Goodwin pays high price for mistakes
Daniel MacDonald
Canberra speedster Bronx Goodwin was yesterday dumped from the Raiders NRL side after a string of mistake-riddled matches. Coach Neil Henry swapped Goodwin and injured fullback William Zillman for last weekend's Premier League stars Marshall Chalk and Brett Kelly.
Henry said Goodwin needed to reduce the number of errors he made on the field.
Chalk's call-up came after the versatile player scored a hat-trick of tries against the Manly Sea Eagles last weekend.
Kelly, who also scored a try in the 54-4 win at Brookvale Oval, won selection to play the Bulldogs on Sunday on the back of his good Premier League form.
"Bronx probably didn't have the happiest of nights," Henry said about Goodwin's performance in the Raiders' 28-22 loss to the Cowboys in Townsville on Saturday night.
"But Brett Kelly's been very good in Premier League for the last couple of weeks.
"We're rotating our outside backs around. We thought we'd give Brett an opportunity to come back into first grade.
"Bronx has had nine games now in first grade and we're rotating him back.
"He's a bit disappointed about that but he needs to go back and cut some of the mistake rate."
Chalk has not played fullback for more than 20 rounds and his selection at the back surprised him.
"It is pretty surprising especially the form that Bronx and Zilly had been showing but with the injury it gave me an opportunity so hopefully I can get back there and do a good job," the 26-year-old said.
Henry said he thought Chalk was more of a back-rower but was sure he would be comfortable in the new role.
Chalk said the constant changing of positions had made it hard for his game to improve.
"I've found it pretty hard over the last couple of months to find form and with a few injuries as well," he said.
"But you know hopefully now I can just play well and do well for the rest of the season.
"It's a tough sort of thing to play [utility role] and sometimes your form does suffer because you're being thrown around here, there and everywhere," he said.
"I'm happy to do it for the team. You've got to play your role in the 17 and if my role is as a utility then I just want to do a good job no matter what position I play."
Zillman will miss up to nine months after he ruptured his left anterior cruciate ligament against the Cowboys, requiring a knee reconstruction.
Captain Alan Tongue's broken nose has him under an injury cloud and the club finds out today whether he will be available to play.
The mercurial leader suffered his second broken nose of the season and had surgery under a general anesthetic late yesterday, where he had fluid drained from his nose.
"The surgeon's saying he should be right, he's done that before and played," Henry said.
"But we're expecting that he'll go in and be there overnight and be right to play Sunday afternoon.
"At the moment he can't breathe through his nose at all so it's quite difficult for him out on the field."
The Bulldogs named prop Mark O'Meley to make his return from a hamstring strain.
Centre Willie Tonga is on track for a miraculous recovery from a rib injury, named to play despite being originally diagnosed for a four-week lay-off.
Back-rower Brad Morrin is out and will plead guilty when he faces the NRL judiciary tonight on a charge of biting Parramatta centre Timana Tahu.
SUNDAY
Canberra Raiders v Bulldogs, At Telstra Stadium, 2pm. TV Time: Live on Fox Sports3
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/de...league&story_id=1033824&category=rugby+league