Tritium self-sufficiency is one of the fundamental challenges for deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion reactors. The combination of key high temperature radiation shielding materials that possess dense, high neutron absorption cross-section, and moderation properties, and tritium breeding materials could involve interesting design spaces for the central column challenge in spherical tokamaks. Potential tungsten alloys can be used for two functions: radiation shielding and structural material, providing a new design space window for spherical tokamak central column breeding space. In this paper we present two novel high temperature concepts for the inboard side of the breeder blanket in a confined space. A tungsten-rhenium-hafnium-carbide lithium-based design was found to offer the best TBR given a parameter optimisation based on shielding and thermal requirements. A silicon-carbide lead-lithium breeder design was also investigated. The highest TBR was found to be 0.135 in a 3D neutronics calculation with a W-24.5Re-2HfC (structural and shielding, wt%), Li (90% Li-6 enriched breeder), and W2B5 (shielding) option.