Melbourne trio Billy Slater, Will Chambers and Sisa Waqa all completed their final training run on Saturday and will line up for Sunday’s NRL grand final against Canterbury.
Slater was knocked around by a flu late in the week but trained strongly, while centre Chambers showed no complaints from his hamstring injury and winger Waqa appears to have no concerns over a knee injury that ruled him out of last week’s 40-12 win over Manly.
Dynamic fullback Slater is clearly the main concern for coach Craig Bellamy after he admitted to feeling sapped of energy after their Thursday training session, rendering him unable to fulfil media commitments and sparking fears he might miss the decider.
But assistant Kevin Walters put the minds of Storm fans at ease by confirming the Queensland and Australia representative will take the field.
“He was just a little bit of a hiccup on Thursday, so he’ll (be) … all fit to go,” Walters told reporters on Saturday.
“He was bad enough. I mean Billy’s a pretty honest fella and obviously you’ve got to be very cautious with your players at this time of year.
“He was little bit off with the flu and a bit of stuff but the doctors have got him right so he’ll be looking forward to playing on Sunday night.”
And while Walters also confirmed the availability of Waqa and Chambers, he made sure the mind games would be played right up until kick-off – hinting at some changes to Bellamy’s bench, which needs to be culled from eight to four by Sunday.
“Will Chambers is good with his hamstring so he’s going to be fine and Sisa Waqa will be good as well to take his place in the team so that’s good news for the Storm,” Walters said.
“Certainly Sisa, Will and Billy will be playing but as for the bench I think Craig’s got a few little ideas there that he’s going to test out.
“Craig doesn’t like surprises, we’re keeping things normal but there is a bit of flexibility there with our bench with how he wants to go.”