![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Despite this, veteran CODE Sports reporter Dean Ritchie believes they have no hopes of winning their maiden NRL title nor even making the 2026 Grand Final.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great win (against the Panthers)…but I don\u2019t think the Warriors can win the comp,\u201d Ritchie said on NRL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they don\u2019t make (the) top-two, they can\u2019t win away in Sydney. They can\u2019t win through September unless they\u2019ve got home finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be Penrith v Roosters and the only way I will be proven wrong is after the prelim finals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gorden Tallis had a differing opinion, and believes the Warriors have now proven that they belong among the competition\u2019s genuine premiership contenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about belief when you get to this time of the year and to play the best side over the last ten years in Penrith and beat them at their own game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t luck. It was a very hard-fought win.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Nathan wants to play with more risk!’ | 02:46<\/p>\n
The prediction from the pair comes as Warriors coach Andrew Webster faces a major selection headache for the finals series with Luke Metcalf making an immediate impact on his return to the side.<\/p>\n
Spending four months on the sidelines or in NSW Cup, Metcalf was recalled into the line-up after Te Maire Martin suffered an injury in the club\u2019s final training session before their match against Penrith.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoor Te Maire Martin,\u201d Braith Anasta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could be out for up to a month and it probably makes Andrew Webster\u2019s decision a lot easier this week with him being injured.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would have had a complete headache trying to make the call this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
How soon will PNG Chiefs be contenders? | 01:55<\/p>\n
The performance by the future St George Illawarra Dragons half only added further weight to the argument that he should retain the No.7 jersey for the finals even when Martin is available for selection.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone expected him to be this good. He hasn\u2019t played for a long time in the top grade and he made an immediate impact,\u201d Anasta continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were question marks over him because he had obviously been left out of the team for a preference over the other halves who have been doing a magnificent job.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he\u2019s just come and put his hand up and almost said, you have to pick me.\u201d<\/p>\n
CODE Sports\u2019 Brent Read added, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to go with the hot hand. If he\u2019s hot, he leads them to the top two going into the finals. You\u2019ve got to go with the hot hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it was a one-week injury, I think Te Maire Martin is back in, but because it\u2019s four weeks and leading into the finals and (if) Luke Metcalf gets the job done for four weeks, I don\u2019t think you can change it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Zealand Warriors may have made a huge statement against the Panthers over the weekend, but one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-850238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}