ROBBIE Kearns has heard about the comparisons and the retired former Melbourne Storm captain readily agrees that emerging prop Aiden Tolman does revive memories of his younger self.

Kearns reached great heights in his career — representing Australia and NSW — but was never regarded as a standout crowd pleaser. He is now employed in a promotional role with the club and assists during training sessions and said he was never the one who would pull off the bone-crunching tackle or make the spectacular line-breaking hit up — but he was normally the one who would come off the field having completed the heaviest workload.

It was this trait Kearns could see in Tolman, who will play just his third game tomorrow night when the Storm, without 10 state-of-origin stars, plays Gold Coast at the Titans' Skilled Park.

"He's just one of those guys who gets through a lot of work and never goes missing when hard work needs to be done," Kearns said. "He does the one per-centers. The things that no ones sees."

Kearns believed the former Australian schoolboys representative teenager from Hathead on the NSW north coast, could be looking at a 10-year-plus career. He said Tolman's attitude had caught the eye of Craig Bellamy, who named the teenager as 18th man several times before he made his debut. He said the Storm coach would not hesitate to promote him if the form of the established props faltered.

Tolman is off contract this year and Melbourne has signalled it is particularly keen to keep him, although it is believed there were at least another two NRL teams showing interest in him. He said he wanted to stay with the defending premier.

"Definitely, they've got all the players and as group they're very close knit," he said. "It's very much team oriented and we're all friends down here, which is very much a bonus. The coaching staff and set-up they've got down here is second to none. Obviously, with the (NSW) origin coach (Bellamy) and the New Zealand coach (Stephen Kearney) it's a very good place for me to improve and get better at my game."

■Storm assistant coach Michael Maguire said it would be decided today whether veteran utility Matt Geyer or debutant Joseph Tomane would be handed the responsibility of replacing Steve Turner at full-back against Gold Coast, after he was a late call-up to the NSW origin squad last week.