Zeb stakes claim to tackle Broncos
BY ROBERT DILLON
ZEB Taia is confident he can return from a month on the sidelines and slot straight into Newcastle's starting pack for tomorrow night's make-or-break clash with Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium.
Taia has not played since tearing the medial ligament in his left knee against Parramatta on August 4 but trained strongly yesterday and has received a medical clearance to make his comeback.
The 23-year-old workhorse has not been named in Newcastle's official squad, but coach Brian Smith will be sorely tempted to pick him on the strength of his form since joining the club from the Eels midway through last season.
Asked yesterday whether he could handle playing from the kick-off against Brisbane, Taia replied: "Definitely.
"I should be able to do the job.
"I've only missed four games and I think my fitness is still good enough to handle it.
"But it will be up to Brian whether to start me or use me off the bench.
"He might want to stick with the same team, because the boys played really well last week [against Melbourne] and it's hard to change a winning team."
Taia's prospects of playing against the Broncos will hinge on how he recovers from yesterday's training session, at which he asked teammates Richie Fa'aoso, Danny Wicks and Marvin Karawana to tackle him heavily.
"I've got to let Brian know tomorrow morning how I feel," Taia said yesterday. "I wanted the boys to knock me around a bit, so I did a bit of contact work just to test the knee out.
"I thought it went well but we'll see how I feel in the morning, whether it pulls up sore."
Smith said it would be hard to ignore Taia's claims if, as expected, he confirmed his availability today.
"Particularly because of what he's done earlier in the year," Smith said.
"Probably at the point where he got injured, he was at a peak.
"He's continued to improve throughout the season.
"But we'll just see tomorrow who's available and how they bounce back from training today."
Another selection factor for Smith is the availability of Matt Hilder who was last night cleared of a spitting charge by the NRL judiciary.
Taia strung together 29 consecutive first-grade games for the Knights before his injury and has been Newcastle's most consistent forward this year.
His value is underlined by the fact that, unlike most of his fellow forwards, he is yet to start any of his 19 matches in 2008 on the interchange bench.
Smith would face a tough call on who to leave out should he decide to rush Taia back.
The Knights have already named an 18-man squad, and other than skipper Danny Buderus (torn biceps), all their frontline forwards are fit.
Smith admitted it would be a challenge for the Knights to play with the same intensity that they showed last weekend against Melbourne.
"That is a concern, but that's what play-off footy is," Smith said. "If we can't do it, we don't deserve to be there.
"The thing is that we're going to have to do it the week after, if we're going to be a play-off team, and the week after that, and the week after that.
"That's what high-quality NRL teams do, week in, week out during the season.
"But particularly at this time of year, it generally goes up a cog or two.
"Last week showed we could do it and find that level, but finding it again and again is the new challenge."
Smith said Newcastle would not be judging Brisbane on their patchy recent form, highlighted by last week's 36-22 win against the last-placed Bulldogs.
"I didn't think they needed to get anywhere near their best in the game I saw last week," he said.
"But they've been a lot like other teams, through the year.
"They've been excellent when they needed to be and shown a few chinks in their armour as well.
"You could say that about us as well."
Link
