Warriors v Panthers Preview
NRL.com
Mt Smart Stadium
Sunday 4pm (2pm Sydney)
http://nrl.com/News/Latest/tabid/10244/default.aspx?id=52593
THIS basically represents the last stand for these two teams in 2008. Win and your finals dreams are still alive, lose and it’s likely to be ‘all over, red rover’.
With the Warriors sitting in 10th and the Panthers in 11th, the team that loses will bow out of contention (barring some sort of miracle) while the winner could find themselves in eighth place with just a round to go.
Both teams were relatively disappointing in their last ‘at bats’ with the Warriors surrendering to the Dragons and the Panthers barely putting up a fight against the Storm.
They will need significant improvement in this match if they are to strike any sort of fear in potential finals combatants.
It’s a shame it has come to this as both teams have shown glimpses of absolute brilliance during the year – but the reality is they have both also shown glimpses of absolute ineptness.
The home side welcomes back lock Micheal Luck which moves Logan Swann to the bench while Sonny Fai makes way for Wairangi Koopu.
For the Panthers, controversial back-rower Frank Pritchard is out with Matthew Bell taking his place. Daniel Penese, Jarrod Sammut and Josh Bateman have been added to a bench of six.
Watch out Warriors: Back-rower Matthew Bell will be out to prove he can slot into Frank Pritchard’s position without trouble, especially as Pritchard has now requested a release for the 579th time.
Bell proved a few weeks ago he can cut through the defence on the left edge when he scored his first career try and with more game time he just might prove to be a handy player. He averages 70 metres a game but that has been almost exclusively from the bench, so look for a significant improvement here.
Watch out Panthers: The Warriors have a clearly superior kicking game, finding space 65.5 per cent of the time compared to the Panthers’ 48.4 per cent. If this continues in this match the Warriors will dominate field position – and likely dominate the match.
The kick pressure of the Panthers needs to be better than usual and their play-the-balls on tackle five need to be quicker to allow the Panthers’ kickers more time to find space.
The Panthers need to also limit the offloads from prop Sam Rapira. His combination with Wade McKinnon is a beauty.
Where it will be won: Good old fashioned desire. Both teams could be accused of turning up to their previous games without any fire in their bellies. With everything to play for both the Warriors and Panthers put in lacklustre performances that had their fans in disbelief. It was almost as if they had already planned end-of-year trips and didn’t want wins to get in the way, or force a reschedule!
If a team turns up ready to hit hard in defence (young Warrior Ben Matulino can take a bow for his attempts last week) and play committed, mistake-free football in attack, then they have the potential to blow the other away.
If both turn up with this never-say-die attitude then we could be in for an absolute cracker!
The History: Played 22; Warriors 9, Panthers 13. The Panthers have won five of the past eight including a 46-22 victory in Penrith earlier this season. While the ledger at Mt Smart Stadium is 5-all the Panthers haven’t won there since 2005. The Warriors are looking for five in a row at home this season.
Conclusion: The Warriors will be favourites thanks largely to their 8-3 home record this season and while the Panthers are a chance of winning you get the feeling the old ‘who cares’ attitude is creeping back in.
Pritchard apparently couldn’t care less, injured or not, and the others in the side can’t help but be brought down into the mire. It would not be a surprise to see the Warriors rack up a cricket score, provided they have overcome their own lethargy.
Match officials: Referee – Ben Cummins; Sideline Officials – Brett Suttor & Daniel Eastwood; Video ref – Chris Ward.
Televised: Fox Sports 2 – Live 2pm (AEST)
* Statistics: NRL Stats.
