Penrith forward Viliame Kikau spent the past two weeks tearing through his own side, preparing them to beat South Sydney and hoping it would get him to an NRL grand final.
The suspended second-rower was an anxious figure in the stands at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night as the Panthers held on to down the Rabbitohs 20-16.
If they didn’t hold their nerve in the dying minutes while Souths were coming for the win, it would have been season over for the Fiji star who was rubbed out for a dangerous throw in the qualifying final.
A 21-16 win against Melbourne in round six kickstarted the incredible run of 17 wins and Kikau was one of the best on the field that night back in June.
And in a warning for the Storm, Kikau is ready to unleash all of his energy to repay the Panthers with a premiership on Sunday night.
“I was sweating, it was humid but I was sweaty from getting nervous,” he said of Saturday’s preliminary final.
“It was a nerve-wracking game. I was very relieved when the referee blew the whistle.”
Since failing at the NRL judiciary to have his charge overturned, Kikau has been training with the Panthers’ second-string side – the Cougars.
His main job has been charging at the edge defence of Tyrone May and Brent Naden, both of whom were put through their paces in the brutal opposed sessions.
“He doesn’t like me very much at the moment,” Kikau said of May.
“After losing the judiciary thing two weeks ago the coaches told me we can’t do much now and the only thing I could do was help the boys prepare.
“I trained with the other boys who are not in the team and every time we had an opposed session I was just trying to test them out on the right edge.
“I felt down on myself and felt like I had let the team down and I got in the next day the boys were so good, they made me look up again.
“They were like ‘don’t worry just make sure you help us prepare well this week and we’ll get you another game’.
“That’s what I’ve tried to do the whole week.”
Instead of Naden and May, Kikau will be running at Brenko Lee and Suliasi Vunivalu in Sunday’s grand final.
The Storm cruised to a 30-10 win over Canberra in Friday night’s preliminary final at Suncorp Stadium.
It will be the fourth grand final for the Storm in the past five seasons, but the first for star fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen.
“It’s the number one goal of a lot of kids and a goal of mine (to win a premiership),” the Melbourne No.1 said.
“So to get there now, we’ve still got a job to do, but it’s an unbelievable feeling.
“It wont’ be hard to get up and about.
“It’s all come to this point now, we’ve put in the hard work and sacrificed a lot.
“The feeling is good.”
