As well as Walker, Brandon Smith (both ACL ruptures) and Victor Radley (fractured scapula), the Roosters will also be without Dominic Young (calf) and Lindsay Collins (rested) in their annual grudge match against South Sydney on Friday.

Robinson is adamant both Young and Collins are not in any doubt for week one of the finals. But their absence brings former Wallaby Nawaqanitawase and highly rated, 198cm, 19-year-old prop De La Salle Va’a in for keenly awaited NRL debuts.

Nawaqanitawase’s fast-track from playing rugby sevens at the Paris Olympics to the NRL has taken just three NSW Cup games, in which he has notched 16 tackle busts, thrown 10 offloads and averaged 173 running metres while also impressing under the high ball.

Albeit at a lower level against semi-professional players, Robinson said the 23-year-old’s instinctive displays made Nawaqanitawase’s call-up a no-brainer, despite publicly saying that he wouldn’t play first grade until 2025 in a bid to take pressure off him.

“He’s a really humble, happy guy,” Robinson said of his star recruit. “But when he first started, there was also that belief in him that I downplayed quite a bit. I said ‘I’m not going to restrict you’. I’m going to say that publicly so there’s not the pressure that I don’t want.

“He said he was confident in his ability as well and that’s what we’ve seen.

“But you know someone’s football talent [from] the way they move and run, but then you’re looking for their instincts when it comes to the movements of six tackles, how do they move based on the kicker, how are they going to adapt to the play-the-ball, all of those things.

“You watch them play and they make the decision for you. They move in a certain way, they make decisions in a certain way and they’re saying ‘I’m ready to play’.”

Dragons twin to leave club in Flanagan clean out

Adam Pengilly

Shane Flanagan’s Dragons clean out will include the exit of another regular first-grader with outside back Max Feagai to leave the club.

The off-contract Feagai, who has featured in 13 NRL matches this season, will split with twin brother Mat and leave St George Illawarra after their final-round clash with the Raiders on Saturday.

Flanagan had hinted the Dragons wanted to negotiate with Max to stay beyond this season, but it is expected the 23-year-old will be included as part of the club’s departing players tribute at Kogarah.

Max Feagai has attracted interest from NRL rivals and was only named on the reserves list for the Canberra clash, where both teams are hoping for a miracle to make the finals.

The winner of the Dragons-Raiders clash will squeeze into the top eight if, in the unlikeliest of scenarios, the Knights and Dolphins play out a 90-minute draw in Newcastle on Sunday.

Melbourne Storm to receive time-honoured JJ Giltinan Shield … before training

Christian Nicolussi

Melbourne’s dominance across 27 rounds of the NRL regular season will be acknowledged when they receive the time-honoured JJ Giltinan Shield – before their captain’s run.

Storm officials said their first preference would have been to receive the precious cargo after they secured first place with victory over the Dolphins last Saturday week at AAMI Park.

But rather than wait until after full-time at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday night, where there will only be a small sprinkling of Melbourne supporters, the Storm asked the NRL to hold a low-key ceremony with players and staff before training. NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo will fly south for the presentation.

The Panthers received the JJ Giltinan Shield at BlueBet Stadium last year in front of thousands of fans, and the year before that asked the NRL if they could receive the silverware in the penultimate round because their final game was in Townsville.

“They usually give you the shield on the night you win the minor premiership, but I guess the NRL never envisaged the Panthers losing to the Raiders earlier that day,” Storm co-owner and chairman Matt Tripp said.

“Nobody anticipated us winning the minor premiership with three rounds to go.

“It would have been great to celebrate with our fans and members that night, but it didn’t work out that way.

“We are still delighted Andrew is making the trip down on Wednesday to acknowledge what has been a great season for us thus far. We didn’t want to be waiting around after the game Thursday night in Brisbane.

“It’s still nice we get to celebrate something special, and it’s probably a good time without the distraction of a game.”

The Storm played in Townsville last weekend, and play Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday night.

Some of the greatest scenes in the game have featured players carrying the shield around the ground after grand final wins. The JJ Giltinan Shield was awarded to minor premiers from 1997.

The Storm receive $200,000 for finishing first past the post, with Tripp not prepared to buy into the ongoing debate about whether that prizemoney should be higher. The club has now finished first six times, including 2011, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2024.

