Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has one eye on the NRL finals after deciding to rest key players from a last-round showdown but he is "very confident" a new-look squad will rise to the task.
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Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Sia Soliola, Jordan Rapana and John Bateman have been left out of the team to play against the New Zealand Warriors at Canberra Stadium on Saturday.
A top four berth being sewn up has given Stuart the chance to manage the workloads of Nicoll-Klokstad and Soliola while Rapana and Bateman overcome niggling injuries.
Bailey Simonsson will start at fullback for Nicoll-Klokstad, with Michael Oldfield returning on the wing. Sebastian Kris replaces Rapana on the flank outside Nick Cotric.
Dunamis Lui will start in place of Soliola, with Emre Guler named on the bench, while Joe Tapine has been named on an extended bench as he looks to make his comeback from a rib injury.
Hudson Young will start in the back-row in the absence of Bateman, which sees JJ Collins given a shot from the bench.
"Sia Soliola has had a long season and played a lot of footy this year. He has played every game," Stuart said.
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"He and Charnze are the ones I'm managing the workload of. I've had some players get the opportunity to have some cortisone injections in some injuries, which gives them good time to recover.
"The boys will still be doing all of our training and making sure we're not losing anything in regards to our training loads."
Young's return to the starting side comes after an impressive showing off the bench against Cronulla last week which garnered 112 metres and 40 tackles.
Now Stuart is keen to see what he can produce over the full 80 in a game he believes is absolutely vital to win.
"I want to play him for 80 minutes and get some good game time in his system," Stuart said.
"Giving them more minutes this week will make them more comfortable when they have the opportunity to play over the next month.
"What this also does is, going into the semi-finals, it's allowing me to give some of our fringe players such as Emre Guler more minutes.
"It gives me a comfortable feeling knowing they've got minutes under their belt."
NRL ROUND 25
Saturday: Canberra Raiders v New Zealand Warriors at Canberra Stadium, 3pm. Tickets available from Ticketek.
Raiders squad: 1. Bailey Simonsson, 2. Michael Oldfield, 3. Jarrod Croker (C), 4. Nick Cotric, 5. Sebastian Kris, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Aidan Sezer, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Josh Hodgson (C), 10. Dunamis Lui, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Ryan Sutton. Interchange from: 14. Siliva Havili, 15. Emre Guler, 16. Corey Horsburgh, 17. JJ Collins, 18. Sam Williams, 19. Joe Tapine, 20. Jordan Rapana, 21. Tom Starling
Caden Helmers
Caden Helmers is a sports writer for The Canberra Times.
Caden Helmers is a sports writer for The Canberra Times.
