NRL: 'Good mates' rivalry as hookers square off

Kevin Locke. Photo / Getty Images

The one that got away will butt heads with the one that didn't when the Warriors and Panthers throw their bench hookers in the fray tomorrow.

Coming off the pine for the Warriors will be Alena Mara, the Wellingtonian who will be making his sixth first-grade appearance following a lengthy apprenticeship with the club's under-20 side and, more recently, with the Auckland Vulcans.

For the Panthers, the dummy half fireworks will come from Nafe Seluini, the lightning-quick star of last year's champion Warriors NYC team who quit the club to take up a significantly better offer from Penrith.

Seluini didn't take long to crack first grade with the Panthers, a fixture off the bench since round four.

Tomorrow will be his fifth NRL match. Whether he'll end up alongside Sonny Bill Williams and Shaun Kenny-Dowall as A-grade talents the Warriors let slip through their fingers remains to be seen, but Seluini already looks like he fits in the NRL.

How harshly his loss will ultimately be judged could depend on his friend and rival Mara - the horse the club backed.

"Good old Nafe, I've had a lot to do with Nafe, we're good mates," Mara said.

"Nafe is going to be out there to prove himself and I'm going to be out there to prove myself, that I should have stayed. There was a lot of politics behind him leaving and me staying. People have got their different views. This is a good chance for us to both show what we've got.

"I need to prove my point to him and he needs to prove his to me. It will be a good battle."

Mara's chances have been limited this season. Shaun Berrigan's arrival shunted him down the pecking order after he initially shaped as the understudy to Aaron Heremaia.

Injuries that saw Berrigan shifted into the centres - before he suffered a broken hand - and Lance Hohaia return to fullback opened the door for Mara, but he insisted he never viewed Berrigan's signing as a roadblock.

"When he first came, I just thought I was in contention from the start of the season and it didn't matter who he was," Mara said. "He went well in the trials, the coaches saw him as the better option at the start of the season and I agreed with that."

Now Mara's chance has come. With Nathan Friend joining the club next season, the battle for the back-up hooking job is on.

The Warriors have an option on Mara for next season, but must exercise it within the next five weeks.

Mara said his manager Sam Ayoub was working on a deal to be announced soon, but wouldn't specify whether that was with the Warriors or another club.

But for now, Mara is focused on his rivalry with Seluini. "When I see him run, I'll be trying to grab him."