Warriors anxiously wait on Green
Blake Green sat out Warriors group training again yesterday, but coach Stephen Kearney remains hopeful he’ll be able to play on Anzac Day against the Melbourne Storm.
There’s been no time to celebrate Easter for the Warriors, who have to back up their 17-10 loss to the Cowboys on Saturday night with a daunting trip to Melbourne on Thursday.
The players hit the training paddock yesterday morning after a lengthy review into what went wrong last weekend.
Kearney is trying to sort out some of the team’s execution problems that blighted them on Saturday, but he’s also hopeful that Green will be back in the No 7 jersey, after missing the last two games with a groin strain.
However, Green didn’t train with the rest of the team yesterday, doing sprints and fitness drills instead, and it means he’ll only have tomorrow’s captain’s run to integrate with the rest of the team.
‘‘Greeny, we’ll give him every opportunity to be right off the back of a short turnaround,’’ Kearney said.
‘‘He worked pretty hard last week and got himself pretty close. The groin is not something that we can rush back from.
‘‘There’s a 10-day turnaround to the next game so I anticipate that if not this week, then definitely next week.’’
Winger David Fusitu’a is definitely out for the Melbourne game with sore ribs, while Solomone Kata had to leave the training session with a sore neck.
Kearney is confident Kata will be fine, but if Green plays, Peta Hiku could slot in on the right wing for Fusitu’a and Patrick Herbert could make his debut inside him at centre.
‘‘He’s pretty versatile,’’ Kearney said of Hiku.
‘‘Peta plays a number of positions. An experienced footy player and I was possibly a little unfair on him last week to throw him into the halves again. I thought he did a pretty good job, so he’s been valuable.’’
Those who do the draws have been particularly unkind to the Warriors this week.
They have to deal with a fiveday turnaround and have to travel to Melbourne, while the Storm stayed at home and enjoy a six-day gap.
Also the Warriors’ reserve grade team played in Sydney on Sunday, so none of the players can train again until today, which makes it tough for any of them to be available to play against the Storm.