Elimination football has arrived for the NZ Warriors as they prepare for their Week 1 New South Wales Cup Finals clash.
The Warriors face the Penrith Panthers in a sudden-death match at Sydney's Leichhardt Oval on Saturday (kick-off 3pm NZ Time), coming off a close loss in the final round of the regular season last weekend.
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The Warriors' 39-36 loss to the Newtown Jets on Saturday ruined their hopes of earning a top-three finish and a second life in the five-team playoffs format.
They remained in fourth spot on 33 points, with the Panthers finishing on the same points but fifth on points for and against after they just held off the fast-finishing South Sydney Rabbitohs – the 2023 premiers – 32-28 on Friday night.
Penrith will provide a huge challenge, coming into the playoffs unbeaten in their last seven matches with five wins and two draws including a victory over third-placed Canberra and a draw with minor premiers the North Sydney Bears.
They can call on significant NRL experience, including 209-game veteran Tyrone Peachey in the centres, Asu Kepaoa (42 games) on the wing, Dane Laurie (66 games) at standoff and Soni Luke (25 games) at halfback.
In their two regular season encounters, the rivals drew 22-22 at North Harbour Stadium in April while the Warriors triumphed at North Sydney Oval three weeks later. Little separated the two teams over the full season.
The Warriors finished with 14 wins, a draw and nine losses scoring 590 points while conceding 506 for a points differential of plus 84 points. Penrith had a record of 13 wins, three draws and eight losses scoring 602 points and conceding 520 for a points differential of plus 82.
Yet another remarkable comeback was not quite enough to seal a top-three spot when the fast-finishing Warriors lost 36-39 to the Newtown Jets in Saturday's final round NSW Cup clash at Henson Park in Sydney.
When Newtown led 28-14 at halftime and then 38-20 with only 14 minutes to play, the Warriors were facing a stiff challenge to say the least.
They had been in a similar predicament in their Round 19 clash against Parramatta when they were 28-4 behind but then flicked the switch by producing 42 unanswered points to win 46-28. They needed the same formula today and right on cue found it.
Coming into the game off the bench, Geronimo Doyle went over in the 66th minute and then veteran prop Bunty Afoa charged over three minutes later, Motu Pasikala converting both to suddenly leave the Warriors only six points adrift at 32-38.
A Newtown field goal took the home side out to a seven-point lead at 39-32 with eight minutes left but the Warriors were chasing the win.
They found a seventh try and a second for Doyle to make it 36-39 with five minutes left, time still to steal victory but it didn’t come, the Jets holding on to go to the top of the table for the time being while the Warriors remained fourth.
Earlier, the Warriors made a hot start with tries to Edward Kosi and Setu Tu inside the first six minutes before the Jets gained an edge.
Victory eluded the Warriors but they still emerged with merit from their season-ending Jersey Flegg Cup (under-21) encounter with the white-hot Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks at PointsBet Stadium in Sydney on Saturday.
With wins against South Sydney (28-10) and top-ranked Canterbury Bankstown (32-16) in recent weeks the 11th-placed Warriors took some renewed confidence into their battle with the fifth-placed Sharks.
Their opponents, though, had been in commanding form in recent weeks with five straight wins in which they averaged almost 54 points a game.
And when the Sharks scored twice within the first 10 minutes to lead 10-0 there might have been cause for anxiety. The Warriors kept turning up, though, conceding just one more try in the first half to trail 0-14 at the break.
The Sharks were over again in the opening minutes of the second half to extend to 20-0 but that would be the end of the scoring for them as the resilient Warriors stayed in the fight and refused to yield.
Ultimately they were rewarded for their work with a Siale Faeamani try in the closing minutes to fall to a creditable 20-4 loss. It ended the Warriors’ return to the Jersey Flegg Cup competition after a five-year absence.
The team finished 11th on 21 points with eight wins, a draw and 15 losses but there was much to like about the way they recovered from a tough period in the opening weeks.
Indeed, after losing their first five matches (three of them heavily), they had an encouraging run of eight wins, a draw and 10 losses in their last 19 games. Of their 15 losses, one was by a margin of four points, one by six, three by 10 and four by 12.
On top of that the team played a key role in developing players stepping up from the SG Ball Cup (under-19) and also preparing several players for promotion to the New South Wales Cup.
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