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| Copyright Photo: Andrew Cornaga / www.Photosport.nz |
Well after two wins in a row the Warriors looked to be
gaining confidence and the Holy Trinity of Shaun Johnson, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck,
and Issac Luke appeared to finally have some cohesion heading into this game
against the Manly Seagulls.
Unfortunately, for the fans all the improvements the
Warriors had made the previous fortnight being thrown out the window as the
Woeful Warriors returned losing to Manly 34-18.
I don’t really know what to say about this performance,
yes there were some bad calls from the match officials including the incorrect
call from the bunker regarding Solomone Kata being tackled in goal (But more
about that later) but the Warriors played with no heart in my opinion.
They were careless with the ball and appeared lost
on attack, the forwards had no go forward and spent most of the game being
driving backwards by a strong Manly defense and Shaun reverted back to not
running the ball towards the line or more accurately not running at all.
It could be fair to say that Shaun didn’t attack the line
because of the lack of go forward from the pack but it does not excuse the
silly errors and easily avoidable penalties.
The Bunker contacting the referee and advising that Solomone
Kata had been tackled in goal and to take play back to a drop out was abysmal.
The first point is that the call was incorrect, Kata made
it out and the on field Referees made the correct call on the spot.
The second point is if the Bunker has the ability to
contact the referee in regards to any error they see on the field, why are they
not doing this for all games?
I can think of many moments this season that there have
been calls on-field that were wrong and the bunker kept quiet.
They need to either help like this all the time or keep
quiet until they are asked for assistance, this call was not needed or asked
for and it gave Manly and easy set which resulted in a try.
My player of the day goes to Solomone Kata, in a game
where it looked like no one was trying Solomone was still trying to run hard
and added another try to his season tally (7 tries which places him 2nd on
the top try scorer list), he does need to stop rushing in on defense as that
puts extra pressure on the winger outside him and with the trouble the Warriors
defense has been having they don’t need him making it harder.
My player who needs to improve goes to a player I never
thought I would put in this category and that is Ryan Hoffman.
Ryan missed 6 tackles in this match (The most by any
individual player in this game) and let his temper get the better of him, he
was clearly frustrated with the calls being made by the officials but as the
leader of this team he cannot let things like that affect him because if he if
loses his temper and starts trying to fight the opposition what does that say
to the rest of the team.
I hope as a fan of the Warriors that he has sorted this
out and starts to perform at the level he was consistently at when playing for
the Melbourne Storm.
This week the Warriors are travelling down to Wellington
to face the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.
Wellington has not been a good ground for the Warriors,
in fact of the 5 times the Warriors have faced the Bulldogs here the best they
have managed is a draw.
Andrew McFadden has made some changes to the side for
this contest dropping Jeff Robson from the side and moving Tuimoala Lolohea
into the halves and giving Shaun back his number 7 jersey, David Fusitu’a has
been brought in to replace Tui on the wing, the only other change is bringing
Ligi Sao onto the bench (In new today it was announced that Konrad Hurrell was
playing for the New South Wales Cup side so Ligi has taken Konrads position on
the Warriors bench).
I am happy with these changes, Tui has been wasted on the
wing and Jeff hasn’t offered any value yet this year so it was an easy decision
to make and in fact should have been made weeks ago. David Fusitu’a has been
battling injury but when he is fit he hasn’t disappointed while performing in
the top grade and will be staying on the wing for the rest of season if he
stays fit.
Ligi I think has been brought in to address that lack of
go forward we saw last week.
The Bulldogs have been consistently inconsistent this
year and I believe this is the time for the Warriors to strike, the Holy
Trinity need to gel and put the Bulldogs to the sword.
I believe that if they do the basics right and avoid
silly penalties the Warriors will walk away with the victory and I'm picking
them to win the game by two.
If you like what I've written or disagree with what
I think then let me know, i would love to discuss anything Warriors related in
the comments, share it with your friends on facebook too as I want to get this
out to as many people as I can and I know there are so many loyal Warriors fans
happy to chat on there.
Hopefully, I will be writing about the Warriors getting
back on track next time but until then enjoy the game tonight and talk later.
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