With South Sydney prodigy Luke Keary ruled out for four to five months following surgery on a ruptured pectoral muscle, attacking sensation Dylan Walker looks to have earned a shot at a playmaking role.
Keary was one of the two major casualties of the recent Dick Smith NRL Auckland Nines tournament, along with Cowboys fullback Lachlan Coote who will miss six months with an ACL injury.
Keary left the field against Penrith in South Sydney's third game and being rushed back to Sydney for scans. He underwent surgery on Monday and
However Walker was one of real the stars of the tournament, and was close to Souths' best player in all four of their matches, scoring two tries and being named in the official team of the tournament.
This included a strong performance against the Storm in the team's second game late on Saturday after a freak accident during a contested kick resulted in Storm centre Dane Nielsen landing studs first on Walker's head, leaving the youngster playing with a bandaged head for the rest of the weekend.
Walker also scored eight tries in 16 NRL matches in his debut season last year playing in the outside backs, but has spent time in the halves at pre-season training.
His form, combined with Keary's injury and the club's preference to use Sutton in the forwards this season, appears to have cleared the way for Walker to have a solid run in the halves.
Souths described this weekend's Charity Shield line-up as its "strongest starting line up", with World Cup stars Greg Inglis and Issac Luke, and all four Burgess brothers all named. Another of the club's young Nines stars, hooker Apisai Koroisau, has been named in jersey 14 suggesting he may have played his way into the top 17 as backup for Issac Luke.
Full team list:
1) Greg Inglis
2) Nathan Merritt
3) Beau Champion
4) Bryson Goodwin
5) Lote Tuqiri
6) Dylan Walker
7) Adam Reynolds
8) George Burgess
9) Issac Luke
10) Sam Burgess
11) Ben Te’o
12) Chris McQueen
13) John Sutton (c)
Interchange:
14) Apisai Koroisau
15) Dave Tyrrell
16) Thomas Burgess
17) Luke Burgess
18) Ben Lowe
19) Joe Picker
20) Joel Reddy
21) Kyle Turner
22) Alex Johnston
23) Kirisome Auva’a
24) Nathaniel Neale
You can read the full trial team lists here.