Warriors drop Walsh to bench
Outgoing fullback Reece Walsh has been dropped to the bench in a selection shock from coach Stacey Jones for the Warriors’ clash with the Canberra Raiders on Saturday.
Walsh, who was granted a release by the club to return to the Brisbane Broncos next season, has been replaced in the No 1 jersey by Chanel Harris-Tavita.
Walsh made a basic error immediately after halftime in Friday night’s 28-18 NRL loss to the Parramatta Eels and at times struggled to make his presence felt in the second half.
He also missed two tackles and made another error and produced a poor kick that led to an Eels try and failed to ignite a Warriors attack that lacked timing and cohesion through the spine in general.
Harris-Tavita was a standout at fullback in the homecoming victory over the Tigers – when Walsh was out with Covid-19 – but returned to the halves last week when Ronald Volkman was out through illness.
In the only other changes, Daejarn Asi has been preferred over Ronald Volkman to partner Shaun Johnson in the halves and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak returns from a bout of Covid-19 to replace Edward Kosi.
Volkman missed the loss to Parramatta with a non-Covid-19 virus but he and Asi both played starring roles for feeder club the Redcliffe Dolphins on Sunday in the Queensland Cup.
Asi scored a try, had three try assists, a line break and a line break assist in the Dolphins’ 54-16 win over the defending premiers Norths Devils. Volkman scored an intercept try, had two try assists, a pair of forced dropouts and kicked a perfect nine-from-nine off his kicking tee.
Asi was signed by the Warriors for the rest of the season so is offcontract for next year, meaning Saturday’s match with the Raiders is the perfect job interview for the former Cowboy in front of the club and no doubt with new coach Andrew Webster looking on from afar.