After starring in South Sydney’s Semi Final defeat of Cronulla, Taane Milne is preparing for a challenge of a different sort this week as he braces for an aerial barrage from Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary.
After announcing himself as a crucial cog in the Rabbitohs' attack with a hand in three of his side's six tries, Milne was under no illusions of the obstacle that lies ahead, with the 2021 Grand Final rematch bringing with it arguably his best on-field challenge to date as a winger.
“I’ll be practising for those [bombs] this week. That’s obviously a strong point of his game and we’re just going to take it how it is,” Milne told the media following Saturday night’s 38-12 victory over the Sharks.
“He’s got all the tricks, so we’ve just got to be ready and prepare this week like every other week, but yeah we’ll analyse them.
“We train everyday to be a footy player and that’s what you’ve got to do, you’ve got to catch bombs so that’s my job and I’ll be doing the best I can to catch them.
Real glory is waiting - Panthers v Rabbitohs
“I’ve played him this year but I wasn’t really in a position to catch his balls, he’ll have to worry about the kick pressure as well,” he said.
“Teams do that with every kicker so it’s an important part of the game, so I’ll see what Coach has got for us this week but I’m pretty confident we’ll sort it out."
Milne might be yet to experience the aerial assault but his teammates no doubt have nightmares of the spiralling bombs after Cleary's kicking game forced multiple errors in last year's Grand Final.
"I was in the squad last year so it hurt me when the boys lost, we worked really hard and we had the opportunity last year," he said.
"I think this year, we’ve got a few new players and a change of the spine so we’re just focusing on one week at a time."
After spending time in the sin bin on two separate occasions during last week's win over the Roosters, the Fiji international was delighted to deliver an improved performance against the Sharks, chalking up two tries, an assist and three line breaks during arguably the best 80-minute performance of his career.
“I let the team down last week when we went down to 11 men and I just thought I’d focus on my job and try and keep it as clean as possible,” Milne said.
“I’ve got no judiciary this week so I’m pretty happy with that and now I can just roll into this week focusing on my job. “But now we've got a big game against Penrith this week so we’ll start focusing on that.
“We’ve got a goal and that’s to win the comp and now we're a step closer.”
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