the North Queensland Cowboys 42–8 in the qualifying final and the Brisbane Broncos 26–14 in the preliminary after earning a weeks break. Steve Matai and Tony Williams were reported to the NRL's match review committee for incidents during the win over Brisbane, raising the prospect that they may be suspended for the Grand Final. However, the committee refused to charge Matai, while Williams' clean record enabled him to avoid a suspension by pleading guilty to a charge of effecting an unlawful high tackle. However, Manly would play the Grand Final without their co-captain Jason King, who suffered a pectoral injury in Round 22 of the season, and winger David Williams with a neck injury. It would be Manly's 18th Grand Final appearance, a record seventh consecutive decade in which the club had achieved the feat, and a chance for the club to win its eighth premiership. Coach Des Hasler made his third Grand Final in the position after appearing in three others as a Manly player. New Zealand Warriors For only the second time in the club's entire history the New Zealand Warriors would search for their first premiership title up against the second-placed Manly side. Having finished sixth on the competition ladder with 32 points, they lost their first match of the finals series to the Brisbane Broncos in their heaviest defeat of the season losing 40–10 but however earned a second chance, only due to the two lower-ranking teams also losing. They then upset the Wests Tigers in the semi finals after many gave them a slim chance of winning and they were down 18–6 at half time before mounting a comeback to be down just 20–18 with a few minutes remaining before Kristian Inu scored the match winner for the Warriors as they won 22–20. The New Zealand Warriors then went on to post a major upset over the 2011 minor premiers the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park in their Grand Final qualifier. The New Zealand Warriors were down 6-0 after 5 minutes due to some poor defence that Gareth Widdop took advantage of to put Sika Manu through a gap to score; the try was converted by Cameron Smith. the Warriors would hit back in the following dozen minutes through Bill Tupou and James Maloney scoring in the 12th and 16th minutes for the Warriors to lead 12–6. The Melbourne side would hit back through a