He's been sidelined by injuries for most of his two years at the Knights but rookie fullback Bailey Hodgson is primed to push his claims for a spot in the NRL side when Newcastle face Cronulla in a trial at Gosford on Friday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Knights take on the Sharks in what is the second match of the NRL's new Pre-Season Challenge, a tournament with a $100,000 prize set up to make trial games more appealing.
Knights coach Adam O'Brien expressed little interest in the competition on Thursday, saying he simply wants to assess the plethora of talent in his 28-man side and see his players implement what they've worked on over summer.
"The blokes on the scoreboard can have the night off as far as I'm concerned," O'Brien said of the importance of a win.
Newcastle will start a strong side featuring a host of first-grade regulars, but they are likely to get limited minutes in the first half before fringe players come on.
But the coach is especially keen to watch Hodgson.
The 20-year-old Englishman has had a horrid run of injuries since joining the club, restricting him to only a few lower-grade games.
But after a full summer of training, the highly fancied prospect - who in 2020 made his Super League debut for Castleford just 10 days after turning 18 - is ready to hit the ground running.
He has been given a chance to impress in the No.1 jersey with Lachlan Miller not named to play against his old club a week after joining Newcastle.
Asked if Hodgson was a chance to challenge Miller to be fullback in the season-opener against the Warriors next month, O'Brien said: "Let's hope so."
"I'm really, really excited to watch Bailey.
"It's been a horrible couple of years for the poor young fella," O'Brien said of Hodgson, off contract at the end of this season.
"He's trained really well, is battle-hardened, has put some size on and I think every player and staff member is excited to watch him go round."
O'Brien said Miller, 28, who the Knights have signed for three years, could have played in the trial but he preferred to give him more time to adjust to the club.
"It's been a long process for him and his wife, they just got a house yesterday," he said.
"I just think there's no need to rush him. It's a long season and I want him to get used to his teammates. If you play him ... it would have affected the work he did this week.
"Once I ruled the game out, he's got a solid week in with the other guys and he'll get another solid part early next week because there's no game to recover from."
The fullback position Miller is expected to fill has been vacated by skipper Kalyn Ponga, who is shifting to five-eighth. Ponga suffered a calf injury last month which ruled him out of Saturday's All Stars match and tonight's trial, but he was back training on Thursday.
"He could have played," O'Brien said. "Watching that session out there, that he did aside from the group, he's going well.
"I anticipate he will play some decent minutes against Parramatta [next week]."
O'Brien said the tournament and its prize money played no part in the side he picked.
"Jackson Hastings missed the last part of the year through an injury, so playing him and [Jayden] Brailey was probably because they lacked a bit of footy last year," he said.
"It's good for the 'Safs' [Daniel and Jacob Saifiti] to play. I don't anticipate they'll play a lot, but for middle forwards getting their timing right is important. The rest of them, I had blokes banging my door down demanding to play, so that's a good sign."
With plenty of names on the 28-man team list that fans won't be familiar with, O'Brien nominated Oryn Keeley and Thomas Cant as two players coming through the ranks who had impressed him over summer.
"They've done a really, really good job in multiple spots," he said.
"They train well beyond their years. They've handled everything, including the camp we went on - they really shone in that. Another guy is young Riley Jones, who will be coming off the bench late in the game. I want to have a look at him coming out of dummy-half."
Newcastle play at 5.55pm ahead of Manly and South Sydney's trial at the same venue.
MORE IN SPORT:
To see more stories and read today's paper download the Newcastle Herald news app here.
