Who's Playing Who?

The rep season is here- we’ve got City v Country and Australia v New Zealand. This means half the competition has a bye, and the rest may be fielding depleted sides. Or will they? You better check inside to see what’s happening with the teams for Round 9.

SATURDAY:

Comment: The Broncos have made an incredible amount of changes. They’ve decided to not play any of their rep stars, meaning Corey Norman, Dane Gagai, Shea Moylan, Kurt Baptise, Scott Anderson, Dunamis Lui, David Hala and Justin Hunt all come into the squad. It will be interesting to see though if any of the Internationals return for this game, depending on how they pull up after the game. One player who wont be back this week is Josh McGuire, who has suffered a nasty injury- a cut to his eyeball. No changes for the Storm, but the rep players may miss out, depending again on how things pan out in their respective games.

Comment: Big loss for the Titans, with hooker Nathan Friend sidelined due to his shoulder. He unfortunately wont get to play against his new club, but gives Riley Brown another chance in the No. 9 jersey. No changes for a winning Warriors side, who have a few on rep duty. I wouldn’t expect any changes unless injury strikes.

Comment: Wow. The Dragons have a staggering 10 players turning out for the rep sides on Friday night- Brett Morris (Australia), Jason Nightingale (New Zealand), Jamie Soward (Country), Dan Hunt (Country), Beau Scott (Australia), Ben Creagh (Australia), Matt Prior (Country), Nathan Fien (New Zealand), Adam Cuthbertson (City) and Trent Merrin (Country). With this many players backing up and Gasnier and Young under injury clouds, I don’t think this will be the 1-17 that runs out on the weekend. This might really test the Dragons’ depth. They take on a much more settled North Queensland side, who are only missing JT and Matt Scott to Australian duties. Chances are both these players will back up.

Comment: For Manly, it’s business as usual- Brett Stewart, David Williams and Tim Robinson have all been named- when will they get a run! I don’t expect all 3 to play this week, but as to who… your guess is as good as mine. A couple of changes for the Raiders, with Danny Galea, Alan Tongue, Reece Robinson and Brett White into the starting side. Vidot has been dropped, and Shillington is out with a pec injury. Sam Mataora is on the extended bench, and is likely to miss the game unless one of the forwards misses out through injury.