Wests Tigers veteran Benji Marshall backs Luke Brooks to fight for his spot in the team after the 25-year-old was dropped to the bench for Friday night’s win over Brisbane.
Marshall was in the same place following a round four loss to Gold Coast when coach Michael Maguire made the bold call to drop the 35-year-old club favourite for four matches.
Brooks played just 16 minutes from the bench as the Tigers thrashed the Broncos and on Monday trained alongside Marshall in the halves, taking turns with Billy Walters.
While Maguire is unlikely to change a winning combination in Marshall and Walters to face Parramatta on Thursday, Brooks needs to stay ready.
For Marshall, the four weeks he spent sidelined gave him the chance to rediscover his hunger to prove himself.
“When you get dropped you go and look at all the things you do well and all the things you need to work on,” he said on Monday.
“I think it was the best thing that’s happened to me sometimes.
“You go back, you find a bit of hunger and every day at training you’ve got to go and prove yourself again.
“I thought I found something over that four weeks in me that I needed to find and that’s to bring it out on the weekend.
“It only takes one bad performance and you can be in the same spot, so you need to pull it out every weekend.”
Maguire’s big calls to axe star players has sent a message to the rest of the playing group that certain standards need to be met each week.
Fullback Adam Doueihi has heard the warning loud and clear and says the entire playing group is prepared to keep raising their standards to end an eight-year finals drought in 2020.
Backing up their 48-0 demolition of the Broncos against the Eels on Thursday is the first step.
“It’s huge. It’s something we’ve been saying since COVID hit and since that Titans game we’ve had a big wake up call at this club,” Doueihi said.
“It’s not only Madge as a coach, but as a whole organisation and a playing group, we’ve had enough of seeing this club not play finals footy for so long.”
Meanwhile, in-form hooker Harry Grant was absent from training on Monday after being tested for COVID-19 with the club awaiting results before he can return to the group.
Grant is in the process of moving house, and while not presenting any symptoms, is required to be tested under the NRL’s biosecurity protocols.