Kearney: No shenanigans regarding injured RTS
Warriors coach Stephen Kearney has moved to clarify the events that led to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck’s late withdrawal from the agonising onepoint loss to the Storm on Anzac Day.
Kearney has come under strong criticism after he initially dismissed reports early in the week that Tuivasa-Sheck was in doubt with a hamstring injury, only for the Warriors captain to be ruled out on the eve of the match.
Kearney said on Tuesday that Tuivasa-Sheck was ‘‘fine to go’’ before a press release on the Warriors website the following day said the reigning Dally M medallist had picked up a hamstring injury during the team’s captain’s run.
Quizzed on the saga at Thursday’s post-game press conference, Kearney admitted Tuivasa-Sheck did report ‘‘a little bit of tightness’’ in the muscle after training on Monday.
But the coach insisted they never set out to deliberately mislead, adding that Tuivasa-Sheck was always expected to play until after the Wednesday session.
‘‘We trained on Monday and he completed training. He had a little bit of tightness but nothing too serious,’’ Kearney said.
‘‘That’s the platform of social media, I don’t know how it got out. He was adamant that he was OK then at the captain’s run didn’t pull up so well and we just didn’t want to take the risk.
‘‘But there were no shenanigans on our part. If you ask Roger, he was adamant that he was going to play.’’
Tuivasa-Sheck was one of three late withdrawals for the Warriors along with chief playmaker Blake Green (groin) and centre Solomone Kata (compassionate grounds), while star winger David Fusitu’a was already sidelined with a rib injury.