New Zealand Warriors recruit James Maloney has been thrown in the deep-end with his new club and will start at half-back against a tough looking Gold Coast Titans side at Skilled Park on Sunday.
Maloney joined the Warriors from the Melbourne Storm in the hope of getting some more game time and has got his wish after a solid pre-season with his new side.
The 23-year-old said he is excited at being named in the starting team and is looking forward to kicking the season off this weekend.
"Like most of the boys, I'm over the pre-season and got the trials out of the way so this is a good part of the season," he said.
"I'm personally pretty excited to get a starting spot which is what I've come here for so I'm looking forward to it.
"I've been pretty happy with it [pre-season performance]. Obviously there's always thing to work on and I'll keep working on them during the year, but I'm definitely happy with my early-year form."
Maloney will pair up with fellow newcomer Brett Seymour in the halves and has been happy to have dodged the spotlight due to Seymour's arrival.
Seymour, an extremely gifted player that looked to have thrown his career away in 2009 after a string off off-field misbehaviour, is looking revamp his career in a new club and a new country.
"It's probably good to fly under the radar a bit so I've just got to do what I do," said Maloney.
"Hopefully on the field I can play well with Brett and we can get a win first up.
"He's obviously a very good player and he's played a lot of games so that makes him very easy to play with. It's [the combination with Seymour] is getting better each time we play together so we'll just keep working on it as we go and hopefully it'll be real good by the end of the year."
Maloney, at just 81kg, is not the most imposing player in the club and looks tiny next to the likes of Warriors heavyweights Manu Vatuvei and Russell Packer but backs his ability to mix it with the big boys.
"I like to think my defence is pretty strong in the halves and also just providing options all over the park and taking the ball to the line and asking questions of their defence."