Team news
Warriors: Kane Evans is out with Jazz Tevaga starting at prop, while Bayley Sironen starts in the second row with Josh Curran shifted to the bench. Jack Murchie is the 18th man.
Centre Euan Aitken has confirmed he will make his return from injury in Sunday’s match against Parramatta in place of rookie winger Edward Kosi.
Rocco Berry shifts to the wing. Eliesa Katoa was the other player omitted from the extended squad on Saturday.
Ben Murdoch-Masila returns in the second row with Bayley Sironen dropping to the reserves in the only other change from last week s loss to Manly.
Warriors coach Nathan Brown stopped short of publicly criticising Parramatta for needing to seek an exemption to the NRL’s COVID protocols to name a team for Sunday’s match at Suncorp Stadium but he did remind the Eels of the sacrifices made by his club and players.
Parramatta are awaiting clearances for rookie five-eighth Jakob Arthur, interchange forward Ray Stone, back-up hooker Joey Lussick and utility Jordan Rankin after ignoring the NRL’s advice to clubs to withdraw players from last weekend’s NSW Cup matches.
With five-eighth Dylan Brown and centre Marata Niukore suspended, the Eels have only 17 available players who had remained within their COVID biosecurity bubble after the NRL re-introduced Level 3 restrictions last Thursday.
By Zachary Gates6 days ago
FShareTTweetQSMSWWhatsAppBEmailGJTumblrLLinkedIn6 days ago
The Parramatta Eels have submitted an application to the NRL in a bid to be granted an exemption to welcome back the players they released from their level-three biosecurity bubble last week.
The Eels released six players to play in the NSW Cup, despite knowing those players wouldn t be allowed back in the bubble while level-three protocols remained in place.
Parramatta are now facing the prospect of not being able to name a 21-man squad for their Magic Round clash with the New Zealand Warriors on Sunday, prompting the submission of their application to the NRL.