Warriors assistant coach Slade Griffin told The Big League Podcast that Ford is not out of the running entirely.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll be disappointed, but it\u2019s only game one, and a lot can happen in a couple of weeks. So he\u2019s been really consistent all year. I have no doubt he\u2019ll be the same player for the next couple of weeks, and if he ever does get his opportunity, he\u2019ll be ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson Ford of the Warriors against the Dolphins. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Barnett played for New South Wales last year, but tore his ACL while backing up for the Warriors<\/a> against the Rabbitohs just four days after playing the State of Origin opener.<\/p>\n Griffin said he might be rested after playing Origin this year, but they will discuss it.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing this year, we\u2019ve got really good depth. We\u2019ve got some great young forwards who are NRL players now. We\u2019ve talked about their potential, but they\u2019ve arrived now, so they\u2019re playing awesome. <\/p>\n \u201cWe trust our bench and our forwards. Our starting pack can go after the game, and if they get tired at the 15-minute mark, we\u2019re happy to sub them and put on a Demitric [Vaimauga] or someone like that. So it gives us that flexibility, and we\u2019re just trusting our whole squad.\u201d<\/p>\n Star halfback Tanah Boyd suffered a suspected ACL rupture<\/a> in the dominant NRL Magic Round<\/a> win over the Broncos, likely ending his season.<\/p>\n Boyd will undergo scans in the coming days to determine the severity of the injury.<\/p>\n It meant Te Maire Martin steered the side<\/a> from halfback, setting up two tries and scoring one of his own.<\/p>\n Griffin said Boyd is devastated.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had his parents there last night, which helps. It\u2019s like getting kicked while he\u2019s down; his partner\u2019s just broken her leg as well, and they have a little fellow at home, so it\u2019s really tough for him at the moment.<\/p>\n \u201cBut look, the club will get around and support him. He\u2019s obviously played awesome footy all year. He\u2019s not the only person to do an ACL, so I know it\u2019s just a bump in the road for him, but yeah, in the short term, it\u2019s really sad.\u201d<\/p>\n Griffin admits Boyd\u2019s injury is a blow to their season, but has highlighted their depth in the halves.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s obviously tough, but the boys have dealt with adversity all year. We\u2019ve talked about it takes a squad to win it. Te Maire\u2019s done an awesome job there. Obviously, we still have Luke [Metcalf] for the rest of the year. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got great competition at training. Our reserve grade team gives us great practice throughout the week. There are quality guys missing out, and there are always things that happen throughout the season to help you deal with those injuries and those highs and lows.\u201d<\/p>\n Griffin championed Martin\u2019s efforts, having only recovered from a broken leg a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n \u201cHe came back and played lock at reserve grade and then had a bye, and then he trained all week at fullback just to give us that coverage with Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad out at the moment. <\/p>\n \u201cIt just shows he\u2019s a footy player, eh? He\u2019s been in the system a long time, so he knows our flow and all our plays and how to get the team around the park. But yeah, like he\u2019s been a bit of a Swiss army knife all year for us. He probably hasn\u2019t got as many reps at halfback with all the kicking and stuff, but he just slotted there and played footy, and we\u2019ll get him some more reps as we go forward, which will make him feel more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n Martin is set to continue at halfback against the Dragons, as Webster said Metcalf is unlikely to be available this week as he finalises his contract with St George Illawarra, which he will begin next year.<\/p>\n Nathan Limm<\/a> has been a journalist with Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald since 2020. He covered the Netball World Cup in Cape Town in 2023, hosts The Big League Podcast<\/a> and commentates rugby and netball for Gold Sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warriors assistant coach Slade Griffin told The Big League Podcast that Ford is not out of the running…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,1863,23748,8834,33339,55525,2082,6210,71,5269,30641,14731,111,139,3655,69,1118,49754,3800,24178,13120,17879,17155,23737,1240,213,1557,13672,18835,223,1491,3006],"class_list":["post-435246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-back","tag-backing","tag-big","tag-blues","tag-contender","tag-for","tag-ford","tag-from","tag-game","tag-jackson","tag-league","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nsw","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-origin","tag-podcast","tag-recall","tag-remain","tag-selection","tag-snub","tag-snubbed","tag-south","tag-sports","tag-squad","tag-state","tag-strong","tag-the","tag-wales","tag-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tanah Boyd of the Warriors suffered an injury during the NRL Round 11 match between the New Zealand Warriors and the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Sunday. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Wayde Egan, Te Maire Martin and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak all had standout games against the Broncos. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n