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Desperate to keep their season alive, the Warriors did enough to walk away the victors 24-20
This was always going to be a tough match to review, a win for the Warriors would have had an asterisk next to it due to the number of players the Knights had out, but a defeat would have been unacceptable due to the Knights missing talent.
I was nervous before the game, the Warriors had a similar situation last year when they played a Panthers side minus their stars and were well and truly humbled, so I was glad the Warriors did not take the Knights lightly.
The first half was forgettable (more on that below), but the Warriors came out in the second half and fought their way back into the match with the much-needed return of second phase football.
It wasn't an excellent performance by any stretch but seeing the Warriors wanting the result more than their opponents for the first time in a while left me with a smile on my face which leads me to my positives.
I'm not sure what was said by Kearney or the senior players at halftime, but it worked.
Being down 12-2 at the break, I was almost resigned to the fact that the Warriors were done for, due to how many times this season the Warriors collapsed in the second half.
I still think the Warriors playoff hopes are over, but if the Warriors can perform for the rest of the season like they did in this second half, then they may string some wins together and creep up the ladder.
With injuries to Karl Lawton, Bunty Afoa and Peta Hiku, the Warriors spent a lot of the second half with a reduced bench, this meant that the forwards had to play extended minutes and I thought they did well.
My standouts were Agnatius Paasi, Lachlan Burr and Sam Lisone.
Paasi was strong up front, running for 152metres and relentless with his tackling, the sin-bin was unfortunate but was expected as the Warriors were trying to wind down the clock.
Burr had a strong showing and continues to be one of my favourites this season, he adds much-needed size to the pack, and his offloads helped get the Warriors into scoring situations, the Warriors continue to perform better when he is on the field, so I hope that he returns to the starting 13 next week.
And then there was Lisone, I think this was the best performance from Sam in a long time, running strong but also showing his passing game feeding the forwards outside him with some clinical passes.
He performance was rewarded with a try, and if he can perform like this regularly, he may find himself back first-grade fulltime and perhaps even get a new contract.
Lastly, it was good to see the return of the offloads, 10 in total.
The Warriors are at their best when they get into second phase allowing their talent in their backline to tear defences to shreds.
If the Offloads stick around, the Warriors give themselves a higher chance of walking away with the two points.
It wasn't a perfect performance, however, which leads me to my negatives.
That first half was horrible, even though the Warriors had a few scoring chances for the majority of the first 40 minutes they Warriors were guilty of the predictable attack that has plagued them for the majority of the 2019 season.
One out running with an aimless kick on the fifth is not NRL level let alone top-eight material, so the Warriors need to eliminate it from their game.
The Warriors showed what they can do when they unshackle their talented players, so they just need to come out of the gates with that mentality.
The Warriors discipline and error rate continues to hurt them, with the Warriors guilty of back to back penalties several times throughout the game.
With an increase in offloads, you can expect an increase in errors, but the Warriors just need to show the ball more respect and reduce the low percent passes and hold onto the ball better when going into contact.
Against a stronger side, these penalties and errors may have sealed the Warriors fate as early as halftime, so they just need to reign them back.
My last negative has nothing to do with either side, it is with the officials.
The referees have been poor more often than not in 2019, but this match was genuinely baffling.
It wasn't just against the Warriors either as the Knights were hard done by with some incorrect calls (One of Maumalo's tries appeared to have a forward pass involved), but the Bunker denied a certain try for Ken, gave the Knights six more tackles after it looked like Mason Lino knocked the ball.
My biggest issue during the match was when the Peta Hiku was knocked into next week, and the game was not stopped.
The Ref said that a trainer needed to advise him of the situation despite Gavin Badger being right next to Hiku staring directly at him, the Knights did score right after this, but when player safety is one of the big talking points this year it was inexcusable to see the play continue.
Im not sure what the NRL can do to fix the issues but coming out during the week and saying sorry does not cut it, the refs are basically infallible with the players and coaches not allowed to say much about their performance so what can be done.
