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WHITEHEAD TIRING OF RAIDERS’ POSITIONAL SHIFTS
Canberra star Elliott Whitehead has conceded the constant positional switching of players at the club has become frustrating.
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has been forced to tinker with his NRL side as a result of being without injured captain Jarrod Croker and suspended fullback Jack Wighton.
Whitehead says he would prefer to play in the back row but will again sacrifice his favourite position by featuring in the centres against the Sydney Roosters on Sunday.
Nick Cotric, who burst into contention for a State of Origin debut as a winger, has slotted into the No.1 jersey in Wighton’s absence.
But he has been moved back to the wing for the clash with the Roosters, leaving Brad Abbey to cover fullback.
Stuart said after Sunday’s 22-20 loss to Wests Tigers that Wighton was as important to Canberra as retiring great Billy Slater is to Melbourne. Joseph Leilua has been the one dependable in the centres, but Croker’s spot has been a revolving door since he was injured in round 17 with Blake Austin and Whitehead being used in his place.
Austin will be back at five-eighth this weekend, partnering with Sam Williams in the halves as Aidan Sezer recovers from a hamstring injury.
The Raiders’ disastrous 0-4 start to the season can be partly contributed to being without star hooker Josh Hodgson as Siliva Havili found his feet at No.9.
“I’d prefer to play backrow but if he (Stuart) wants me to play centre then I will,” Whitehead said.
“A little bit frustrating for me. I feel like I was finding some good form in the back-row then I have to play a different position.
“If I have to do that for the team and that’s the best for the team then I’m willing to do that.”
Despite leading the competition for most points scored, the Raiders’ finals hopes are dead as they sit 10th on the ladder with an 8-13 record. If Canberra maintain their record as the best attacking team, they will become the first side in NRL/NSWRL history to score the most points in a season and miss the finals.
Whitehead says they will fight out the last three games of the campaign, starting with a home match against the ladder-leading Roosters.
“(The Roosters) are playing some good footy at the moment and they’re going to want to come down here and stay on top of the table,” Whitehead.
“For us we’ll at least try to knock them off and use it as a little bit of motivation to show everyone what we are capable of.”
– Oliver Caffrey
PROCTOR WANTS ANOTHER TEST SHOT
Dumped New Zealand backrower Kevin Proctor is in talks with new Test coach Michael Maguire as he dreams of an international return.
Proctor hasn’t played for his country since he and New Zealand teammate Jesse Bromwich were caught in a Canberra drug bust following the Anzac Test in May last year.
It cost him a spot in the side for last year’s World Cup, while his NRL club Gold Coast stripped him of the co-captaincy, fined him $20,000 and suspended him for four games.
The 29-year-old has been on a redemption path since and revealed on Tuesday he was among a group of players the former South Sydney premiership coach had consulted as they regroup from the side’s disappointing World Cup campaign.
New Zealand host Australia on October 13 in Auckland and Proctor would love to be there.
“I’ve been speaking to Madge a little bit,” the 17-Test veteran said. “It’d mean the world; you get to right all your wrongs I guess, and put some pride back in the jersey.
“Getting back into the New Zealand side has always been a dream.”
The Titans are out of the finals hunt and now fighting to avoid the wooden spoon, giving Proctor three more games to press his case for a Test return. “I’m always open-minded but I just want to finish the year off strong,” he said.
“No-one wants to finish last and it’s so close at the bottom there, if you lose the rest of the games you’re in trouble.”
– Murray Wenzel
HOFFMAN’S CAREER ALL BUT OVER
The NRL career of Storm veteran Ryan Hoffman is all but over after the veteran backrower’s hamstring injury was confirmed by the club on Tuesday.
Hoffman, who will hang up his boots at season’s end, suffered a ruptured hamstring tendon in the loss to Cronulla over the weekend and is expected to miss eight weeks.
Only a Storm grand final berth and an ahead of schedule recovery would see Hoffman return to the field again.
“Whilst it will be difficult for Hoffy to return before the end of the season, we have no doubt he will do everything in his power to make that a possibility,” said Storm football manager Frank Ponissi.
“Hoffy has shown nothing but class and professionalism throughout his 16 years at the highest level and there is no reason why this final month or so will be any different.”
Hoffman has played 267 games for the Storm, behind just Cooper Cronk, Cameron Smith and Billy Slater.
NAPA READY TO FIRE UP FOR ROOSTERS
Sydney Roosters enforcer Dylan Napa has declared himself ready to resume his role as forward pack leader in the absence of Jared Waerea-Hargreaves for the next month.
Waerea-Hargreaves was on Monday ruled out for up to week one of the NRL finals after breaking his ribs in Friday’s win over South Sydney, paving the way for Napa to step up.
“It’s really tough to lose him but there’s been plenty of games where we’ve played without Jared. We might be a man down, but it’s next man up,” Napa said on Tuesday.
– AAP
COWS STAY QUIET AHEAD OF SHARKS SHOWDOWN
North Queensland’s Gavin Cooper says the fact his side is running last means he won’t throw fuel on the fire ahead of a potentially spicy NRL rematch with Cronulla on Saturday.
The teams have made a habit of ending each others’ seasons in recent years and tensions flared following the Cowboys’ round one win when Cooper accused the Sharks of employing “dirty tactics” to fell star prop Matt Scott. Cooper triggered a back-and-forth in March when he called out the Sharks for twisting Scott’s leg while tackling him, in what was the veteran’s first game back from a serious knee injury.
The criticism angered Sharks coach Shane Flanagan, who shot back a stubborn defence of his side later that week.
