SOUTHS have named Jarom Haines on the bench for Sunday's visit to Central after his successful return during a season-high victory for the Newcastle Rugby League competition.
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Haines, having missed five of the six previous games, scored the opening try for the Lions and was heavily involved in helping defeat his former club the Bulldogs 64-6 at Kurri Sportsground last weekend.
He replaced Reeve Howard at fullback with Ryan Glanville and Angus Ernst continuing in the halves. Mitch Black was again the hooker.
Howard, Glanville, Ernst and Black have formed a settled "spine" combination for Souths amid the majority of an eight-match winning streak, which began on April 23.
The quartet are listed against the Butcher Boys at St John Oval, Howard back in the No.1 jersey but Haines now given a utility role.
Lions recruit Haines floated between fullback, five-eighth and halfback in his opening six appearances this campaign.
Saturday's win narrowly eclipsed the previous best for 2023, Macquarie over Kurri (62-6) in round four.
Souths ran in 11 tries, including a treble for second-rower Carlin Pettet, after conceding first.
The Lions arrived at the hour mark ahead 24-6 but piled on 40 unanswered points in the closing 20 minutes, which included four converted tries while Kurri's Ben McIntyre was in the sin bin.
Black's individual point tally of 22 took him further clear on top of the Newcastle RL leaderboard, 62 of his 113 scored in the last three outings.
Ladder-leaders Maitland (24 points), four ahead of second-placed Souths (20), and Cessnock (19) have the next best run of wins this year with seven.
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Josh Callinan
My name is Josh Callinan and I'm a sports journalist at the Newcastle Herald. I started with the newspaper in 2016 after a decade at the Maitland Mercury.
My name is Josh Callinan and I'm a sports journalist at the Newcastle Herald. I started with the newspaper in 2016 after a decade at the Maitland Mercury.
