All together now:
The Warriors will have their most important game in seven years when they take on the Panthers at ANZ Stadium in Sydney tomorrow.
The Panthers didn’t show great form towards the end of the season, although they did beat a heavily depleted Storm side last weekend.
But the Warriors will need to be at their best to reach the next round of the playoffs. Here are five keys to their success:
Target James Maloney
Maloney didn’t play in either of the two regular season games between the two clubs, where the wins were split.
There’s no questioning how important the Panthers captain is to their team; when he’s playing well it allows Nathan Cleary to be at his creative best.
So if you shut down Maloney, you do the same for Cleary, who didn’t feature much in the game between the two clubs a fortnight ago.
Warriors forwards such as James Gavet, Adam Blair and Agnatius Paasi need to be quickly onto Maloney every time he gets the ball to try to shut him down.
Stop conceding tries Stick with dropouts the back-toback
Something that’s been a slight concern recently is how teams have been able to tries in pairs against the Warriors.
It happened against the Dragons in round 21, the Bulldogs in round 23 and the Panthers in round 24, where one try conceded was quickly followed by another.
It’s as if they’re still reeling from letting in the first try and have lost focus for a bit.
The Panthers have a quality attack and can punish slack defences. Before you know it they could build up a matchwinning lead in the space of five minutes.
short
It’s been an unusual tactic for the goal line drop outs and it’s worked throughout the season.
Even towards the end of the gripping game against the Raiders last weekend, they weren’t afraid to occasionally go short with a goal-line dropout.
The Panthers won’t expect them to take such a risk in an elimination final, which is exactly why the Warriors should do it.
Getting the ball back from this situation immediately alleviate the pressure and stops the players having to defend back-to-back sets on their line.
Don’t forget about the left edge
David Fusitu’a was the leading try scorer with 22 this season as he and Peta Hiku have been sensational on the right edge.
The other winger, Ken Maumalo scored just five tries, but the centre outside him, Solomone Kata, has got 12.
The Panthers will expect to Shaun Johnson to spark lots of