Valentine Holmes confirms backline position for Dragons next season 06:01

We've got a special guest waiting on line. It's been a big week for him because he signed a deal with the St. George Illawarra Dragons. But let's worry about his time at the Cowboys because he was brilliant last night. He ended up scoring a hat-trick of tries. He kicked seven from seven to finish with 26 points in North Queensland's 42-4 win over the Canberra Raiders. I speak of Valentine Holmes. And he's on the line. G'day, Val.

Hey, guys. How you going? Mate, very well. Congratulations on the performance last night. Gee, you gave it to the Raiders and played extremely well at home. It was a nice win, eh? Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it's obviously a pretty tough week last week, especially the second half against Broncos. So it's something that we kind of focused on, was especially coming out of halftime last night, was not trying to overplay our hand and just...

kind of exactly what we did in the first half, just try and keep the foot on the throat and just hold them out and come up with a couple of great tries. But yeah, it's definitely a performance that our crowd and our fans deserve to see and I'm glad we got to do it.

Val, if you look at the stats from last night, 18 runs, 180 odd metres, line breaks, tackle bus, three tries, goals everywhere, 26 points. But one of the things Todd Payton said after the game, he was more impressed and most impressed with your defence. He says, everyone knows you can attack. It's the defence. Is that something he always asks you to work on, defence?

Yeah, it's something I've been going back and forth with Morgz, Justin Morgan. He's our D coach. And yeah, it was a bit of a struggle to get a hold of the new D system, obviously because his new coach was young and leaving. But yeah, one focus that I really wanted to have been trying to focus on, well, more so this whole year, but especially the past couple of weeks, just with our left edge especially. But yeah.

So yeah, our left edge is obviously quite skillful with the ball, but defensively we kind of need to be on. There's a lot of great edges that we come up against, so you just need to be on always. Hey Val, it was a big decision for Toddy last week when he dropped Chad and brought in Jake Clifford, but he performed yesterday. Jeez, I thought he was really strong.

Yeah, it's obviously a bittersweet moment for Cliveau. They're obviously very close friends as well. Teddy's obviously been around for a while now with us. Yeah, he's been knocking on the door for a while. He's been playing really well for Pride in the Cup. I think they've won the minor premierships, though.

Yeah, he was just, you know, biding his time. He played well during the origin period when Tommy Deere was out. And I think he was just waiting for his chance to, you know, to have a crack. And he did, you know, certainly that. He was our best last night. And we go to the show, you know, he's definitely an NRL player and he deserves to be there. And, yeah, obviously it's sad for Chaddy, but, you know, a nice positive moment for Clifford and his family. Val, where do you want to play? What position do you want to play? Do you want to play centre or wing?

I think I prefer to play centre. Obviously a bit closer to the ball. I don't know, obviously I can play wing. I've now played centre. I can play a bit of full-back. But yeah, I guess it's whatever their team best fits. But for me personally, I think I'm probably better playing centre. Obviously, I'm

Other people might have other ideas and might think I'm a good finisher or whatnot, but I feel like I can get the best out of me. Do you think he'll be playing centre when you go to the Dragons? I think so, yeah. You've discussed that? You've discussed that with Flannoy? Yeah, he's pairing me along with Suli. Okay, that's good. He's quite a dangerous ball runner as well and attacker, so yeah, he'll be good. Okay. Mate, I've just noticed here I've got a bit of a profile of you here.

Your least favourite household chore? Now, look, I would say making my bed, washing up, that sort of stuff. Unpacking the dishwasher. That sort of stuff. Yeah. Phil Holmes, your least favourite household chore is watering the plants. What's your problem with that? Mate, if you've seen all the plants we've got in our garden here, it's quite big and it's a big job, so...

I literally would rather stay in the house and clean up the whole house and do the laundry and do the dishes and mop and vacuum, but I don't want to be outside watering. I'm outside for a living, cleaning and playing footy. Have they got sprinklers in Townsville? The side, like a sprinkler in the backyard. They're good. It's a tropical. It goes too quick up here. Yeah.

You didn't need so much water up there. I was just interested when I saw that. Big man gets home from a night out and he says to Darling, he says, I was just out watering the plants. He's got a few bladder problems. There's a few issues there, mate. Just before you go, Val, Daryl, you love this bloke. I do. I've got to say, Val, I've worked with Daryl for a number of years now and every time we do your games, whether it be at origin level or club level, Daryl's the number one ticket holder of the...

the Valhomes fan club. And you've watched him over many, many years, big man. You love him as a player, don't you? I do love him. He's a great player, mate. I mean, I've watched him. We're at Cronulla here today, mate. And I watched it coming through here and, and I just, I just love the way you play. You know, he's, there's no frills. He just gets the job done. He scores tries regularly. You know, he's kicking at 80% or something like that. I mean,

He's one hell of a player. Mate, he's a great Queenslander as well. Let's add that. And I must admit, Val, I had had a few little investments on your first try score for Queensland. No interest like Celtic. He has produced. Good job, Val.

thanks i appreciate it good on you mate you enjoy your sunday thanks for giving us a couple of minutes of your time mate congratulations on the form you're showing and well done to the new deal to relink with one of our colleagues and resident punishers shane flanagan well done no thanks guys appreciate it on your mate val holmes there from the north queensland cowboys and uh that was a really good win for them last night 42 points to four over the canberra raid as