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The Warriors have improved their performances since their last appearance in Auckland, and the 10,395 fans that showed up were expecting a spirited showing if not a victory.
It wasn't to be however as the Warriors delivered arguably their worst performance of the year losing 46-12.
Well, this was not the performance that I expected to see from the Warriors, they have shown improvement and heart for the past 6 weeks, so I thought they had a chance to take the Raiders to the limit, but boy I was wrong.
The Warriors have either won, drawn or lost by slim margins recently, but the reality is that they were against teams stuck in the middle of the ladder like them, but once against a genuine top-four side they were well and truly shown up.
Perhaps after so many close tough games, the Warriors were simply drained, but that just isn't good enough for NRL level.
Right from Adam Blair's dropped ball in the Warriors first set of the match the Warriors fate was sealed, they had no game plan, no heart and no desire and all the fans can hope for is that it was a rude awakening for the side as they embark on a gruelling last five rounds of the season.
There isn't a lot to praise in this performance, but it wasn't all doom and gloom, which leads me to my positives.
The Warriors were able to reduce the number of penalties they conceded, and this was an effort considering the fact that they spent more time on defence compared to the Raiders, making more than 100 tackles than the Green Machine.
The majority of the gameday 17 were well below the level expected in first grade, but it was the youngsters that shown fire.
Chanel Harris-Tavita continues to show the promise he has and needs to be in the Warriors starting side from now on.
Josh Curran had a strong showing in his first hit-out for the Warriors, he did miss the most tackles with 8, but a lot of those were in his first minutes, and I believe nerves were a factor as once he had a few runs, he started to outshine the rest of the second rowers.
I would be looking at Curran to be starting over Isaiah Papali'i this week if I was selecting the squad as Papali'i has been nothing short of ordinary for the majority of the season.
Unfortunately, there were quite a few negatives to go over so I will just get into it.
The forwards were woeful, with only Leeson Ah Mau hitting triple-digit running metres. When the forwards fail to make an impact on the game, the halves and backline really have no platform to build off and in turn, don't have the scoring Opportunites needed to win a game or in the Warriors case get back into the match.
When the Warriors did get into good field position, they delivered poor last tackle options.
Whoever the attack coach is for the Warriors they need to ship up or ship out as their gameplan is schoolboy level and clearly not working and if it down to the halves going off script, then the need to be reigned in or dropped.
The Warriors struggled to get much possession in that first half, but when they did get it, that just gave it away with careless errors.
I have said it so often this season, but if you don't show the ball respect, you will get punished this match was proof of that.
Lastly was the defence, the Warriors missed 58 tackles, 58!
Several of the Raiders tries came after they waltzed through Warriors players feeble attempts that were embarrassing to watch live.
They didn't wrap the ball carrier up allowing the Raiders to offload almost at will and this second phase football destroyed the Warriors chances.
The Warriors have struggled to defend around the ruck area, and the Raiders took advantage of it with Josh Hodgson having a field day running out of dummy half.
The Warriors need to shore up that marker area as they are facing some top tier hookers in the upcoming weeks and they will be targeting this weakness. If the Warriors don't improve, it is going to be a rough ride.
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Kodi Nikorima's injury was unfortunate, but it allowed Chanel to inject himself into the game and show everyone why he should have been out there from the start.
While the rest of the playmakers have been one-note, Chanel shows creativity and desire. He is the only half that was able to give the Warriors legitimate scoring chances on the last tackle.
Even the tries he scored highlighted his desire with him always hovering around the ball carrier ready for an offload.
He needs to be starting for the rest of the season, and in my opinion, he should be taking the spot of my warrior that needs to improve.
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At the start of the season, I was worried about what would happen to the Warriors if Green was to get injured, but now with the advantage of hindsight. I think the Warriors attack looks better when he isn't there.
Green is an experienced half, but what he has been delivering with his game management has been nothing short of rookie level.
2019 season is over so it's time to get the 2020 halves combination of Kodi and Chanel some game time together so they can gel before next season starts.
If Kodi's ankle injury means that he is out this week, I would reunite Chanel and Adam Keighran in the halves again as Green is stunting the Warriors attack not improving it.
