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Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is set to be used on the wing for the Warriors in the 2025 NRL season.
After being deployed as a centre last year – which was a talking point for much of the campaign – the signs are that the 31-year-old will have another positional shift,possibly beginning with Friday’s first pre-season trial against Cronulla. While coach Andrew Webster was reluctant to offer any clues on the line-up for the Sydney match ahead of the squad being named on Tuesday evening, wing Dallin Watene-Zelezniak revealed that the former captain had been impressing on the flank across the pre-season.
“There’s a few of us fighting for spots,” said Watene-Zelezniak when asked about wing contenders. “Webby keeps it quite competitive with us and doesn’t really like to show anyone that this is the starting [team] but we’re sort of getting an idea now.”
“Roger’s been on the wing training, he’s been training well too. It’s been nice, running after him, [he] beats a few defenders and then carry the ball after that. But yeah, I wouldn’t be too surprised if he’s the [other wing].”
There is an obvious vacancy on the left flank, since the departure of Marcelo Montoya. Montoya had been a regular – especially since the arrival of Webster, with 46 games across the past two seasons – but was granted an early release for family reasons and is now back at Canterbury-Bankstown.
Identifying the optimal spot for Tuivasa-Sheck has been a fixation since his return to the Auckland club. While everyone understood the idea of using him at centre – and the player was genuinely excited about the move – it is a difficult position to learn. It was also hard to get the most out of his talents, especially isolating him one on one against defenders given the congested zone.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck of the Warriors. Photo / NRL Photos
There’s also a school of thought – led by some pundits and a section of the fanbase – that he remains best suited to fullback, the place where he tore up the NRL and was honoured as a Dally M medallist. But Webster sees Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad as the long term No 1 option and is unlikely to change his view, even though Nicoll-Klokstad is versatile. There is also excitement about the potential of Ali Leiataua at centre, given what the 22-year-old has shown in his seven games so far, along with the continued development of Rocco Berry.
In 2024, Tuivasa-Sheck started 13 games at centre, two at fullback (covering for Nicoll-Klokstad) and three on the wing. That trio of matches included the 34-4 hammering of the Rabbitohs and he scored three of his five season tries from the flank.
“Roger offers a lot with his experience,” said Watene-Zelezniak. “Some of the things that he does on the wing …not many people can do, so it’s definitely wise for us to pick his brains and take some good things out of it.”
Webster confirmed a different approach to his trial selections in 2025, after using the first hit out in the past two seasons to blood youth, before the basis of the top team is rolled out in the second week.
“We’re going to go strong - stronger than everyone thinks in our first two trials,” said Webster. “We just had a long pre-season, we’ve hit each other for too long. If we had a shorter one, I don’t think we would. We’d like to put out a decent team this week that’s close to round one and see how it goes.”
Some players will feature in both games but needs will be judged “on merit”. Two of the four halves won’t be considered for this week due to injuries, which Webster described as “little niggles”.
The coach has a strong idea of his top 17, though there are still chances to play yourself into an NRL spot during the trials, like Jackson Ford did in 2023.
“100% it could happen,” said Webster. “The boys know that too. I mean we know the majority of who’s got their nose in front right now, just in the way they’ve trained and stuff like that. But that can change any time, so they definitely can pick themselves.”
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. He has also reported on the Warriors and NRL for more than a decade.
