NRL great Willie Mason predicting fireworks between Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Nelson Asofa-Solomona
NRL great Willie Mason is predicting a “massive collision” from the opening kick-off in Friday night’s blockbuster preliminary final between Melbourne Storm and Sydney Roosters.
All eyes are on the match-up between Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Storm man mountain Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Mason is salivating at the prospect.
“Oh my god, it feels like Origin,” he told 7NEWS.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“It’s a win-win for everyone at home because Melbourne is going to defer to kicking off and they’re going to kick it to Hargreaves and vice versa, so we’re going to see a collision and it’s going to be massive.”
On the night of their last win over Melbourne in 2022, Waerea-Hargreaves was front and centre of a game-defining moment when he stood up to Asofa-Solomona, intimidated him into submission, got sin-binned for his troubles and inspired the Roosters to victory.
“You just see how much passion he had for the team and that competitive nature that he has,” said prop Lindsay Collins.
“He brings that out of the rest of us when he does stuff like that because he wants to fight right until the end.”
Leading the Storm as they attacked the Roosters’ line midway through the first half, a scrambling Waerea-Hargreaves greeted Cameron Munster with a high shot.
That triggered a melee that led to Asofa-Solomona running in with referee Adam Gee giving both sets of players a dressing down.
But on the very next tackle Waerea-Hargreaves whacked Asofa-Solomona high, put him in a headlock, sparked a new melee, was placed on report and then sent to the sin bin.
Waerea-Hargreaves may have been a sacrifice in battle but it helped the Roosters win the war.
“You’ve got to go after their big threats and fight fire with fire,” Roosters teammate Angus Crichton said.
“That’s what Jared has done and that’s what we have to go out there and do on the weekend and replicate that again.”
Storm are heavy favourites to progress to the grand final, but Mason is tipping the Roosters to spring a surprise.
“It’s the last hoorah for them, there’s about five or six players that are departing and I think that will give them that extra five per cent they need,” he added.
But he isn’t tipping an upset in the other preliminary final, confidently backing Penrith to beat the Sharks and keep their four-peat hopes alive.
- With AAP
Originally published on 7NEWS Sport