Round 21 has the Warriors at home once again, hosting the Manly Sea Eagles.
Manly looked great against the Knights last week and will be looking at repeating that performance in a bid to secure a top-four spot.
Injuries will not help the Warriors, and it looks like Karl Lawton and Kodi Nikorima may both be out of this match, this leaves a massive hole at hooker and Jazz Tevaga isn't a hooker so the Warriors will need to pull a rabbit out of the hat if they are to compete this week.
I don't see it happening though, and I feel like it is going to be a long five weeks for Warriors fans, so I'm picking Manly by 18.
So that was my take on an embarrassing round 20 performance, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions?
Do you have a Warrior of the match?
With games against Manly and the Rabbitohs left, will the Warriors win again at Mount Smart?
If Nikorima and Lawton are out, who would be your hooker and halves?
What is your score prediction for round 21?
There’s been some bad Warriors performances over time but this has to rank amongst the top five.
ReplyDeleteIt’s going to be hard to stem the rot and bring back some pride.
It was horrible, after over a month away from Mount Smart the local fans deserved more than what the Warriors delivered.
DeleteIt's going to be very hard, will be looking forward to tonight team naming to see if SK actually makes some changes.
After last weeks drama against Parramatta, I felt really proud of the team, but this week I just felt sad. The Warriors, more than just about any other team, are prone to games like this a bit too often and have we ever figured out why?
ReplyDeleteWe had been performing reasonably well over the last few weeks, but it's like we aren't capable of maintaining any sort of half decent level for long. I heard remarks around attitude and not turning up. Lack of desire and focus. BUT WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN? They must come onto the field wanting to win. We all knew Canberra would be tough, but we made it easy for them a lot of the time. On reflection though, we have only played average teams recently and a good team found us out easily.
I flew up from the south island to watch this game, and it just wasn't fun in any way.
I suppose Warrior of the match has to be CHT. The tries he scored were pretty simple touch downs but he put himself in good positions to take the passes and score those tries which is important. He just seemed to play with a bit more energy and verve than most of the rest of the team which is how he stood out.
It has been a long time since we won at Mt Smart, and it is far from the perceived 'fortress' that we like to think it is. Even last year we were better away from home. Any idea how many wins we have had at Mt Smart over the last two seasons? Not many I bet. All remaining games will be tough (aren't they all for us?) but surely we will win one more here this season. Won't we? But of course we rarely finish seasons strongly so hard to get too optimistic.
We often say it but it hardly happens: when the season is virtually gone, give the younger players a go. CHT and Keighran in the halves? Jazz will play hooker but he probably shouldn't. It all just feels so messy at the moment.
But I remain defiant and forsee a Warriors victory by 8 points.
I think I could make a bit of coin from the club if I could figure out why the Warriors are prone to these drops, I know people are blaming Kearney being the coach but it is something that happened in the Daniel Anderson and Ivan Cleary days too, I can't put my finger on what the actual issue is.
DeleteBut yes they have had 6 weeks against middle of the pack teams and been competing, now they are against the top dogs and getting found out.
Not the best game to travel up for unfortunately.
I originally wasn't going to highlight anyone but had to go with CHT due to his effort, hopefully the rest of the team take a page out of his book this week.
They haven't one since April at Mount Smart, they werent too bad last year at home winning 7 out of 12 at Mount Smart, this year they have won 2 out of the 8 there (with two games remaining but I see them losing those so most likely 2 from 10 come season end).
It is messy and I don't agree with the selections SK has made this week but I also am not surprised, he tends to stick with players in the hopes that they get through their low patch.
I don't like Jazz at hooker but they are truly out of options.
I truly hope that your prediction is correct, gets harder every week writing about losses.
I appreciate your last comment, you can start to run out of things to say after a while, I did struggle a bit myself just responding to your review so it sounds like we all need something positive to feel good about!
DeleteWriting my stuff is one thing but writing match reviews for Nothingbutleague.com at the same makes it that much harder after a poor performance, writing about a loss is ok as long as the effort is there.
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