NRL: Only Victory Will Satisfy Warriors' Mateo

It's not the getting there that counts.

That's the message Feleti Mateo will be drumming into his team mates this week as the Warriors prepare for the club's second NRL grand final. Mateo knows all too well the hollowness that comes with a grand final defeat, describing his last visit to Homebush on the final day of the season as a "shattering" experience.

The ball-playing Tongan captain also knows that some teams head into the big day intent on winning, while others are happy just to be there.

In 2009, Mateo's Parramatta side staged one of the great NRL surges, riding a staggering wave of form that took them from 14th on the ladder after 14 rounds all the way to a grand final showdown with Melbourne.

There are echoes of that run in the Warriors' remarkable journey this season. They lost their first three games, dropped another four in a row mid-season, and were then belted out of sight 40-10 by Brisbane in their opening finals match.

Having recovered to topple the Tigers and Storm in thrilling fashion, the Warriors might be forgiven for thinking they have already achieved plenty.

They will, however, be a long time forgiving themselves if that mentality proves their undoing.

"I had a lot of people come up to me and say 'we don't care about the GF, as long as you beat the Bulldogs'," said Mateo of 2009, when the Eels beat their arch rival in a hugely hyped Battle of Sydney grand final qualifier.

"We all wanted to win it, but I guess there was a feeling it was a good thing getting there. We have spoken about that. We don't want to be happy to be there. We think we are good enough to win it."

Coach Ivan Cleary didn't think getting his team to switch from being desperate to reach a grand final to desperate to win it would be difficult.

"I have no interest in coming second," Cleary said.

"It is not hard to work out when you get up every morning where you want to finish - that is not in the grand final, it is winning it. But we never set it out as a particular goal, we have just arrived here based on what we have been able to do.

"It is absolutely fantastic to get the opportunity to experience all this but, really, it is about having the opportunity to become champions, not a side show."

Despite a transtasman surge of support the Warriors are still firm underdogs.

"No one expected us to beat the Tigers and no one expected us to [beat the Storm]," Mateo said. "Let them keep doubting us."

Having joined the Warriors after the Eels' 2010 campaign, Mateo never doubted the move - not even after those three season-opening defeats.

"Never mate. Those first three games, we didn't win them but we played some good footy. And looking at the squad the club had, it was really promising."

The Junior Warriors and feeder club Auckland Vulcans also contesting grand finals on Sunday supports his view the club is stocked with talent.

Often described as a special player for his prodigious offloading and line-breaking ability, Mateo insists there is, in fact, nothing too special about this Warriors team.

"It's just been dirty, ugly footy. Going forward, completing sets and taking our opportunities when they come. That is what we have been doing for the last two weeks and, hopefully, we can do it again this week.

"Manly are a great team, they have got strike across the whole field. But it is just another game you have to grind out. They have some hard heads in that pack and they will get even harder with Glenn Stewart coming back.

"But if we just worry about ourselves, play our brand of footy and keep level headed, then I think we can win it."

Silence Speaks Volumes About the Pain That Drives Stewart

Few could imagine the emotion Brett Stewart carried to his comeback NRL season and now a grand final, writes Richard Hinds.

Tomorrow, it will be precisely 12 months since Manly fullback Brett Stewart heard the verdict. A year since, in a formal sense, his personal ordeal came to an end.

Back then, overwhelmed by a torrent of emotion, you can only imagine how distant, even insignificant, the thought of playing in another NRL grand final would have seemed. After the humiliation Stewart had endured, and the toll injury and a long absence from the game had taken, how far-fetched it might have been to think he would appear again, so soon, in the far more glowing public spotlight of ANZ Stadium.

You can only imagine, because, for the most part, Stewart has maintained what seems - from afar - a brooding silence. Attempts to talk to Stewart, through his agent, have been rebuffed or met with no response at all. Stewart accumulated six-figure legal bills and his story is a tradeable commodity. It might well appear elsewhere.

But, other than for potential financial gain, Stewart's reluctance to talk is hardly surprising. Tried, judged and - in his own mind, at least - persecuted by the media since the day of his arrest, it is understandable he has withdrawn into a protective cocoon. Even more so at a club that famously holds the world at arm's length.

Yet, as he prepared to feature in what should be one of the feel-good stories of the NRL grand final, the heavy, almost oppressive atmosphere that has surrounded Stewart this season seems unfortunate. In the manner in which he has returned from the harrowing ordeal of the sexual assault trial and a series of serious knee injuries, Stewart deserves to be praised beyond his Brookvale backyard. To be re-embraced by the game he once - very briefly - publicly symbolised.

Instead, there remains a note of defiance, even bitterness, about Stewart's great comeback. Manly fans cheered when the fullback ''Galloped'' after scoring his 100th first grade try in May. But what should have been a crowning moment was again dominated by old wounds and unsettled scores.

Grand final week is usually replete with tales of redemption, near-death experiences and other entertaining back stories told to whet the appetite for the contest. Stewart's tale is awkward, unorthodox and difficult to define.

No doubt, many would begrudge Stewart any form of ''heroism'' on the grounds his supposedly heroic act is merely to have been found not guilty of a serious crime. But that fails to take into account the mental anguish he must have endured between his arrest in March last year and his trial. The public humiliation, the personal doubts and the effect on family and friends.

Perhaps that lingering bitterness and resentment drives Stewart. Perhaps, if he forgave and forgot his public vilification, he would not have found the motivation to return to the top so quickly. Maybe, if he was not playing angry, he would not be playing at all. Or does the smile, concealed from the public, appear the moment he reaches the sanctuary of the sheds? You would love to ask Stewart if he had found peace inside, and outside, the white lines.

No doubt, Stewart's looming happily-ever-after owes much to his handful of confidantes, particularly coach Des Hasler. Asked earlier this year, when was he convinced of Stewart's innocence, Hasler said it was when he saw him at the police station after his arrest and looked into his eyes.

To some, no doubt, such a seemingly superficial assessment would reek of partisanship, even disrespect for the alleged victim. Given what Hasler had to gain from his superstar fullback, it might even be considered rank opportunism.

Yet, with his faith and conviction vindicated by the jury's verdict, Hasler has created an unbreakable bond. Similar to the familial bond that made it not merely understandable but purely reflexive, that Stewart came to his brother's aid as the ''third man in'' during the Battle of Brookvale.

Almost as an afterthought, there is also an old-fashioned football element to Stewart's story.

The knee injuries that forced him from the park for most of last season, and which have been a lingering concern right up until the eve of these finals.

But, if Stewart has not quite reached the peak of his try-scoring powers, he has been a reasonable facsimile. Sound at the back, a threat near the line. Back in a place that was, just 12 months ago, unimaginable. It would be nice to speak to Stewart about what that all means. Then again, on Sunday, just trotting out to play another grand final will speak for itself.

rhinds@smh.com.au

SOURCE: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/silence-speaks-volumes-about-the-pain-that-drives-stewart-20110927-1kvjo.html#ixzz1ZCuISXrv