Melbourne Storm star Stefano Utoikamanu has fired the first shot ahead of the 2025 NRL Grand Final, labelling his opponents as "stuck up" and admitting that there are a lot of players "I don't like" on the Broncos squad.
Lighting the fuse ahead of Sunday's match between the two sides, Utoikamanu expressed his dislike for the Broncos and intends to intimidate them from the opening kick-off.
A key signing for the Storm, the NSW Blues representative has emerged as the leader of the club's forward pack and is coming off arguably a career-best performance against the Cronulla Sharks in the preliminary final.
"I want to make sure this week I set up to get that first kick of the game," Utoikamanu said.
"There's going to be a lot of people I want to run at. There's a lot of people I don't like in this team.
"I'm keen to go out there and run someone over.
"I don't want to name names, but, yeah, there's a lot of people I think are a bit stuck-up, and I'm pretty keen just to run at and do a job for our team."
In response to his NSW Blues teammate, Payne Haas returned serve but wasn't agitated when shown the comments Utoikamanu made earlier in the day.
"I don't really care what they say, to be honest. They can say what they want, but we'll be out there on Sunday, and we'll see if that's still going to be thrown around," Haas said.
"We will worry about ourselves and worry about our own preparation, and when that comes around, we will see.
"I don't care to be honest. They can think what they think. We are who we are, and you can't change that.
"They have this certain image of us down there, so it is what it is, we'll see what happens."
