HUNTER Wildfires coach Scott Coleman will use the bye weekend to play around with his fly-half options after losing hired gun Michael Moloney to a season-ending knee injury.
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MRI results on Wednesday are expected to confirm that Moloney ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament and damaged the medial ligament in his knee early in the Wildfires' 31-21 loss to Easts at No.2 Sportsground on Saturday.
The Melbourne Rising play-maker was starting to find his rhythm after making his Shute Shield debut in the 29-all draw with Manly four weeks ago.
"We are waiting on scans, but the early prognosis doesn't look good," Coleman said. "It's very disappointing for him and us. We have done a lot of work on our attack shape in the past two weeks. It was going to play into his hand in the last five games. I thought we would bring the best out in him."
After the bye, the Wildfires meet Western Sydney, formerly Parramatta, at Lidcome Oval. The Two Blues are one of two teams below the Wildfires on the table.
Coleman is desperate to unlock the Wildfires attack, which starts at fly-half.
Carl Manu moved from outside centre to cover for Moloney and caused the defence problems.
Brendan Holliday is other option at 10. He played the opening three games before suffering a quad strain.
He is a similar ball player to Moloney, where as Manu is more a running playmaker.
"Carl went to 10, Rob Bausera went off the bench onto the wing and Hayden Cole slotted in at 13," Coleman said. It was a bit of a reshuffle but Carl did a really good job considering he hasn't trained there.
"Raj (Holliday) has played OK in second grade for the past two weeks and is obviously an option.
"We will play around with it in the next 10 days."
Holliday is also an astute goal-kicker, but Taulogo Lalaga nailed three from three, including two from the sideline against Easts.
Coleman may also need to make a change up front.
Tighthead prop Nick Dobson strained his calf before half-time and is in doubt.
Geraint Weaver was solid off the bench but Kiwi Daniel Davies will also come into contention after dropping to second grade last round to get some game time.
"Our plan was to use G (Weaver) for the last 20 but he ended up playing 50 minutes and held his own," Coleman said.
Recent Melbourne arrival, Matt Dewar is still working his way towards full fitness.
"We will push him in these next two weeks and see how he is," Coleman said.
Coleman will freshen the squad with a lighter training load this week and will focus on attack leading up to the Western Sydney battle.
"We will do some video and work on our attack shape and honing our skills," the coach said.
"I was very disappointed after the loss to Easts. We are competing but it is not a reward any more. We are here to win. We have to make smarter decisions."