I think the officials need to be treated like the players, you have a shocker you get dropped, if there are consequences to poor performance, then the chances of a better performance should improve.
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240 metres, 2 (should have been 3) tries and now sitting tied at the top of the NRL tryscoring leaderboard with 12.
He is head and shoulders above the rest of his team-mates this year almost down to his consistency alone, even if he doesn't cross the chalk to score he is always crucial in getting the Warriors into scoring positions with his devasting runs.
There is a chance that the Warriors could have their wingers go back to back as the NRL's top try scorer, I've had a look and could not find any other teams able to claim that feat, so fingers crossed for big Ken's form to continue.
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In his defence, he was a late call-up for Patrick Herbert, but he had me pulling my hair out in this match.
On several occasions, he had the chance to put David Fusitu'a into space but chose to go alone in Kata like fashion.
People criticise Hiku a lot, but he knows how to get his winger over the line, and that is what the Warriors need to do with a strike weapon like Fusitu'a.
If Herbert is out again this week, Beale will have a chance at redemption, and I hope he takes it.
Round 17 has the Warriors once again in Australia, this time facing the Brisbane Broncos.
The Warriors need to string wins together, and the Broncos are in a crisis of confidence right now sitting 14th on the ladder.
This gives the Warriors a good chance of getting a win here, but the Broncos showed how dangerous they can be with their win over the Sharks.
If the Warriors forwards perform like they did in the second half against the Knights and the Warriors halves put pressure on Darius Boyd, then they should be able to walk away with the win.
The Warriors have already tasted victory at Suncorp in 2019 and im backing them to win again this time by 8.
So that was my take on an improved round 16, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions.
What would you do to improve the refereeing in the NRL?
Who was your player of the match and player to improve?
Do you think the Warriors have a shot at top eight still?
What is your score prediction for Round 17?
What an ugly win, but I’m sure the team will take that any day over a hard fought loss.
ReplyDeleteBeal looked like he was trying too hard and just over cooked everything he touched.
I hope Nikorima comes to play next week against his old team, we could sure use him.
Ugly win beats a hard fought loss any day of the week. Yeah Beale may have been overplaying his hand and I'm not surprised due to his call up only happening the day before kick-off so hopefully if he is playing this week he is relaxes and focuses on getting the basics right and fingers crossed setting Fus up for a couple of tries.
DeletePretty tough first half to watch followed by an awesome 2nd half. I'm gutted big Ken didn't get his first hat trick next to his name. The score really doesn't do the game justice though. We could have very easily finished the game at 30-8. If that had been the final score we would have been lauding the team for keeping the Knights to only 1 try despite poor discipline in the first half while demolishing them in the 2nd. There was so much emphasise on us playing a weakened Knights outfit. We were still missing Harris, Roache and Herbert, plus we onyl had a 3 man bench after 17 minutes, 2 for the entire 2nd half, then lost Hiku for the last 12 minutes.
ReplyDeleteI have been enjoying watching Kodi play. He has a good pass, adds another option for dummy half runners and his lateral runs keep the opposition guessing.
I agree re Beale. I still think he is a very talented player and his game time this year at top level isn't doing him justice. Maybe he is putting to much pressure in himself to prove himself with limited first grade time. I still prefer Beale over Ashford. Will be interesting to see how he goes if Herbert has to miss a couple games.
I'm interested to see how Kearney utilises CHT this weekend. Luke struggles to last 80mins these days. You would assume Nikorima would shift to Hooker while he takes a spell and CHT will cover the halves.
As for you questions....
What can you do to improve the refereeing other than hold them accountable. Blair made a good point in a recent interview about them needing to play to the whistle as opposed to assuming that play is going to stop.
Player to improve.....?? I don't think anyone was terrible. Tevaga needs to be more careful about holding players down too long but still rate him as one of our more important players, Papalii has lost a bit of impact and I would like to see Beale relax in to his game a bit more. I'm also not convinced about Lisone. He had one of his better games with no errors or penalties but I can't see him improving a great deal more.
