Team Update: Squad on track to farewell trio
A side as selected is on track to line up when Shaun Johnson, Jazz Tevaga and Addin Fonua-Blake run out for their last home game together in the One New Zealand Warriors’ 25th-round clash against Canterbury Bankstown at a sold-out Shaun Johnson Stadium on Friday night (8.00pm kick-off; match day sponsor: One New Zealand).
Utility Chanel Harris-Tavita and winger Edward Kosi have been retained in the 19-man squad 24 hours out from kick-off.
The players omitted are second rower Leka Halasima, fullback Taine Tuaupiki and prop Bunty Afoa.
On a night dripping with emotion, the 33-year-old Johnson’s 223rd appearance for the club will be his 87th at his beloved home ground, more than 13 years after his first there against the Wests Tigers on June 12, 2011.
That day he was a two-game rookie surrounded by several players who rank among the longest-serving in the club’s history in Simon Mannering, Manu Vatuvei, Ben Matulino, Jacob Lillyman, Lance Hohaia, Micheal Luck and Russell Packer.
On Friday night he’ll stand alone as the most experienced player on the park playing his 267th career game in a journey which has been built around 11 first-grade seasons with the Warriors from 2011-2018 and 2022-2024.
For Tevaga, playing his 137th game on Friday, Shaun Johnson Stadium – as it is for this week – is equally a place of the heart and a wrench for him to play on for the last time as a Warrior.
In his four-year stay with the club, Fonua-Blake (28) has had just two seasons based at the stadium after Covid ensured his first two campaigns were spent in Australia. He plays his 84th game for the Warriors this week and is just as attached to the place that has been home for him.
Johnson, Tevaga and Fonua-Blake have been named in a side which shows one change from the one that lost 10-24 to Manly Warringah last Friday night with Wayde Egan returning at hooker replacing Freddy Lussick, who moves to the interchange.
That restores the starting pack which had been used in the previous five games. It also means Egan will make his 99th appearance for the Warriors, leaving him in line to join the 100-game club in the season finale against Cronulla Sutherland next week.
Two other milestones are in reach before the season is over, both of them for winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak. His 12th try of the season last week left him one short of his 50th try for the One New Zealand Warriors (he has 49 in just 67 appearances) and two away from reaching 100 NRL tries.
After having their slim hopes of playing finals football completely extinguished last week the Warriors face a formidable assignment against a Canterbury Bankstown side eyeing the chance of a top four finish.
The Bulldogs are fifth on 32 points – two behind the Sydney Roosters and the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks – after winning four straight and six of their last seven including a 13-12 win over the Warriors on July 6.
