League: Prodigy and coach prepare to face off

Benji Marshall's skills are viewed with awe by teammates and opposition alike. Photo / Getty Images

Wests Tigers and Australian coach Tim Sheens is in charge of the most outrageous talent in the NRL, and next week his job will be to crush it.

We're talking about Benji Marshall here, the Tigers and Kiwi playmaker, who will be forever remembered as the man who grabbed that Hail Mary pass from Billy Slater and sent the Kiwis on their way to the World Cup crown in Brisbane last November.

It was also the moment which led to the propelling of Sheens, the much-admired and longest-serving coach in the NRL, into the Kangaroo hot seat in place of the defeated, cantankerous, Ricky Stuart.

Barring a major Kiwi selection shock, Marshall and Sheens will line up on opposite sides on Friday night, when the Kiwis and Kangaroos return to the scene of the World Cup final.

"Benji told me that I'll only have one game [as Australian coach]," Sheens told the Herald this week.

"That will be this game, because he said they will beat us by so much that Australia will sack me. He's already put the acid on me. I hold my powder dry in those circumstances."

What an intriguing prospect.

Marshall might be one of those players who is almost as tricky to coach as he is to coach against.

His club teammate Keith Galloway labelled Marshall a freak this week, after he rose above a series of kicking errors to turn on the miracles and inspire a win over Newcastle.

To outward appearances, Marshall's teammates may often be as confused as to his next move as those charged with stopping him.

Just one of his twist-and-feint moves might be the envy of friend and foe, yet Marshall can string four or five together in a row as he waltzes acrossfield creating holes and havoc.

He can also fire the ball out of his hands as if it was rocket-propelled. Legs, arms, ball, torso, head - they seem able to go in all different directions at once.

Galloway may see Marshall as a freak, but Sheens bristles a little when you suggest he is in charge of a talent that is unique in his 25 years of top grade coaching.

"I've coached heaps of them," he says, nominating Greg Alexander and Laurie Daley as two players who had similar spontaneity.

The trick is to learn how and when to use the gifts, and to hone them on the practice field.

The forced errors are reluctantly accepted, the fundamental ones not so. Although Sheens says Marshall is not as mistake-prone as some imagine, and says that all playmakers run the risk of committing errors.

Marshall is not only still coming to grips with playing the percentages, however, but having to do it in a new position for his club.

Sheens switched Marshall from five-eighths to halfback this year, so he could have more influence on the game and take the ball more often.

Against Newcastle, he handled 58 times, which is twice what a five-eighths might do. It remains to be seen if Kiwi coach Stephen Kearney will play Marshall at No 7 or No 6.

What isn't in question however is the lanky playmaker's courage.

Sheens says: "He is very brave. He has had to come back from a series of smashed shoulders and operations. It is not easy physically, let alone psychologically, dealing with a multi-injury to a particular area of the body.

"I saw Mal Meninga break an arm four times and he wore a guard on it for many years and was a bit ginger on it for a while.

"It takes time to rebuild confidence and I see that in Benji. It is very brave to come out each week and risk your body, the pain, your career in what is a very heavy contact sport.

"There may be more contact in certain positions but there is nowhere to hide on the field. Everyone has to be prepared to risk injury by making contact with big men running at you hard, and when you get to representative level they are even bigger."

From the spectators' point of view, there is no more magical sight in all of football than Marshall setting off on one of his runs, or firing out passes you can barely see.

His club mates have marvelled at both his competitiveness and strength - he is the club's champion vertical leaper which isn't a surprise, but also wins tug-o-war strongman contests.

A key question for the Kiwis, to which Sheens cannot supply a definitive answer, is whether such a mercurial player is an advantage in a representative side or a liability.

Whereas the Wests Tigers have a season in which to get used to Marshall, the Kiwis get a few days. To paraphrase Sheens, it is difficult anyway, bringing players from many different clubs together in a hurry.

Marshall and teammates might click for long enough periods to blow the Aussies away, and then again, he might lead the Kiwis down blind alleys.

If Friday's test is to be won with off-the-cuff excellence though, Marshall is the man, and if there is a coach who knows how best to corral the brilliant beast, then it is Sheens.

"I'm looking forward to coaching against the Kiwis and also against the kid - it's a real challenge for us all and something new for him and me," says Sheens, before adding a final nod to Marshall's unpredictability.

"He'll know what to expect from me - I'll have a fair idea what to expect from him."