Sports correspondent & historian with Sideline Sid

Week One of the NRL playoffs, saw the New Zealand Warriors given a rugby league lesson, when the Penrith Panthers defeated the New Zealand side 32-6 after posting twenty unanswered points in the first half.

However the Warriors receive the reward of finishing the regular season in the top four, where they get a second chance in the 2023 premiership title race, in a sudden-death semi-final in Auckland this weekend.

The Warriors opponents will be the Newcastle Knights who won a thriller against Canberra on Sunday. With the scores locked at 28 all after the regulation eighty minutes, the Knights had to wait until deep in the second spell of extra time to nail a penalty, to book their trip across the ditch.

Penrith coach Ivan Cleary, knows firsthand of the pain the Warriors would have felt after Saturday's encounter. Cleary was involved in the Warriors (only) two grand final appearances in his time in the land of the long white cloud.

In 2002, Cleary was fullback in the Warriors side beaten by the Sydney Roosters, before coaching the 2011 team defeated by the Manly Sea Eagles.

Mid-season, my two 2023 NRL favourites in the Warriors and the Dolphins were locked together in the top eight on 16 points apiece. Only the crystal ball of the future, could have told us of the completely different finishes to the regular season, which awaited the two sides.

The Warriors made the top four for just the third time since their NRL debut in 1995, with 38 points from 16 victories. The Dolphins couldn't sustain their spectacular debut, and simply ran out of steam to end their initial NRL start, with 9 wins and 24 points.

I caught the Dolphins end of season encounter with the Warriors, on a cruise ship in Noumea, where they reversed their first meeting loss with a 34-10 win over the under-strength New Zealand side.

With the encounter televised in the ship's casino, and wearing my Dolphins shirt, I had a heap of fun shouting “Go the Dolphins" to a big contingent of Warriors faithful each time the Queensland side dotted the ball down.

The New Zealand Warriors are still in the hunt for their first NRL premiership crown, notwithstanding the big challenges immediately in front of them.

Earlier rumours suggesting that the winner take all clash could be played at Eden Park, were quashed, when New Zealand Warriors management announced last Sunday, that the game would be played at Go Media Stadium at Mt Smart.

Saturday night's 6pm kickoff, will be just the fourth time that the New Zealand based NRL representatives have played a finals match at home base.

To book a preliminary finals appointment with the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium in two weeks time, the Warriors must end Newcastle's ten game winning streak.

Simply put, the New Zealand Warriors must ‘Go Hard – Or Go Home’. A second straight 2023 finals loss would invite another long spell of media torture.

The Warriors forever fans will remain faithful whatever the result on Saturday evening, while we (sometime) fair-weather fans will sit on the fence again awaiting the start of the 2024 NRL season, if the Warriors taste defeat.