Steve Deane: Inu - to play him or sack him?

Warriors player Krisnan Inu and Steve Matai (right). Photo / Getty Images

Play him or sack him. There's no room for anything in between with Krisnan Inu.

These words are written with the heaviest of hearts.

Inu is a freak of the highest order. You could count on Martin Guptill's toes the number of players I'd rather watch in NRL.

The nonchalant way he plucks bombs from the sky; the artful rings he runs around people; the way the ball sticks to his fingers like gravity doesn't apply - things of beauty. Throw in the fact that he doesn't seem to conform to the increasingly prescriptive norms of a pro athlete - not to mention that exotic name - and Krisnan Nevada Inu becomes just about my favourite player in the game.

But having such a talented player mincing around the NSW Cup for the Vulcans isn't doing anyone any good. If he's not first choice, Inu's absence becomes the source of a fairly sizeable second guess.

Take debutant Ben Henry's missed tackle on Steve Matai last Sunday. The moment Matai treated Henry like gum stuck to his shoe, the obvious question became - would Inu have missed that tackle?

The answer was an equally obvious "hell no". Inu is experienced enough to know that he needed to get up in Matai's face, and good enough to pull off the tackle.

The instant comparison with Inu wasn't fair on Henry, an emerging talent who should be free to find his way in the game without Inu's shadow hovering over him. It also served to undermine new coach Brian McClennan's selections.

"His first big clanger as Warriors coach," was how one colleague put it.

That's debatable. Not shipping Inu out of town during the off-season might be more accurate on that score. Instead McClennan opted to give a player who has fallen out of favour with just about every coach to cross his curiously inanimate path a chance to prove himself over the off-season.

Based on the squad that faced Manly, the result of that largess appears to have been Inu proving he deserved to be the club's fourth-choice centre.

Those picked ahead of him include two uncapped rookies and a bloke who missed an entire season with a busted knee.

There's no mystery with Inu any more. Coaches love his talent but are driven borderline insane by his work ethic. By preaching the mantra to one and all that hard work will be rewarded, they back themselves into a corner where the choices become to either drop Inu, or admit to the rest of the squad they were only kidding about that hard work guff.

Ivan Cleary, Steve Kearney - who played a teenage Kieran Foran out of position ahead of Inu on the 09 Four Nations tour - and now McClennan have all gone for option one.

While this may all seem a little redundant if McClennan inserts Inu into his line-up on Monday night and Inu responds with his traditional blinder, the coach will most certainly have his patience with Inu pushed to the limit again at some point this season.

Inu is the conundrum that just won't go away - unless he's made to.

Plenty of footy fans just want to watch the guy play. If it's not going to be for the Warriors, then hopefully the club will make a tough call and suggest he play somewhere else.