Melbourne and Cronulla will be out to lock up a home preliminary final and a handy week off when they face off at AAMI Park on Saturday afternoon in the second qualifying final.
Star fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen returns to the line up for the qualifying final after being rested from the final regular season game last week to manage a cork he picked up against North Queensland a fortnight ago.
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Papenhuyzen and the Storm will come up against a couple of former Melbourne players in Nicho Hynes and Daniel Atkinson.
“It’s always good to come up against your old teammates – Nicho (Hynes) and Atko [Daniel Atkinson],” Papenhuyzen said.
“Atko’s been playing some really good footy and Nicho’s had a rough couple of years but he’s sort of finding his form in finals now.
“He’ll definitely be hurt about all the raps they [Cronulla Sharks] have about finals time, so I know he’ll want to come down and prove a point.
“But we’re ready to go, and a lot of boys are really confident that we can go out there and win and put a game plan together to get the job done.”
In a huge blow for the Sharks, gun centre Jesse Ramien has been ruled out, meaning Siosifa Talakai has been promoted to the starting backline.
For Melbourne, in addition to Papenhuyzen replacing the injured Sua Fa’alogo at the back, forward Christian Welch returns to the line up via the bench.
The Sharks lowered the colours of the Storm 25-18 when the two sides clashed in their sole meeting this year back in May.
TEAMS
Storm team: 1. Ryan Papenhuyzen 2. William Warbrick 3. Jack Howarth 4. Nick Meaney 5. Xavier Coates 6. Cameron Munster 7. Jahrome Hughes 8. Nelson Asofa-Solomona 9. Harry Grant 10. Josh King 11. Shawn Blore 12. Eliesa Katoa 13. Trent Loiero 14. Tyran Wishart 15. Christian Welch 16. Tui Kamikamica 17. Alec MacDonald 18. Grant Anderson 19. Lazarus Vaalepu
Sharks team: 1. William Kennedy 2. Sione Katoa 17. Siosifa Talakai 4. Kayal Iro 5. Ronaldo Mulitalo 6. Braydon Trindall 7. Nicho Hynes 8. Toby Rudolf 9. Blayke Brailey 10. Oregon Kaufusi 11. Briton Nikora 12. Teig Wilton 13. Cameron McInnes 14. Daniel Atkinson 15. Jack Williams 16. Royce Hunt 22. Thomas Hazelton 19. Chris Veaila 20. Jayden Berrell
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Source Agencies
