Penrith whiz kid Te Maire Martin has delivered coach Anthony Griffin a monster selection dilemma after booting the winning field goal in his side's stirring 23-22 NRL win over Brisbane on Saturday.
The boom playmaker became the buzz of the NRL after scoring late to even up the scores before kicking the deciding one-pointer in his highly anticipated debut at Pepper Stadium.
Asked about Martin, Griffin immediately sought to hose down the hype, describing his game as "alright".
But he will be bombarded all week with questions about where the youngster sits in the Panther's pecking order.
"It's his first game and he's done a great job and it's a great night for him but he's got to string a few together," Griffin said.
Martin's debut was long-awaited after the Junior Kiwis representative dominated the under-20s for Wests Tigers last year and made a surprise off-season move to the foot of the mountains.
With James Segeyaro out with a broken arm and pivot Peter Wallace moved to hooker, Griffin elected to blood Martin in the crunch clash against the competition favourites.
However it remains to be seen where Martin will fit in upon Segeyaro's return.
As well, the Panthers are expecting skipper Matt Moylan (back) to be fit to face St George Illawarra next Sunday.
Moylan has been earmarked for a move into the halves, but now appears likely to return at fullback.
Further confusing the selection jigsaw puzzle before Griffin is Wallace's strong performance in the unfamiliar role of hooker against the Broncos, making a mammoth 45 tackles defending in the middle as well as giving the side spark out of dummy half.
Griffin all of a sudden has an embarrassment of riches in his ball-playing ranks with back-rowers Tyrone Peachey and Bryce Cartwright, who are capable of playing at first or second receiver, outstanding against the Broncos.
As for Martin's field goal, the quietly spoken 20-year-old revealed it was a fluke and had no idea the ball was coming to him or whether it had gone over after it left his boot.
"To be honest, I was falling back (behind the play) because I was feeling a bit tired," Martin said.
"I don't practice it a lot actually ... (halfback Jamie Soward) said to me `if they pressure my left foot, I'm going to chuck it to you and you just slot it'.
"And I saw him run up to his left foot and he chucked it my way and I sort of closed my eyes and peaked to see if it went over.
"I wanted to celebrate but I was gassing. I couldn't get my breath back."
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