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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 3187273, member: 1899"] No real surprises for either team. Viliame Kikau returns after serving his one-week suspension for a dangerous tackle while Dale Finucane has been named on the bench after starting last week's final. I was surprised at how much the Panthers missed Kikau against South Sydney. Even with an in-form roster, the Panthers offence was guilty of being overly conservative and it resulted in a very nervous win over a battered South Sydney outfit. They didn't give themselves a platform to put together any quality set plays so all their tries came down to kicks or individual efforts like Yeo. Kikau's presence should ease the pressure on the Panthers and allow them to put up better formations and challenge the Storm across the field. I'm curious to see how Melbourne approach this. They flew out the gates against the Raiders early and exposed their edge defence with some well-executed block plays where they used Olam as a decoy. They effectively won the game in the opening 10 minutes and were able to coast as Canberra blew opportunity after opportunity. I think we'll see them try something similar, but just like the Bulldogs GF from 2012 I'm curious to see what they cook up for this defensive line. I'm surprised that the bookies consider Melbourne the favourites. This feels like the first GF since 1999 where they weren't in the box seat and they're coming up against a team that's out-played them through out the year. It reminds me a lot of the 2006 GF, except Melbourne find themselves coming up against the young up-starts who have taken the competition by storm. [/QUOTE]

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