Hard-working Melbourne Storm lock Ryan Hinchcliffe has passed a fitness test on his injured ankle to take his place in their opening NRL clash with Manly on Saturday night.
Hinchcliffe had hardly trained since hurting his ankle in their trial against the Bulldogs two weeks ago but had no troubles getting the green light to play at Brookvale Oval.
The versatile forward has been a resilient member of the Storm squad, only missing one game in 2013 and playing 27 matches the previous year.
Storm general manager of football Frank Ponissi laughed off Manly's suggestion that injured Test halfback Cooper Cronk would play.
Cronk, who had off-season surgery, was in the mix but the Storm's medical staff felt waiting until round two for his return would be better with a long season ahead.
"It's good that they can waste their time planning for Cooper to play because he won't be playing," Ponissi said.
The Storm see their unheralded forward pack as a real strength heading into the season and feel they got the better of the burly Bulldogs in their final trial.
Coach Craig Bellamy, who has named a seven-man bench, said it was tough choosing which forwards to start.
"That was probably the strength of our trials, the props," he said.
"It was a pretty tough sorting out who was going to get the nod and who wasn't.
"Obviously Jesse (Bromwich) and Noz (Bryan Norrie) with their experience, they've earnt the right to start the season but all the others it was a bit of a toss up with the way they've played."
Bellamy suspected the Sea Eagles were playing up their shortage of quality muscle through a spate of injuries.
"The guys who are starting the game, Josh Starling is the only one who hasn't played a whole heap of first grade," he said.
"He's played a couple with Souths and (coach) Michael Maguire had a pretty big rap on him.
"The guys coming off the bench have a played a fair bit of first grade.
"I don't think they're down in forward stocks as far as some people would have you believe."
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