Tripp preferred a discussion about who earned what during the NRL finals. As it stands, the NRL collects all gate takings through September, with a club like Melbourne limited to what they can earn for all their hard work through the year. A full house at AAMI Park generates north of $500,000 for the Storm.

Melbourne will host a qualifying final, most likely on Saturday week, and should they win, host a preliminary final on the Friday night, which is a public holiday in the Victorian capital because of the AFL grand final the following day.

Storm turn fixture woes into minor premiership win

Roy Ward

When Melbourne Storm looked over their draw for the 2024 season, a tilt at the NRL minor premiership would have been the furthest from their thoughts.

The club wasn’t happy to have seven home games packed into the first 11 rounds and just one home clash in the last five weeks of the season.

The worst of that stint came in the final two rounds of season with a short turnaround into an away game in Townsville followed by a final-round clash with Brisbane Broncos in Brisbane on Friday night.

Yet somehow the Storm have overcome those hurdles and a injury disruptions to Cameron Munster (13 games) and Xavier Coates (12 games) to claim their sixth JJ Giltinan Shield as minor premiers.

This latest honour comes as the Storm move to 14 consecutive seasons in the finals. Twelve of them have ended with finishes in the top four.

The lack of a late-season home game meant the Storm opted to have the trophy presented inside an empty AAMI Park on Wednesday with just the players, club staff, some media and a coffee cart brought in for the occasion as NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo handed over the shield.

Storm chief executive Justin Rodski couldn’t help but add a “good question” when Abdo was asked if the league’s planners erred by not making sure Melbourne had a home game in the last two rounds.

“If only the draw was that simple,” Abdo said.

Soward and Saints to part ways

Dan Walsh

The Dragons have told NRLW coach and former NSW Origin star Jamie Soward he won’t be retained beyond the 2024 season.

Soward was informed on Monday of the club’s decision by chief executive Ryan Webb, and it is unclear at this stage if he will see out the remainder of the season.

He declined to comment when contacted by this masthead but indicated he is keen to continue coaching next season and wished a Dragons playing group stacked with young talent nothing but the best.

Soward put his hand up to take over as NSW women’s State of Origin coach in June after incumbent Kylie Hilder oversaw a third loss in four years, raising the prospect of a shake-up pending a NSWRL board review.

“I want to interview if there’s a chance,” Soward, who worked as a NSW assistant in 2022, told AAP at the time. “I’d love to coach the Sky Blues.”

Soward, who won a premiership with St George Illawarra in 2010, has coached the Dragons NRLW team since 2021, but the team has struggled since the competition expanded to 10 teams in 2023.

Under Soward’s leadership, the team played in the 2021 grand final, where they lost 4-16 to the Roosters, and reached the semi-finals in 2022 where they lost 30-6 to the Knights.

The Dragons missed the finals series in 2023, when they finished seventh on the ladder after just three wins for the season.

In 2024, the club have posted just two wins so far with three weeks left of the regular season, but they thrashed beat the Eels 42-14 last weekend and stunned two-time premiers Newcastle with a 18-10 victory earlier in the season.

Whitehead hit with lengthy ban for season-ending tackle on Smith

Billie Eder

Canberra’s Elliott Whitehead has been hit with a lengthy ban and up to $5000 in fines for three separate incidents on Sunday, including a hip-drop tackle on Sydney Roosters’ hooker Brandon Smith that is feared to have ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

Whitehead, who is off to Super League next year, has been slapped with a minimum three-game suspension for the dangerous contact, along with a minimum $3600 in fines for tripping James Tedesco and contrary conduct on Angus Crichton.

The Raiders veteran was sent to the sin bin on two separate occasions for the incidents involving Smith and Crichton in the Raiders’ 14-12 victory over the Roosters.

The charge means Whitehead will almost certainly miss his final game as a Raider after nine seasons at the club, with the 34-year-old off to England next year, unless he can get the ruling overturned at the NRL judiciary.

Whitehead’s suspension is compounded by a season-ending fractured cheekbone and broken nose for Raiders fullback Jordan Rapana, who suffered the injury during a collision with Tedesco in the early minutes of the match. Rapana is also off to play in England next year.

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