At Go Media Stadium Mt Smart: Warriors 40 (Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Addin Fonua-Blake, Marcelo Montoya, Dylan Walker, Rocco Berry, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Bayley Sironen tries; Adam Pompey 6 goals) Knights 10 (Greg Marzhew, Dylan Lucas tries, Kalyn Ponga goal). HT: 16-4

If you were one of those who kept the faith, this was a night for you.

If you sat through the many forgettable seasons over the past decade and kept watching while your boys were stuck in Australia during the Covid-19 pandemic, this was what you had been waiting for.

Read it as often as you like: The Warriors are one of the last four teams standing in the 2023 NRL season and will play the Brisbane Broncos in a preliminary final next weekend, looking to make it to their third grand final, after dispatching the Newcastle Knights 40-10 at their Mt Smart home on Saturday.

It didn’t take long for the club’s first home finals match since 2008 to become one to remember, as the home team rewarded the 26,083-strong crowd with three tries inside 15 minutes and kept the Knights, on a 10-match winning streak, lest you forget, from truly threatening down the other end for almost 20.

The Warriors were tested later in the first half and early in the second spell of the semifinal, but no doubt buoyed by their home support, they turned in their best performance in two months to keep their season going another week. Play like this again, and they will truly see what the Broncos are made of.

Shaun Johnson returned to the Warriors’ starting side after missing their qualifying final loss to the Penrith Panthers last weekend with a calf injury and steered them around the park expertly, showing little sign of being encumbered by the tear he suffered three weeks ago. He finally got a rest – and a standing ovation – with seven minutes to play.

The mere sight of Johnson in front of him seemed to spook Knights winger Greg Marzhew into knocking on and coughing up the ball deep inside his own half during the opening set, and the halfback was heavily involved in getting Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad over in the right corner inside two minutes.

Any anxieties about the Warriors not being able to deliver under the pressure of their home fans were swiftly eased when prop Addin Fonua-Blake slipped through a tackle on the line to put them 10-0 up. At 16-0 inside 14 minutes, thanks to Marcelo Montoya’s try in the corner, they would have been in dreamland.

Johnson slotted back in at halfback as if he hadn’t missed a beat, but he did knock the ball on defending a grubber near the Warriors’ line, one of a series of errors that allowed the Knights to build pressure and eventually get on the board through Marzhew in the 26th minute, with the score remaining 16-4 at the break.

The Knights struck first in the second half when Montoya couldn’t control an end-of-set bomb, giving the visitors the ball back deep in the Warriors’ half and allowing Dylan Lucas to score, the gap closing to six once Kalyn Ponga added the extra points.

Was that the moment when anxiety would creep back in? Captain Tohu Harris took matters into his own hands, surging up the middle of the park and setting up Dylan Walker to crash over under the posts soon after, which meant the lead was restored to 12.

It became 18 with 20 minutes to go, as a trademark Warriors play to send Dallin Watenze-Zelezniak in down the right ended with him offloading it back to Rocco Berry, who was judged to have grounded the ball legally after a review by the bunker overruled the on-field decision.

Watene-Zelezniak then got in on the act on the right edge himself soon after, while Bayley Sironen put the icing on the cake with his side’s seventh try. Whatever happens in the weeks ahead, the Warriors surely won’t be waiting 15 years for their next home final.

The big moment

Walker’s try in the 47th minute. It came just after the Knights had pulled within one try through Lucas, giving themselves the start they were after in the second half. Harris’ run up the middle to get the attack going was spectacular, but the way the Warriors sniffed an opportunity and sent Walker thundering over was a sign of how determined they were not to give their rivals a sniff.

Match rating

8/10: It was everything the home fans were after, but it stopped short of being a thriller, with the Warriors in front from start to finish.

MVP

Harris got through a mountain of work around his crucial line break early in the second half, making 39 tackles and running for 216 metres.

The big picture

The Warriors’ record in home finals matches now stands at three wins out of four, but they’re off to Brisbane to face the Broncos in a preliminary final next Saturday. The two-time defending champion Penrith Panthers will host the Melbourne Storm in the other preliminary final next Sunday.