A huge opportunity awaits young wrecking ball forward Ata Mariota, with the Canberra Raiders' second-row injuries opening the door for him to cement a spot in the starting lineup in the coming weeks.
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Mariota was named to start in place of Zac Hosking for the Raiders' Saturday night showdown against the Broncos in Brisbane, with Simi Sasagi added to the bench as the only other change from last weekend's squad.
It will be just the sixth start for Mariota since making his Raiders debut last season, and only his second NRL start in the back-row.
The 22-year-old - who has drawn comparisons to Josh Papali'i - has mainly featured on the bench playing behind a stacked roster of Raiders forwards led by 'Papa' and Joe Tapine, but Hosking and Elliott Whitehead's injury woes present a chance to play more minutes than ever.
Hosking dislocated his shoulder in last weekend's win over the Titans.
The promising off-season recruit from the Panthers will meet with a specialist on Wednesday to determine if he requires immediate surgery or not. Without surgery, Hosking is still expected to miss six to eight weeks and longer if it is needed.
Meanwhile, Whitehead's calf injury is keeping the veteran skipper sidelined until at least round eight.
Against the Titans, Mariota had his best performance of the year so far with a try assist, three tackle breaks and two offloads to go with 88 total metres off the bench.
Now Mariota will aim to build on that form in the back-row at Lang Park - playing the same position Papali'i did when he first got a starting spot with the Raiders back in 2011.
Badger axed after Raiders-Titans controversy
Following a turbulent fallout from the Raiders-Titans match, the NRL axed the referee at the centre of a war of words between coaches Des Hasler and Ricky Stuart.
Kasey Badger was demoted from her on-field role for round seven, and is now set to be a touch judge in the Dragons-Warriors game on Friday before taking a place in the bunker for the Raiders-Broncos game on Saturday.
NRL head of football Graham Annesley on Monday conceded Badger missed a crucial offside call that should have gone against the Canberra Raiders in golden point on Sunday night.
It would have led to a penalty goal opportunity right in front of the uprights for the Titans.
Instead, Badger ruled Chevy Stewart was onside when he charged down a Kieran Foran field-goal attempt which would have seen the Gold Coast Titans snatch an unlikely comeback win.
The missed offside call against Stewart - and a lopsided six-again count - prompted Hasler to describe Badger's performance as "pretty poor" post-game.
Stuart hit back in his press conference, praising Badger while saying Hasler was "on another planet" over his criticism.
"I feel sorry for Kasey the way they were in her face all night ... she had to withstand a lot of pressure," Stuart said.
The coaching battle - which also included a heated confrontation in the Canberra Stadium tunnel - inadvertently highlighted many more errors in Badger's performance.
Annesley revealed in his weekly briefing that the Titans should have been penalised 28 more times for 10-metre compliance infringements, while the Raiders should have been hit with 10 more themselves.
"The referee coaching staff will go through these that were conceded by the Titans and Raiders and do a full assessment and whether they should have been awarded or not," Annesley said.
Annesley pointed out the other missed penalties as an example of why the Titans shouldn't complain about the charge-down involving Stewart at a crucial period of the match, but it also sparked debate about referees trying to manage the game rather than enforce the rules.
"It's an imperfect game, played by imperfect players, controlled by imperfect referees and they won't get everything. Although we'd like them to get these calls right, it's just human error," Annesley said.
Badger was subjected to a barrage of fan abuse online - some with a sexist undertone - after the nail-biting match.
NRL Round Seven
Saturday: Brisbane Broncos v Canberra Raiders at Lang Park, 7.35pm
Raiders squad: 1. Chevy Stewart, 2. James Schiller, 3. Matt Timoko, 4. Sebastian Kris, 5. Xavier Savage, 6. Ethan Strange, 7. Jamal Fogarty, 8. Josh Papali'i, 9. Danny Levi, 10. Joe Tapine (c), 11. Hudson Young, 12. Ata Mariota, 13. Morgan Smithies. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. Simi Sasagi, 16. Trey Mooney, 17. Pasami Saulo. Reserves: 18. Kaeo Weekes, 19. Emre Guler, 20. Zac Woolford, 21. Nick Cotric, 22. Peter Hola