Fluffy
Journey Man
If you use up your second tier cap and even those players become unavailable then you can ask the NRL for permission to use more due to more injuries. No way would NRL allow you to field less than the 4 interchange players especially with concussion rules.
The fact is we have used our maximum number of players. It's a salary cap issue that all these players are not being given their NRL debuts.
As for the club having to come out and explain the selections, keep dreaming lol.
I imagine that the team named at the time was the team that was 100% fit and available on Tue. Late inclusions awaiting late fitness tests might change the run on team.
You can ask for permission but if you have other options in that position available then the NRL will not grant you permission, this happened to the panthers with Moylan a few years back