Newcastle Knights coach Wayne Bennett will decide over the next 12 days just who will play five-eighth in the absence of injured playmaker Jarrod Mullen.
Kurt Gidley and Darius Boyd are two options for Bennett based on Saturday's trial match while Michael Dobson is another, with all three players impressing in Saturday’s 34-14 trial win over the Canberra Raiders in Tamworth.
The supercoach says he will use training drills this week to help him select the player to wear the No.6 jumper alongside halfback Tyrone Roberts in the opening round against Penrith on March 8.
“It’s a big decision that we’ve got to make, so I’m not sure where we are going with that right now,” Bennett said on Mullen's replacement.
“But I was happy enough with everyone who either played half or five-eighth.
“I haven’t made my final decision on it, so I’ll just have a look at some video and go back to training next week.
“We’ve still got a week until we play (round one), so we’ll do some training drills and see how they go.”
Bennett made a number of pre-match positional changes on Saturday, naming Darius Boyd at five-eighth and Dane Gagai at fullback.
The veteran mentor reveals he was always going to select Boyd in the No.6 jumper, a move reminiscent to his days at Brisbane when he shifted Darren Lockyer and transformed him from the game's best fullback to the game's best five-eighth.
"I thought he (Darius) was pretty confident," he says.
"He was always playing there when Jarrod got injured last week.
"Not that we knew he (Jarrod) was badly injured, we just thought he had a hamstring problem and would be out for four or six weeks.
"But I picked Darius earlier in the week to play that role, it was a good change for him."
Asked how Boyd felt about the new role at five-eighth, Bennett said his star player was more than happy to take up the challenge.
"Yeah he was looking forward to it," he confirms.
"It’s a new challenge for him and he was very much supportive of of what we were doing."
Gidley was another player who impressed against Canberra in Tamworth.
The skipper played the final quarter of Saturday’s trial at five-eighth in his return match from a foot injury.
Bennett couldn't have been happier to see Gidley back on the field after a number of injury setbacks in recent seasons.
"It was wonderful actually," he enthuses.
"I was really pleased for him. He thought he was on track to start the season, but he got ahead of himself a bit.
"We didn’t want to give him too much time and to just get a little bit of confidence for him so he is ready to start the season."
Bennett was also happy with Gagai's effort when he went back to fullback in the first half against Canberra.
"Yeah I thought he was pretty sharp looking," he says.
"He wanted the ball and positionally he made the game his own at times."
