NRL: Warriors lock in Lillyman

It's only round five but it has already been a season of surprises for Jacob Lillyman.

With captain Simon Mannering a lock for the left side and Micheal Luck holding a mortgage on the 13 jumper, Lillyman probably expected to find himself in a dog fight with converted hooker Lewis Brown for game time in the Warriors' back row this season.

Instead he heads out on to ANZ Stadium tonight as one of the few experienced heads in an understrength pack.

With Luck nursing a broken finger and Mannering having suffered a recurrence of his pre-season hamstring injury, Lillyman shifts into his preferred position of lock.

A somewhat anonymous character in the past - think rugby's Reuben Thorne - Lillyman has changed his game this year. Previously a high workrate but low impact kind of guy, he is running harder, straighter lines.

He missed the first two games of the season with a foot injury but against the Broncos and Manly he turned in performances that were, by his previous standards, startling.

The change, he said, was a positive hangover from the club's attempt to turn him into a prop.

"I sort of surprised myself a bit that I could bend the line a bit more than when I was exclusively playing back row," he said.

"To be quite honest, if there is one thing playing front row did improve it is my running game. When I played there last year I guess I sort of said 'I've got to roll up my sleeves and get stuck in here'.

"And in the pre-season I worked a lot on the leg strength and power."

The result is Lillyman 2.0 - the straight-running, hard-to-handle edge-running back rower.

There is, he said, even more to come. The pre-season injury had robbed him of some of his new-found power, while a hamstring strain - yes, another - suffered against the Broncos had also slowed him down. With the foot injury having healed, he plans to get back into some serious gym work.

As well as the new mental approach, he has fine-tuned his physique and is already feeling the benefits.

"I've been pretty diligent with my diet and that sort of thing and put on a little bit of weight and lost body fat. That certainly helped me, especially in the pre-season games. I felt faster and feel like I am recovering a bit quicker.

"I think that will tell more in the coming weeks as I get match fitness under my belt."

Standing in for tireless tackler Luck, Lillyman has big shoes to fill tonight. But at least coach Ivan Cleary doesn't expect him to cover all of Luck's workload.

"The other guys have got to all basically lift their game a notch and work that little bit harder," Cleary said. "If we get that then you can cover for somebody like Lucky. It is hard to do it individually."

Brent Tate leads the side in Luck's absence, while Ben Matulino comes into the starting line-up to accommodate Lillyman's shift. Ukuma Tai'i will make his first appearance of the season off the bench.

The Warriors face a Bulldogs side sure to be stung by Monday night's heavy defeat by South Sydney. That result will have done the Warriors few favours, Lillyman said.

"When teams get touched up like that they seem to come back a lot more hungry and the next week is usually pretty tough for the team they are playing against. They are going to want to make amends so I guess we just have to meet fire with fire."

Hooker Ian Henderson was yesterday brought into the squad after centre Jerome Ropati was ruled out.

BULLDOGS
Luke Patten
Steve Turner
Josh Morris
Jamal Idris
Bryson Goodwin
Ben Roberts
Brett Kimmorley
Ben Hannant
Michael Ennis
Chris Armit
Yileen Gordon
Andrew Ryan (c)
David Stagg

WARRIORS
Wade McKinnon
Kevin Locke
Brent Tate (c)
Joel Moon
Bill Tupou
Lance Hohaia
James Maloney
Sam Rapira
Aaron Heremaia
Jesse Royal
Lewis Brown
Ben Matulino
Jacob Lillyman

Bulldogs: Tim Browne, Gary Warburton, Jarrad Hickey, Ben Barba, Danny Williams (one to be omitted).

Warriors: Ian Henderson, Jeremy Latimore, Russell Packer, Ukuma Ta'ai

ANZ Stadium, 9.35 tonight