I have a couple of thoughts on this, neither that involve witchcraft....
My first thought is that this is AW being #ruthless and letting Metcalf know that he is the boss - 'You don't want to play 6 in the top squad? Ok, done, play 6 in cup instead'
My second and more realistic thought is that the current halves have won and played well so neither were likely to be dropped for this Panthers match. .Metcalf needs game time to prove that he is mentally and physically willing to contribute his part to the team. The reason he is at 6 is because Hanson is on the 6 man bench as back up for the NRL side, Jett is our 7 we need to continue to develop and Metcalf can get gametime at 6 without causing too much disruption to both Jett and the team. Which still equals AW being #ruthless