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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 2836230, member: 1899"] The question surrounding Thursday's night game is will Thurston play? It's incredible how quickly Thurston has been able to recover from an injury that should have sidelined him for six weeks. I'm sure for Paul Green, it's a question he'd want to have answered on Wednesday night, remembering their dismal effort against the Tigers where the 'will he or won't he' sub-plot ultimately resulted in one of the worst Cowboys performances since Green took over in 2014. No Solomone Kata for the Warriors but the big news for the Warriors is that they'll still be without Simon Mannering. Their former captain has easily been one of their best players and you'd imagine without him they'll struggle against the Dragons who have some injury concerns of their own. Euan Aitken suffered an injury which sees Fai Fai Loa come into the side and livewire rookie Matthew Dufty named as a reserve. If he plays, keep an eye on him as he could very well be Dugan's replacement if Josh chooses to leave the club at the end of the season. While it was unfortunate the injuries to Sarginson & Simpkins may prove to be a blessing in disguise for the Gold Coast Titans. Both of them were weak links in a side that's looking to rebuild their season and their replacements are more than qualified. The only I question I have is naming Copley on the wing who always appears out of his depth in that position. While he's a 'safer' pick than John Olive, in most cases it's better to back the newcomer than the devil you know. Meanwhile the loss of Tom Trbojevic has seen 'steady-as-she-goes' depth player Matthew Wright called into play fullback. Wright spent a few games back there for Cronulla and was remarkably average in the position, I expect more of the same during Tommy T's absence. In what could be the most obvious late change of the round, Mitchell Moses has been named at #21 for the Parramatta Eels. He comes up against an embarrassed Canberra Raiders who just happen to have their best player Josh Papalii returning after his bizarre off-field indiscretion. Many pundits had the Raiders going another level at the start of the season and it hasn't come to fruition, lose here and they maybe completely irrelevant by September. An interesting clash, even if it's at the 7:30pm Saturday death slot. On Sunday Afternoon, we have two of the worst teams going at it in Newcastle & Penrith. In typical Hook fashion, he's only made one forced change with everybody's favourite fantasy blue-chipper Corey Harawira-Naera coming into replace the frankly disappointing James Fisher-Harris in the starting side. Fisher-Harris has a long career ahead of him, but dead-set his sophmore slump reminds me of Grevsmuhl. Meanwhile Nathan Brown decided to commit the cardinal sin of changing a winning side replacing Lachlan Fitzgibbon with Shaun Lane wannabe Sam Stone. Stone is a quality prospect, but after last week's win I don't know why you'd be in a rush to move a toiler like that on. Even the return of Mitchell Barnett doesn't really answer that question given who else is in the side. Later we've got the Roosters and the Bulldogs. Based on last week you'd have to say the Roosters by however many but if we've learnt anything about both sides it's that a lot can change in a week. Still, the Roosters are starting to look good with Mitchell & Manu in their three-quarters and given the time-slot they should have too many points for the Dogs who were absolutely woeful on Thursday. As stubborn as Des is with his line-up, credit where it's due, 11 weeks in he realises that Lichaa could do with some support and has added another dummy half to the bench. It's only taken him nearly half the season...but he's slowly remembering the lessons that served him so well with Monaghan/Dunley, Monaghan/Ballin, Ballin/Le'Strange and all the successful Manly dummy half combinations. Then we go over to my least favourite venue in all of Rugby League (perhaps the world) nib Stadium to see the new look South Sydney Rabbitohs take on the Melbourne Storm. The change of venue can dish up some weird performances, and Souths probably go into this game stronger with Musgrove replacing Clark on the bench. While every club needs a Jason Clark, Mitchell Dodds, Josh Starling battler, Musgrove honestly is one of the better props Souths have and I struggle to see how he isn't given more of a shot in comparison to the Burgess twins. It's the last real round of footy for nearly two months, so let's make the most of it. [/QUOTE]

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