Lowrie hunting perfect farewell

Vodafone Warriors-bound loose forward Todd Lowrie has had one losing grand final experience and doesn’t plan on having another one as he eyes his farewell appearance for Melbourne in Sunday’s NRL decider at ANZ Stadium (7.05pm kick-off NZ time; live on SKY Sport 2).

As it happened, Lowrie was counting down to a similar scenario three years ago only then he was preparing to line up against Melbourne.

His maiden grand final on October 4, 2009 was also a farewell appearance when he lined up for Parramatta before leaving to join the Storm the following season.

On that occasion one of his team-mates was ex-Vodafone Warrior Krisnan Inu who’ll be a Canterbury-Bankstown opponent in Sunday’s 2012 premiership battle. Also in that Parramatta side was Feleti Mateo, who’ll become a team-mate again at the Vodafone Warriors in a few weeks while one of his opponents was current Melbourne team-mate Dane Nielsen, who is also farewelling the Storm this week before joining Lowrie in Auckland.

Now 29, Lowrie experienced the disappointment of grand final defeat in 2009 when the Eels lost 16-23 to the Storm, although the premiership title was subsequently stripped in 2010 when Melbourne was found guilty of salary cap breaches.

On Sunday, Lowrie is driven to do all he can to ensure his second grand final outing delivers the win that eluded Parramatta three years ago while Nielsen will be after a first legitimate premiership after his experience in 2009.

AAP caught up with Lowrie to talk to him about his last appearance for Melbourne:

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