Selection headache for Warriors coach
Warriors coach Nathan Brown says he’ll need another month before he knows what his best team is.
With the emergence of Reece Walsh as potentially the NRL’s next superstar, Brown has a welcome dilemma of how to fit so many talented players into his spine.
For Sunday’s game against the Cowboys he has selected Roger Tuivasa-Sheck at fullback and Walsh at five-eighth but when Chanel Harris-Tavita comes back from his foot injury, Brown will have to work out how to fit him, Walsh and Tuivasa-Sheck into the same team.
Right now, Brown doesn’t know what his best option is, but he’s already seen enough of Walsh to know he’s ready for first-grade footy.
‘‘Reece has only been here for a couple of weeks and we all saw the impact he had for our attack the other day,’’ Brown said, referring to his debut against the Storm last Sunday.
‘‘Fullback has its demands in other areas, so Reece being young, he has some other areas of fullback that he’s got to work on over the next six weeks and we’ve got Chanel [HarrisTavita] hopefully coming back in the next week or so.
‘‘I’ll be honest, we won’t know the best make up of our team for another four or five weeks.
‘‘A lot of that is due to injuries, but also with what Reece is bringing to the club.’’
Meanwhile, Brown is pleased that second-rower Josh Curran avoided a one-game ban for a careless high tackle on George Jennings in the game against the Storm.
Had Curran been found guilty at Tuesday night’s judicial hearing his ban would have been extended to two weeks, but it was a gamble that paid off, to get the charge downgraded. ‘‘It’s good news,’’ Brown said. ‘‘Josh has had two games now, he was very good against St George and was pleasing the other day.
‘‘He was far from perfect but at least he went after them, he didn’t sit back and wait.’’
For most of Curran’s time at the Warriors he’s been on the outer, but the 21-year-old got a rare chance to play in the NRL when Eliesa Katoa was demoted to reserve grade.
Curran has gone well in the top side, but Brown said it was up to Curran with how far he wanted to progress in this game.
‘‘Josh has got all the tools to be whatever type of player he wants to be, he’s just got to make some decisions to do it,’’ Brown said.
‘‘The last two weeks he’s certainly started to make decisions that would suggest he’d like to be a professional rugby league player.
‘‘He’s shown some good signs, but it’s only the starting point and each week we would expect Josh to improve.
‘‘We know he’s got a lot of potential there and hopefully he wants to get it out of himself as well.’’
The other selection decision Brown will have to make is how to fit Katoa back into the team.
‘‘Eli has got a bit of a toe injury at the minute, but he has been working hard and doing well,’’ Brown said.
‘‘He’s working on his defence and put a lot of work in over the last three week and he’s got another week to go.
‘‘I’m still learning a lot about these guys, they’re very young. Josh is on 10 games, Eli is on 20 rugby league games.
‘‘But the pleasing thing is Josh is making some positive decisions now and Eli has always been a good kid and a good trainer and he’s focusing hard on improving parts of his game as well.’’