The Cowboys have gone on to win just five games since, with Cooper opting to stay humble as they prepare to face the sixth-placed side in Sydney. “Those comments were a long time ago and we’re sitting last,” he told AAP on Tuesday.
“I’ve always got a humble approach, but we’ll just leave that where it was. “Somehow those (knock-out) match-ups seem to happen; there’s always a winner and loser and that history is there and no matter who’s out on the field it’s always a good clash.” The Sharks displayed their premiership credentials in a bruising 17-14 defeat of Melbourne on Sunday while the Cowboys were hot in a 34-30 win against Brisbane. Just three games remain in Johnathan Thurston’s farewell season and the Cowboys have a fight on their hands to avoid the wooden spoon.
“It’s a strange one at the club, considering our success, to know when our time is up this year,” Cooper said.
“We’ve shown this year we can play good footy in patches and been in most games this year but haven’t found a way to win,” he said.
“(Against the Broncos we) wound back the clock a bit and the want to win was massive.
“I’m just looking forward to these last few games cause there’s a group here, whether it’s one, two, five (players), who won’t play together after that.”
-AAP
JUST IN: BUNNIES TO BLOOD ROOKIE FOR BRONCOS BLOCKBUSTER
By Fatima Kdouh
South Sydney will blood a teen debutant against the Broncos as the Rabbitohs battle a backline injury crisis.
Greg Inglis was slated to return this weekend from a broken thumb to offset the absence of injured fullback Alex Johnston (hamstring).
But the Queensland State of Origin captain will spend another week on the sidelines, allowing for Mawene Hiroti to make his NRL debut.
Hiroti will likely play in the centres with Dane Gagai switching to fullback.
The 19-year old represented New South Wales residents this year and has been a standout for North Sydney.
An Auckland product, Hiroti has also played for the Australian Schoolboys and Junior Kiwis.
NRL TO TIGHTEN PLAYER AGENT RULES
The NRL has proposed an overhaul of the player agents accreditation scheme that includes ensuring agents are subject to NRL rules.
The proposal, which has the backing of the players’ association, was presented to NRL club CEOs on Tuesday.
The governing body also confirmed that they are close to locking in next year’s NRL season-opening match to be played in the United States.
The return of the NRL All Stars match, a Magic Round in Brisbane and a Sunday State of Origin in Perth have been locked in for next year.
– Matt Encarnacion, AAP
HUNT UNDERSTANDS CHOKING TALK
It’s been the off-limits “c-word” that hasn’t been mentioned all year, but St George Illawarra halfback Ben Hunt now admits he can see why talk of the Dragons “choke” is back and potentially playing on some teammates’ minds. Early-season ladder-leaders, the Saints are out of the top four for the first time this year after dropping five of their past six.
And ahead of the Dragons’ crucial clash with the Wests Tigers on Sunday, the Dragons are open and frank in acknowledging their form has to turn around fast if they want to strike come finals.
“Obviously we have lost a few games at the moment, we played well at the start of the year and have lost a few now,” Hunt said.
“That’s usually what you call teams like that: They are the chokers. “We’re still in a really good position, we’re still in the finals we’re still going for the top four. It’s up to us to do that now.” From the moment the pre-season began, all the external talk at the Dragons has been about why this year is different.
Why the late-season collapses that ended Paul McGregor’s 2015 and 2017 campaigns won’t repeat.
But with the recent form slump those questions have become an avalanche. And Hunt admitted that at some point it could impact on players. “I can’t talk for everyone because I wasn’t here last year but I’m sure it might play on some boys’ minds,” he said.
“It’s happened a few years in a row now. Everyone starts talking about it on the outside and sometimes you just can’t get away from that.
“Whether it’s playing on some boys minds or not I’m not too sure. But it’s not playing on mine.” NSW forward Tyson Frizell insists he’s not one of those players and is confident this isn’t a case of past horrors repeating.
But what’s undeniable is the slump that’s crushed the Dragons over past the six weeks as they’ve averaged seven less points per game and almost conceded an extra 14.
Metreage is also down after they out-ran their opponents in all but two matches over the first 16 rounds, but haven’t done so since.
According to Fox Sports Stats they’ve also forced just three dropouts in that time, and missed an extra five tackles per game.
“I might be naive but it’s hard to swallow that and say we’re going back to our old ways,” Frizell said.
“Because we know we’ve been a top-four team for all year bar this week. “I can say we are a different team because for the past few years we haven’t been sitting in the top four all year then dropped out.
“It’s only the past couple of weeks that haven’t been up to the footy we want to play.”
-AAP
INJURY UPDATE: GRAHAM SIDELINED FOR SHARKS
Wade Graham will be fit to return for the late stages of Cronulla’s run to the NRL finals after scans cleared the star second-rower of a serious knee injury.
Graham left the field late in the first half of the sixth-placed Sharks’ 17-14 win over Melbourne on Sunday, and didn’t return after failing a sideline fitness test.
However scans on Monday revealed he had only picked up a minor medial injury, ruling him out of Saturday’s clash with North Queensland but leaving the Sharks hopeful he can return the following week against Newcastle.
The blow is the latest in a stop-start season for the the 27-year-old, who has missed six games this year through hamstring, groin, concussion and cheekbone issues as well as a suspension.
Sunday’s win was just the second time this year they have been able to field their best starting 13, with Graham, Josh Dugan, Paul Gallen and Luke Lewis having each spent a significant amount of time on the sidelines in 2018. Despite that, the Sharks still remain just two points off a top-four finish with three games against bottom-eight teams to finish.
Cronulla received further good news on Monday with retiring second-rower Lewis also cleared of a knee injury after the 35-year-old left the field in discomfort on Sunday.
– AAP