The Warriors’ last home game of the regular NRL season is marked with milestones for players and the club when they take on the St George Illawarra Dragons on their Mount Smart home turf this Friday.
Skipper Tohu Harris is marking his 100th game in a Warriors jersey, while halfback magician Shaun Johnson reaches 250 NRL appearances. The club itself will have its 300th game at Go Media Stadium at Mount Smart.
Josh Curran will start on the second row instead of Jackson Ford who moves to the bench in an otherwise unchanged squad from last week’s tough victory over the Manly Sea Eagles.
The extended squad will have one name not seen since April, Te Maire Martin, who will play as the club’s NSW No. 6 against the Dragons in their final regular season game against the Dragons in Sydney on Saturday. He comes back after suffering a fractured fibula against the Newcastle Knights on April 9.
The winger with the hair and flair, Dallin Watene Zelezniak, is one of three first-tied top try scorers in the competition, alongside the Dolphins’ Jamayne Isaako and the Rabbitohs’ Alex Johnston. Watene Zelezniak could well and truly overtake them by the round’s end, considering he has scored 21 tries in his 16 appearances, including two season hat-tricks, and has already beaten his season-best record of 12 tries back in 2016, showing his career-best form.
On June 23, the Warriors defeated the Dragons 48-18 in their most recent meeting. They won’t have seen each other at Go Media Stadium since 2018.
Should the Warriors win, it’ll cement a top-four finish come finals time and take six straight wins to seven. Once done, their away matchup against the Redcliffe Dolphins will finish the regular season.
Their last home clash starts the weekend off on Friday 8pm NZ time.
