After praising Junior Tupou in the pre-season, Tim Sheens is hoping the youngster can be the missing piece in the team's attacking line-up.
Having struggled in the past two weeks, the Tigers will face the Bulldogs on Sunday at Belmore Sports Ground. Aiming for their first win of the season, the club will be without stars Daine Laurie, Isaiah Papali'i, Jake Simpkin and Tommy Talau.
With these players out, it is time for other players to step up to the challenge. One of these players is Junior Tupou, who will move onto the wing, while Charlie Staines moves to fullback.
Tupou earnt the praise of coach Tim Sheens this pre-season after a dominant display against the Raiders. During the game, he scored two tries and set up Asu Kepaoa for another.
“When he grows up and realises how good he can be, he'll be something," Sheens said of Tupou post-match.
"He's a 105kg winger and can still play Flegg, we've got a good number of 20-year-old kids here and in 2-3 more pre-seasons we'll have quite a squad built on that group."
Making his season debut this week, Tupou appeared in four games for the club last season. Debuting in Round 10, he would go on to play a further three games, scoring two tries.
Tupou, a product of the Canberra Raiders junior system, had a successful junior career in both rugby league and union.
This saw him represent the ACT Brumbies and Junior Wallabies rugby union. Whilst in rugby league he represented the U16s and U18s New South Wales sides.
Sheens will be hoping Tupou can replicate the last game he had at Belmore Sports Ground, which was during the pre-season which the Tigers won 36-4.
