Kearney: We aren’t thinking beyond this weekend
Warriors coach Stephen Kearney admits they are living in uncertain times but says the team is focused only on Saturday’s match against the Raiders at their temporary home near the Gold Coast.
There are many theories about what could happen to the NRL from round three but Kearney said his players aren’t looking that far ahead.
“We haven’t thought past this weekend,” Kearney told D’Arcy Waldegrave on Radio Sport.
“We have [chief executive] Cameron [ George] and Dan Floyd, our footy manager, working through that. These are uncertain times. But come five or six o’clock on Saturday afternoon [after the Raiders game], I think we will have some certainty.”
Kearney said the group remained in good spirits.
“The boys have been very positive,” he said. “[They] recognise it is not the ideal circumstance.”
There are three changes to the starting line-up for the clash with the 2019 grand finalists.
Rookie second rower Eliesa Katoa has been promoted, at the expense of Isaiah Papali’i, who drops to the bench, while backs Adam Pompey and Adam Keighran make NRL returns.
Twenty-year-old Katoa has been rewarded for an impressive debut against the table-topping Knights in what was his first senior competitive league match.
The Warriors pack was struggling to compete with the Knights in a 20-0 spanking in the rain but Katoa didn’t hold back. He made 144 metres from 17 runs — the most by a Warriors forward — and also led the team in post-contact yardage.
His inclusion on the edge means Adam Blair moves to loose forward, while Papali’i will make his 50th NRL appearance from the bench.
Keighran has replaced Peta Hiku, who returned home on Sunday due to the impending birth of his third child.
Keighran mainly played in the spine last season at the Warriors but has experience further out wide and was a strong performer at left centre for the Panthers’ New South Wales Cup team in 2018.
Pompey replaces Patrick Herbert on the right wing, with Herbert also returning to New Zealand on compassionate grounds last Sunday.
The Warriors, who have been based in Kingscliff this week, have a squad of just 24 players to choose from, the three omitted being Tom Ale, Rocco Berry and Paul Turner (all on development contracts).