NZ Warriors downplay Penrith Panthers past in NRL playoff build-up

NRL playoffs: NZ Warriors v Penrith Panthers

Kickoff 6.05pm, Saturday, 13 September

Go Media Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland

Live blog updates on RNZ Sport

NZ Warriors utility Te Maire Martin won't go as far as calling it a 'rivalry', but admits there are definitely strings that bind his team to NRL playoff opponents Penrith Panthers.

The Auckland-based outfit will host the four-time defending champions at Go Media Stadium on Saturday, with the losers falling out of contention and winners progressing to the next stage.

Like several of his teammates, Martin, 29, owes a debut of gratitude to the Panthers and then-coach Anthony Griffin, who handed him his NRL debut in 2016. Over one-and-a-bit seasons, he amassed 13 games and experienced postseason footy, before leaving mid-season 2017.

"I don't know how rivalries work, but a lot of the boys have been there," he admitted. "Whenever you come from a club, you always want to beat them, but that's pretty hard when you've been to 5-6 clubs.

"You can't have a rivalry with everyone."

Plenty of water has passed under the bridge since then. Martin, who was an outstanding junior in the Wests Tigers system, went to the grand final with North Queensland Cowboys in 2017, but retired, after a brain bleed two years later, only to return with Brisbane Broncos and subsequently the Warriors.

Incredibly, five players named for the sudden-death showdown against Penrith have passed through that programme previously, as well as coach Andrew Webster.

Others to enter the NRL down that route were winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, who went on to become a Panthers centurion, and hooker Wayde Egan, who logged 29 games, but leapt across the Tasman, when he was told his contract would not be renewed. He's since chalked up 100 games for the Warriors.

"It's always good to play against guys you're mates with," Egan, 28, said. "It will be a pretty cool experience.

"They're four-time premiers as well, so trying to get a big scalp in the first week of finals is always a good challenge and a fun challenge.

"It doesn't really hold too much [significance], just similar to any other team and trying to get the result."

If anything, the 'Penrith Warriors' are almost at pains to play down their time at the foot of the Blue Mountains, probably mindful of giving their old mates anything to feed off in the build-up.

"Obviously, they're just an opponent for the weekend," second-rower Kurt Capewell insisted. "That's the way I look at it.

"No matter what jersey is on the other side, we just have to get the job done.

Capewell, 32, is perhaps the master of the understatement. During his two years at the Panthers, he contested two grand finals and scored the gamewinning try against Melbourne Storm in 2021, as they began their run of championships, before he moved on to Brisbane Broncos and then the Warriors.

"They won't make it easy," he said. "They've been a great team for a number of years and they won't beat themselves."

Webster certainly hasn't drawn on that shared past to fire up his troops any more than they already are.

"I think the romance of it is with you guys [media], if I'm to be brutally honest," he said.

"If we were to be successful, there would be a really nice feeling for a few players, but I think they'd much prefer to celebrate that we won a playoff game. The romance is for everyone external who like to read into it a lot.

"Everyone likes to win or play well against their old team. I just don't think it's close to the motivation for this week that some guys have been through that system, therefore they need to win.

"There's enough riding on this performance around finals - that's at the front of their mind."

The most recent graduate of the Panthers dynasty is Warriors co-captain James Fisher-Harris, 29, who was a cornerstone of their success over the past four years, but certainly isn't one to spark a war of words with his former teammates.

"It's no secret, bro," he said. "Obviously, I've been there.

"Everyone knows what they're going to do, but they still do it. It will be a great challenge for us.

"It's all about us, we're just trying to do something special."

Warriors fans are still smarting from the circumstances that saw coach Ivan Cleary leave Auckland, after guiding the club to its second grand final in 2011. His continued success with Penrith just rubs more salt into that particular wound.

Through Webster, he's given a little back though, endorsing his understudy's bid for the Warriors job three years ago.

Cleary may have a little more to give in the future, with youngest son Jett working his way through the Warriors programme towards an inevitable first-grade debut, perhaps next season.

Webster has a 1-3 record against Cleary, his lone victory coming at last year's 'Magic Round' in Brisbane.

Surely, the apprentice would enjoy the chance to get another one over his mentor on such a prestigious stage?

"Oh please, that's no contest," Webster rolls his eyes. "He is the master."

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.