Woolf rests prize lock

Blackhawks coach will take no chances with his injured backrower

THE Townsville Blackhawks will be without France- bound lock Daniel Beasley for tomorrow’s final regular season clash against the Sunshine Coast Falcons.

Beasley, who yesterday confirmed his move to the French first division, will be rested as a precaution following his groin injury done just before Townsville’s game against the PNG Hunters a fortnight ago, with Blackhawks coach Kristian Woolf reluctant to risk his prized No. 13 a week out from finals.

The Blackhawks could leapfrog South Logan into fifth if results go their way, which would earn them an away game against Easts Tigers in next weekend’s elimination final rather than a repeat visit to the Sunshine Coast.

Souths play the Mackay Cutters tonight in Mackay – no easy feat considering the Cutters’ impressive end of season form that included last weekend’s 30- 20 win over Ipswich, a 22- all draw with minor premiers PNG and their recent 30- 26 home win over Sunshine Coast.

End of season results are all academic for Woolf, however, who is treating tomorrow’s game as a final chance to iron out any wrinkles before finals.

“I’m not really worried about the result to be honest,” Woolf said.

“But what we do want is a performance that gives us confidence and we want to get the most out of it.

“One area we want to focus on is our defence.

“Against PNG, we scored some good tries but we leaked far too may points and there’s some variations to our attack we want to try out as well.”

Woolf will play a relatively unchanged team to the one that lost to PNG 24- 16, although Kyle Laybutt could be a strong chance of playing at five- eighth despite travelling with the Cowboys to Penrith.

Ty Carruci is also set to return for the Blackhawks, with Sam Foster dropping to TDRL, but Beasley will not be there despite working his way back to near full fitness.

“He’s not too far off at all, but for us it’s just not worth the risk,” Woolf said.

“He’ll be able to get another full week of training under his belt and make him more bullet proof for the following weekend.”

The Falcons will field a handful of Melbourne Stormallocated players tomorrow, including former Blackhawks fullback Jahrome Hughes and former Cowboys under- 20s star Brandon Smith, who is widely viewed as Cameron Smith’s long- term successor at the Storm.

Woolf said the pair would be hard to contain, but warned of the danger of focusing on a couple of stars.

“They’re the most privileged team in the competition when it comes to NRL allocations because they have a very high number,” he said.

“Jahrome Hughes was very good for us for two years and I’m sure he’ll be keen to play against old teammates.

“He will be focused but there’s so much other team in that team.

“You look at players like their halfback Ryley Jacks, Guy Hamilton, Brandon Smith ... they have one of the best spines in the competition.”