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| Copyright Photo: John Davidson / www.photosport.nz |
An extremely windy night greeted the Warriors when they travelled to AMI Stadium to face the Penrith Panthers in their Round 10 matchup.After the win in Round 9 and a week off due to the international window, the Warriors had time to let the dust from the dramas of the past few weeks settle and get all eyes focused back on the football.
The Warriors started well with Solomona Kata crashing over to score five minutes in but the Panthers came back with strong defense and after Shaun Johnson had a brain explosion and tried to offload the ball to no one in the in goal led to Jamie Soward pouncing on the loose ball for the try, the Panthers were back in the game.
Careless penalties and soft defense put the Warriors on the back foot and the Panthers piled on another eight points before the Warriors managed to score two tries in the space of 5 minutes to take an 18-14 lead into the halftime break.
This would be the last time the Warriors would have the lead as the Panthers took over the game and came away with the victory 30-18.
The attitude that was on display in Round 9 must have blown away in the wind as the Warriors appeared to never really be in this game.
They now have a four win and six loss record for the 2016 season and if the easy penalties and simple errors continue to plague their games then the chances of playoff football being in their future are all but gone.
Offloads were consistently missing the mark, the defense was lacklustre and execution was sorely missing.
There is no need to go back to the drawing board as the answer is simple, go back to the basics and play with passion.
My player of the day this round goes to Bodene Thompson, after being stood down for the pill saga in round 9 Bodene came out with something to prove.
He had a strong defensive showing with a match-high 51 tackles and he also got one of the two (That's right only two) line breaks for the Warriors.
It looks like being stood down has lit a fire under Bodene and hopefully his attitude and performance is contagious and spreads throughout the squad.
My player who needs to improve was hard this week as the majority of the team left a lot to be desired but I have to go with Charlie Gubb, the enthusiasm we have come to expect from Charlie when he comes off the interchange was missing.
He missed the most tackles, gave away the most penalties and ran for the least amount of metres.
Overall it was a poor performance from Charlie and this has lead to him being dropped for Round 11.
This will be a wake-up call and the crowd favorite will be back to his best soon I'm sure.
Round 11 sees the Warriors travelling to Taranaki to play the Canberra Raiders in what is a must-win game to bring their season back on track.
Solomona Kata has been suspended for one round so Matt Allwood has taken his spot in the lineup with Sam Lisone coming in to replace Charlie Gubb and Simon Mannering also returning from his injury.
The Raiders have a similar record with four wins, five losses, and a draw so far this season so if the Warriors can get the basics right and bring the right attitude into the game they should come away with the victory,
I expect Issac Luke to have a big game in front of his friends and family in his home region and I am calling the Warriors to win by 12.
If you like what I’ve written or disagree 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 being victorious next time but until then enjoy the game and talk later.
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