KEY POINTS:
No Cameron Smith, no Greg Inglis or Dallas Johnson, no Matt King, Brett White or Ryan Hoffman, no Billy Slater, no Michael Crocker and no Antonio Kaufusi.
The Melbourne Storm will be at their weakest in terms of NRL experience when they come to Mt Smart Stadium to play the Warriors on Sunday. They have called six players out of their Brisbane Norths feeder side, including former Kiwi Matt Rua, 29, who had a three-year hiatus in his career after playing 100 games including the 1999 grand final win for the Storm.
Hooker Smith, five-eighth Inglis and lock Johnson were all named for Queensland in State of Origin II yesterday while centre King, prop White and back rower Hoffman were called up for New South Wales for next Wednesday's clash. Slater has a fractured cheekbone, Crocker a shoulder injury, Kaufusi a knee tear.
The Storm will field a team containing five Kiwis - former Junior Kiwis Sika Manu and Sam Tagatese starting at centre and second row respectively - while Rua and 2006 Kiwi prop Adam Blair join regular bench forward Jeff Lima on the interchange.
Manu and Will Chambers, who takes the left wing outside him, will play just their third NRL game. Tagatese has seven games, James Aubusson, who starts at hooker, has six.
Brisbane Norths is running eighth of 11 teams in the Queensland Cup, with four wins from 11, so the replacements are not enjoying the form of the Storm, who lead the NRL table. Clint Newton will debut for Melbourne after being granted a mid-season release from the Knights a fortnight ago.
The Warriors, meanwhile, contribute Steve Price to the Queensland camp and lose wing Michael Crockett to a two-game ban, after he admitted a high tackle charge following his send-off for a shot on Bulldog Cameron Phelps at the weekend.
Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah issued a statement last night stating that the club did not regard Crockett's dismissal as warranted and his removal had undue impact on the outcome.
They believed that the incident should have been put on report and allowed to go through the judiciary process. The club wanted to appeal the charge against Crockett but did not want to risk having his two-week suspension extended should they lose.
Ruben Wiki leads the side after being rested from the Bulldogs game because of a niggling injury last week and Manu Vatuvei goes back on the right wing.
Grant Rovelli comes back to halfback because Jerome Ropati has an ankle injury, Michael Witt shifting out to five-eighth.
