 |
| Copyright Photo: Paul Seiser / www.photosport.nz |
The team carried a lot of expectation on their shoulders
leading into this game and by halftime it appeared to be all but over with the Tigers
leading 28-4.
The Warriors attempted a comeback and made it a two point
game at 28-26, Shaun Johnson tried some last ditch magic with 80 seconds
remaining but it was unsuccessful as James Tedesco collected the football from Shaun’s
chip and chase and ran 60 metres to score to end the game 34-26.
The issues the Warriors had in 2015 reared their head
again in this game as the Warriors defence was severely lacking and this needs
to be turned around otherwise it could be another long season.
The team did show that they could still score points they
just need to reduce the errors and not let teams get away to big leads as
playing catch-up football is never a good situation for them to be in.
Calls for Andrew McFadden’s head started up again as
early as halftime and only intensified in the days after this loss and to be
honest I am over it.
The Warriors fans and media’s answer to bad results is
always to sack someone, most of the time that someone being the coach.
History has showed that firing coaches at Mount Smart has
never really solved any problems.
It is only round one and the season is nowhere near over,
the Warriors know what to do and it will be a bad season if they continue to
make the same mistakes but if they fix the defense and error rate they will
make a dent in this competition.
If you look at the results from Round One in 2015, five
of the eight final series teams suffered defeat with the Grand Finalists teams
both being dealt large losses.
The Brisbane Broncos lost 36-6 to the South Sydney
Rabbitohs and the 2015 Champion North Queensland Cowboys lost 28-4 to the
Sydney Roosters, not to mention the Cowboys lost the next two games as well.
So I think everyone needs to pump the brakes and give
this team a chance to improve.
My player of the game was Bodene Thompson.
He came in to the game earlier than expected with the
heart breaking injury to Ben Henry (News today is he has suffered a broken
Patella and no word on when he will be returning yet) and he made an immediate
impact and provided some starch to the defensive line.
My player who most needs to improve is Issac Luke, Issac
seemed to me to not be that interested.
The Warriors need his intensity and his nippy runs from
dummy half.
He is a tremendous player and I’m sure he will come back
stronger in Round 2.
Round 2 brings another away game, this time visiting
Brisbane and playing the 2015 runner up Broncos.
The pressure is on the Warriors to come back strong after
Round 1’s lacklustre performance and the Broncos will be looking to send the
Warriors back across the Tasman with a 0-2 record.
Both teams have impressive backlines but this game will
come down to the battle of the forwards, the Warriors will need to come in hard
and fast and get the momentum rolling to unleash their backline.
I’m looking forward to this game and hopefully I will
writing about the Warriors first win of the competition next week.
Look out for the battle between Ben Matulino and Sam
Thaiday to take front and centre stage and I’m also interested in seeing how
Corey Oates will go after an amazing game last week and if Manu Vatuvei can
contain him and vice versa.
Let’s bring on Round 2 and see you next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment