KEY POINTS:
Liam Foran thinks he's a patient man.
That patience was tested during his time with the Melbourne Storm, where he was back-up to Cooper Cronk, the 2007 Australian halfback and 2006 Dally M Halfback of the Year.
It might be tested again this season at the Warriors.
When the 20-year-old was signed last August, he might well have pictured himself as the starting halfback in 2009.
The Warriors were still struggling to find a reliable halves combination and utility Nathan Fien had been granted permission to talk with UK Super League clubs after he had been told he was not in the club's plans beyond 2009.
Before Foran had even started packing up his belongings, however, the landscape changed.
The first shift came in November, with news Stacey Jones was coming out of retirement to try to add to the 238 games he played for the Warriors between 1995 and 2005.
The next one came with Nathan Fien's late-season form in helping the Warriors not only make the top eight but also run deep into the playoffs.
Fien backed that up for his adopted country at the World Cup, where he picked up consecutive man-of-the-match awards on the road to the final.
Last week the Warriors refused to let him take up a three-year deal to join Huddersfield, realising they would be asinine to let him leave this close to the start of the season.
Very quickly, Foran found himself in an ever-lengthening queue.
Add in Michael Witt, Lance Hohaia, Joel Moon and Isaac John, and the Warriors suddenly have more options in the halves than they know what to do with.
It's the type of headache coaches love to have but one that has players, despite their public utterances that they enjoy the challenge, often with their head in their hands.
Coach Ivan Cleary has said that everyone will get a chance in the trials before the season kicks off for the Warriors against the Eels on March 14.
If he is worried about his chances this season, Foran isn't showing it, even though he has signed only a one-year deal with an option for 2010.
He talks about wanting to learn his craft from his more experienced team-mates and that Jones' decision to come out of retirement was a good thing for him.
Jones was Foran's "idol" when growing up and he had season tickets at Mt Smart when the Little General first came on the scene in 1995.
Deep down, though, you wonder if he's being a little disingenuous.
Foran got only three chances with the Storm last season, and only then off the interchange bench as a dummy half option when Cameron Smith was on State of Origin duty. He wants to make his mark in the game.
"I am here to play first grade," Foran insists. "I want to play first grade. When I first signed, I thought I had a great chance of doing that.
"I don't really know [where I fit in the pecking order now]. I am just like the other boys. We are all chasing a starting spot and everyone is doing what they can to get one - that's what I am going to do.
"I was approached by a few clubs [last year] and decided that the
Warriors was the best option. It wasn't necessarily the best deal but it was the opportunity I was looking for.
"I don't believe I will have limited chances this year.
"I'm going out to play good footy and things will happen."
Plenty of good happened for Foran as a teenager. Born in Auckland, he moved with his family to Sydney as a 10-year-old and he was picked up by the Storm when playing for feeder club North Sydney Bears.
He also played in an Australian Schoolboys team alongside the likes of Israel Folau and Mitchell Pearce for a tour of the UK, something which courted controversy later across the Tasman when he played a leading role at five-eighth in the Junior Kiwis' 24-22 defeat of their Australian counterparts in Wellington in 2007.
"I was going to an Australian school so I was allowed to play for Australia," he says.
"At the time I wanted to try to get my name out there as a young bloke and make as many rep teams as I could.
"I have always said I am desperate to play for the black and white and that will never change but at that time it worked for me - I went overseas to England and was with a lot of my good school mates. It was a great experience and I learned a lot."
Foran still wants to learn. He is only 20. But he also wants to play and it's not yet clear how often he will get to do that.
