the levels of being able to handle footy at this level. Until you get the opportunity, you don\u2019t know if they are up to it. But like \u2018Nio\u2019 (Verhoeven), Phil is an exciting player, he is tall and athletic and has shown he can play at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n

with agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phillip Coates – the 19-year-old brother of Storm superstar Xavier – is set to make his NRL debut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[265308,64,63,651,5366,41286,35206,6407,761,762,158,321993,85,12644,255675],"class_list":["post-666992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-antonio-verhoeven","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brisbane","tag-broncos","tag-debut","tag-magic-round","tag-michael-maguire","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-phillip-coates","tag-sports","tag-the-warriors","tag-verhoeven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}