There is still a slim chance at hitting the 8. I personally would prefer to see us miss out on the 8 with a strong finish to the season over countless others where we start of well and slowly drop out of the top 8 towards the end of the season.
22-12 to the Warriors over the Donkeys this weekend. Go the Warriors!!!!
I don't like that no one appears to be mentioning the reduced bench the Warriors had to work with, yes the Knights had key players out but like you said the Warriors had no Harris, Roache and Herbert. With the forwards having to play extra minutes I thought they did well, take those two tries away from Sione and your right 30-8 could have been the end result.
DeleteI like Kodi too, I still would like to see him work on his kicking game, I know it's not his strong suit but it would add some dimension to the Warriors fifth tackle option, although when he runs on the last it leads to exciting moments.
I think Beale's performance could be put down to getting called up 24 hours before kickoff, being named to start this week should see him fit in better.
Yes I am assuming the same, Luke comes off, Kodi into hooker and CHT into the halves, which I don't mind, CHT is a talent and Kodi is dangerous running out of dummy half.
I agree the players need to play to the whistle, simple as that.
Yes I think all most of players performed well in comparison to how they have been this year, still plenty to work on for Jazz, Beale and Isaiah.
I though Lisone did well in his first game for a while but the key for him is to back it up.
I think they need to win 7 out of 9 to make the eight but they still have two matches against the Sharks, a match vs the Roosters and also the Raiders which will all be hard, but yes a strong finish is what I want to see.
Nice prediction.
An absorbing game to be sure. We almost looked like the Warriors of old in the second half and it was noticeable that they seemed to have more energy and desire in that second 40 which was pleasing.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how to improve the refereeing. The refs themselves are probably no worse than refs anywhere most of the time, but the bunker needs to support them more. Not only by making correct decisions themselves, but by stepping in when there is time to correct a wrong call. Remember, they have instant and constant access to replays from so many different angles, surely they can use this power to minimise mistakes moments after one has been made and before play continues.
My player of the match, and I never thought I would say this, was Adam Blair! He was involved, motivated, energetic, deft with ball in hand, made good decisions and instrumental in several key plays. He played exactly as we hoped he would when he was signed. Thank you Adam and more please. Blake Green was a close second for his excellent second half.
My player to improve? Just copy and paste what I said about Beale the other week. Honestly, he just looks completely out of his depth and ineffective in whatever he does.
I don't think this result should fool us into thinking that we are back in contention again but at least we played with some urgency and desire and maybe we can finish strongly and get some hope and optimism from that.
I actually watched a lot of the reserve grade game beforehand and was dismayed to see how poorly they played. Is that the future of our club? Do they play that badly each week? Not very reassuring at all!
This week we play the Broncos who we should have beaten last time we played. We had a nice win against them at Suncorp last year if that means anything but they are still erratic even when defeating the Sharks away last week. They will be hard to beat though, but who isn't?
Warriors to win by 4.
It was a great 2nd half, it was clear that they wanted the win more in my opinion which is pleasing as they have been found wanting in the department for the majority of the season to date.
ReplyDeleteI think the Bunker stepping in would fix a lot of the issues, errors happen especially when you are making calls on the spot quickly so if the Bunker sees the Refs made the wrong call just overturn it.
Adam Blair had a great game, was tackling hard and heaping pressure on the Knights halves. And yes his work on attack improved tenfold over what we have come to expect from Blair in 2019 so yes more please.
Yeah top eight is out of range I believe, but I want to see the performances improve as the season winds down, show me that the team is getting better so I can start 2020 optimistically.
That reserve grade game was woeful, they normally play a lot better than that so I'm not sure what happened but horrible to watch.
They should beat the Broncos, I'm not sold on Boyd at five-eighth and I think if the Warriors pressure him they are halfway there to defeating them.