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The Warriors<\/a> will exit the NRL<\/a> finals in straight sets unless both Dallin Watene-Zelezniak<\/a> and Leka Halasima return from injury against Newcastle<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n That is the opinion of both Brad Fittler and Andrew Johns, with the two league legends outlining serious concerns about the Auckland-based outfit following a shock loss to the Dolphins last week.<\/p>\n Leka Halasima in action against the Broncos. \u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n The Warriors, who finished second only to Penrith on the ladder this season, have named both Watene-Zelezniak and Halasima on an extended bench for Sunday\u2019s must-win clash at Eden Park.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are two players they need,\u201d Fittler said on Wide World of Sports\u2019 NRL Tips.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad over on that right-hand side, but he just missed his assignment a couple of times, whereas Dallin wouldn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n \u201cThey need Leka. (Adam) Pompey couldn\u2019t keep up, they will get at him. Unless they do that I will (tip) the Knights.\u201d<\/p>\n It would be a stunning run into an NRL preliminary final for a Newcastle side that many expected to go out in week one.<\/p>\n But an upset victory over South Sydney kept Johns\u2019 old club in the hunt, and now they travel to New Zealand where 50,000 fans will pack the iconic Eden Park for a blockbuster semi final.<\/p>\n Johns says if Watene-Zelezniak and Halasima don\u2019t return, Newcastle\u2019s left side attacking stars of Kalyn Ponga, Francis Manuleleua, Bradman Best, and Greg Marzhew could run riot.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s where the Knights score a lot of their tries \u2013 Kalyn, Bradman Best, Marzhew, that is their strength,\u201d Johns said.<\/p>\n \u201cKnights going into this game, confidence and belief is sky-high. On the other side you have to say it would be a bit shaky for the Warriors.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the Knights can deadset win this one.\u201d<\/p>\n In the first semi final on Saturday night, both men are backing the Roosters<\/a> to get it done over the Sharks<\/a> in Sydney.<\/p>\n But Fittler is worried his former team may have spent too much energy in a tough loss to Penrith last week.<\/p>\n \u201cRoosters have won both games (against Cronulla) this year,\u201d Fittler said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last one, they were very physical on Cronulla.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Roosters beat Penrith four weeks ago, put everything into it. They\u2019ve lost every game since.<\/p>\n \u201cI get nervous that they dumped so much into that game last week, and they didn\u2019t get the result.<\/p>\n \u201cSharks, who sort of fumbled around for a while, could be coming into form.\u201d<\/p>\n The winner on Saturday night will head to Brisbane next week to face the Dolphins in a preliminary final, while Penrith awaits the winner of Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brought to you by The Warriors will exit the NRL finals in straight sets unless both Dallin Watene-Zelezniak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-895918","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\/895918","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=895918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/af5f25732d7a2b187f26c5ddabd1daef6be7a40b.jpeg\")
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