KEY POINTS:
A sudden death playoff at the National Rugby League's (NRL) most daunting venue looms for the New Zealand Warriors after Melbourne clinched their third consecutive minor premiership tonight.
The defending champions hammered Souths 42-4 in the final regular season match at Olympic Park, having required a margin of more than 26 points to pip Manly for the No 1 ranking.
It means the Warriors, who returned to Auckland today after clinching eighth spot with a 28-6 win over Parramatta, travel to Melbourne for the qualifying final on Sunday (6pm NZT). A loss will end their season.
The Storm have lost just once at Olympic Park in the past two seasons, a 16-17 defeat by Cronulla in round two this year. The Warriors were the previous team to win there, by 24-20 in round 24 in 2006 when the Storm were already assured of top spot.
No team finishing lower than fifth has contested an NRL grand final in the era of top-eight playoffs, but Warriors coach Ivan Cleary was allowing his buoyant side to dream after a "professional job" in their dispatch of Parramatta last night.
"It's going to happen some day, but you can't get too carried away running seventh and eighth and coming up against one of the guns next week," he said.
"It's not a bad position to go into a game when no one will give you a chance. It's semifinals, we're very excited about it and we can't wait."
With giant winger Manu Vatuvei bulldozing over for a hat-trick to boost his season tally to 14 tries from 14 matches, the Warriors were too good for an average Eels outfit who missed the top-eight for the first time since 2004.
After a woeful start to 2008 the Warriors were written off at the halfway point, and two months ago were still paying $13 to make the top-eight with Australia's TAB Sportsbet.
With Vatuvei in menacing form they stormed home to win eight of their last 10 matches, including defeats of title contenders Melbourne, Brisbane and Cronulla in Auckland.
Last night centre Brent Tate, who only had two tries from 20 matches this year, added the polish with a late double, while their four key men - fullback Lance Hohaia, five-eighth Michael Witt, halfback Nathan Fien and hooker Ian Henderson - all shone. Hohaia was again an impressive stand-in for the suspended Wade McKinnon before a muted crowd of 5102.
Captain Steve Price rated it a good dress rehearsal as his team celebrated their hard-earned playoff spot.
"This week's been spot on with every individual being fully prepared and obviously the result showed it tonight. We know what works, we've just got to replicate it this week," Price said.
"Hopefully what we've had to do over the last few weeks is certainly going to hold us in good stead compared to some of the teams who haven't had to do it as hard to be where they are. "
Still, the task of winning three consecutive matches against higher-ranked opponents to even make the October 5 grand final ensured the Warriors remained at long odds.
"I think they'll be up against it next week against Manly or Melbourne," said Eels coach Michael Hagan.
"But they're certainly a team, if they could execute their sets as well as they did tonight, they would stay in the contest for a big part of it.
"You have to be able to do it consistently when the pressure's on for a few weeks, that's why teams seven and eight have traditionally struggled in the playoffs. "
National Rugby League playoffs, week 1:
Friday: Sydney Roosters (4th) vs Brisbane Broncos (5th) in Sydney
Saturday: Cronulla Sharks (3rd) vs Canberra Raiders (6th) in Sydney
Saturday: Manly Sea Eagles (2nd) vs St. George-Illawarra Dragons (7th) in Sydney
Sunday: Melbourne Storm (1st) vs New Zealand Warriors (8th) in Melbourne
- NZPA
