NZ Warriors Round 11 Review: Close but no cigar has Roosters down Warriors

After last weeks lacklustre performance against the Sharks, the Warriors played hosts to the reigning premier Sydney Roosters.

For the second week in a row, I correctly picked the outcome while being miles off on the margin as the Warriors were narrowly defeated 18-10.

I said last week that you need to be physical and play for 80 minutes if you want to defeat the Roosters and although the Warriors brought the physicality they were unable to keep it up for the entire match.

Within the first few minutes, you could see that the Warriors attitude had improved and their aggressive style put pressure on the Roosters which forced uncharacteristic errors that and the Warriors were able to take advantage and score some points.

The Warriors looked better on attack than they have for a while, they did not pile on points but with the forwards bending the line and Karl Lawton adding some speed to the ruck, the Warriors looked more threatening with the ball in hand.

I would be keeping Lawton as the starting hooker, he needs to work on his passing a bit though, in the final quarter of the match his wayward passes did not help when the Warriors were trying to get back into the match.

The ingredients are there for this side to be competitive and make me hopeful that the second half of the 2020 season will not be as dour as I originally thought it would be.

I was happy with this performance but I was even more impressed with the response from Todd Payten and the players. Payten praised the performance but acknowledged that it was still a loss and should be not be celebrated, his direct quote was "Close enough is not good enough" and it is was great to hear.

He wants this match to be the line in the sand for this side, to build on this effort for the remainder of the season, hopefully, add some more wins and earn some respect from teams and fans alike.

Each week Payten is growing on me more and more, he is transparent with the media, honest about the performances of the team and individuals within the team and more importantly, is not afraid to make changes to his squad.

With no decision being made on who the Warriors 2021 coach will be and from what I have seen so far, I would have no issues with Payten being given the gig, especially with the Warriors rebuilding next year, I would love to see how he would go with a team and gameplan of his own design.

The loss of Ken Maumalo, David Fusitu'a and Agnatius Paasi is huge but the Warriors now have George Jennings and Daniel Alvaro on loan from the Eels for four weeks, they also have had the loan deal of Jack Hetherington extended.

All three players should be named in this weeks 17 and if the performance of the previous loan players is anything to go by, I think the Eels duo will help keep the Warriors competitive.

There is still plenty to work on, but it's a step in the right direction, which leads me to my positives from the game.

The Warriors physicality was great to watch, I said the forwards were bullied in the loss against the Sharks and they did not allow that to happen again.

I think the biggest highlight of this newfound aggression was the battle between Hetherington and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, the young loan prop was after Hargreaves all night and in my opinion, got the upper hand on him.

Many have spoken about Hargreaves refusing to shake hands with the youngster at the end of the match, I'm not sure why he did it but it wasn't a good look for the experienced forward but it's great that the Warriors have a player that can get under the skin of the opposition without giving away a stack of penalties.

I still hope the Warriors can find a way to keep hold of Hetherington long term but with how he has been performing it would be hard to see Penrith releasing him from his contract.

The Warriors defence, for the most part, was alot better this week. The Roosters have the ability to break open defences and had me worried often but the Warriors were able to scramble and shut them down.

The standout moments were the try-saving tackles by Tohu Harris and Jazz Tevaga, without their efforts in those plays the Roosters would have been certain to score and perhaps go on to win by a blowout.

The Warriors attack was quicker, thanks in large part to Lawtons quick service out of the ruck and this allowed the halves and backline to try things.

This year the Warriors have been guilty too often of playing one-out football and lacking any real attack spark.

In this match they weren't afraid to try things, Blake Green kicked early in the tackle count twice, one could have been 40/20 and the other was a chip intended for David Fustiu'a. Unfortunately the bounce of the ball didn't go the Warriors way on either attempt but it was good to see the Warriors chancing their arm a bit.

There are still issues; however, which leads me to my negatives from the game.

It kind of goes against what I just said above but the Warriors were hurt by their errors. Chancing your arm and trying to play a more attacking style generally leads to an increase in errors but 14 was too high, they need to look at reducing their error rate down to single digits.

They had chances near the Roosters line to score but dropped the ball cold, had those stuck we could have been talking about a Warriors win today.

As I have been discussing all year, the Warriors need to improve their missed tackles.

I praised the defence in this match but most of it was scrambling defence after an easy miss, you could also argue that the Roosters match-winning try would not have been scored if the Warriors first up defence was up to par. This team consistently hits at least 30 missed tackles a game and that is not going to help any side get a victory.

My last negative is the Warriors lack of points in the second half. I think the Warriors were the better side in the first half but the Roosters dominated the territory in the second half and gave the Warriors very little chances to increase their lead and then try to reclaim it.'

The Roosters are a classy side and forced the Warriors to play inside their own half for the majority of that second half and that ultimately was the deciding factor in this match.

Copyright Photo: Warriors.kiwi

My Warrior of the match goes to Eliesa Katoa.

This was hard this week, I was split on Katoa, Lawton and Hetherington but I had to go with the Warriors rookie sensation.

Katoa had another strong showing, tapping back Green's kick which lead to Maumalo's try as well as displaying great strength when he scored himself.

His contribution on attack makes the Warriors left edge very potent but what impressed me more was his effort on defence, he was one of the scrambling defenders that were always there to clean up any poor defensive reads by his teammates.

The Warriors have a genuine superstar in the making with Katoa and I look forward to watching him develop.

Copyright Photo: Stuff.co.nz

My Warrior to improve goes to Kodi Nikorima.

Again this was almost as hard as the Warrior of the match decision.

I thought most of the Warriors played well but I have gone with Nikorima just down to hi dropping the ball cold twice when the Warriors were in the Roosters RedZone.

It wasn't much but as one of the more potent attacking weapons the Warriors have, they need him to show the ball more respect and keep hold of it.

However, it was good to see him engage the line a bit more.

Round 12 sees the Warriors return to Friday night football, travelling to the Sydney Cricket Ground to face the Wests Tigers.

The Tigers will be hurting from their loss in Round 11 against the Eels and will be looking at getting back into the winner's circle.

The Warriors lose plenty of impact with Maumalo and Fusitu'a and I assume that George Jennings and Adam Pompey will be in the mix for the wing spots (unless Patrick Herbert moves to the wing and Pompey stays in the centres).

It will be a tough ask but if the Warriors play with the same pressure and aggression they displayed in Round 11, then they give themselves a legitimate shot at walking away with the much needed two points.

Unfortunately I don't see the Warriors getting the win here, they just lack they strike power needed to get past the Tigers strong defence so I'm predicted the Tigers to win by 14.

So that was an improved Round 11, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions.

Do you think the Warriors can build on this performance?

Who would you bring onto the wings for the rest of the season?

Who was your player of the day?

What is your score prediction for the Tigers clash?