Despite their position on the ladder, the Bulldogs have been putting in some valiant efforts but have lacked the ability to close out games and it was more of the same this week as the Warriors survived an early scare to come away with a 20-14 victory.
My Warrior of the match goes to Jack Murchie.
Well that was a lot closer than I would have liked. When the Bulldogs scored their final try minutes into the second half and pushed their lead out to 14-6, I thought the Warriors had come into the match already expecting to win and were going to get the rug pulled out from under them.
Thankfully for Warriors fans, the grit I have been praising for the last month was still there and they managed to get the job done. With the team missing Eliesa Katoa, Patrick Herbert and Chanel Harris-Tavita, I expected the Warriors to be lacking some cohesion and I was correct but I think the replacements did a good enough job in filling the gaps.
It wasn't a great performance but the Warriors continue to show that if they stay within range of their opponents they can get the results, and for the remainder of thier draw with some tougher teams the Warriors are going to need to consistently keep themselves in the hunt.
The gap between the top eight and bottom eight is starting to grow and chances of a top eight finish for the club is getting slimmer, all the Warriors can do is continue to notch up wins and see what happens.
It is a case of what if, but if the Warriors had won their round 9 clash against the Titans instead of going down 16-12, then they would be sitting at ninth only 2 points outside of the eight with a much better shot at playoff football, but that is the gift of hindsight.
Regardless of where they end up on the ladder, it is imperative that the Warriors move into 2021 with this newfound attitude. If they can start next season the same way they are ending this year then they give themselves a great chance of cementing a playoff spot.
There was quite a bit to praise this week, which leads to my positives from the game.
The Warriors backline put in the work this week, with all of them bar Hayze Perham and Paul Turner running for over 100 metres, with Roger Tuivasa-Sheck leading the side with 334 metres.
One thing the Warriors need to do though is having players running off the shoulders in support, I have been begging Tuivasa-Sheck to do this and sure enough, when he actually does it he streaks off to score, the backline lacks speed with the exception of Sheck and Kodi Nikorima so RTS needs to be the key man running those lines just off the edge, the Warriors have plenty of players that can offload the ball so they need to take advantage of it.
The young forwards continue to impress me, even with the backs stacking up the metres, Adam Blair, Tohu Harris and Jazz Tevaga all cracked the triple digits with Tevaga lead the pack with 185 metres. The majority of the pack were sitting just under the 100-metre mark which is great to see.
The pack has been building along nicely and there is going to plenty of room for thought for Todd Payten this week when Katoa is available again as it will be hard to take a player out.
If it was me, Katoa would be starting on the left, Harris on the right and Tevage in the middle, and the player to be omitted would be Isaiah Papali'i, I thought he played well but I think Jack Murchie offers more and needs a spot in the 17.
Paul Turner had a good hitout in his debut and is a star in the making, he almost scored in the early stages of the match and then had two tries taken off him in the second half.
He was a little gunshy in the halves and the Warriors relied heavily of Nikorima but I think Turner will feature in the side quite a bit in 2021. He has plenty of natural ball running talent and there is an Xfactor about him that you can not train. I guess it will just come down to what position he winds up playing in the future, next year I would be happy to have him as the 14 as I could see him filling many gaps in the backline and would give him time to get used to first grade.
Lastly, the Warriors improved their discipline. I have been critical of how many penalties and ruck infringements the Warriors have given away but this week they kept them both low, conceding only 4 penalties and 1 ruck infringement. If they can keep this up they will pressure their opposition and with that pressure, the Warriors will be able to force mistakes and gain the upper hand.
I did have issues with the performance however which leads me to match negatives.
The Warriors had another slow start, despite looking the more threatening side in the first half, the Bulldogs jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first 20 minutes. It was simply down to some poor Warriors defense which is at least something the Warriors can address and work on. The Warriors are showing they can shut teams down in the second half so if they can emulate that in their first-half performances they should be able to find some success.
The Warriors error rate was poor, making 12 errors in this match. You do expect a few more errors when the team is chancing their arm but they just need to reign in some of the 50/50 chances they are taking. They are a dangerous side when they play confident and throw the ball around it is all about finding that sweet spot.
Lastly was the Warriors lack of polish and poor fifth tackle options.
I put this down to the teams changes during the week and having Turner in the halves for his debut. The team struggle early on and didn't seem to be on the same page on attack with same poor decisions late in the tackle count. There were plenty of times where the Warriors appeared lost on the last tackle and died with the ball in hand.
The biggest one for me was Karl Lawton kicking from dummy half when the rest of the side didn't seem to know that he was going to do it.
It got better as the game progressed, showing that once the players were comfortable things starting to mesh. Nikorima was a bit dicey at the start of the match but took hold of the game and started creating plenty of opportunities and judging by Katoa's year to date and the performance of my Warrior of the day, it is clear that the second-rower on the same side of the park as Nikorima is going to feature heavily in the Warriors attack.
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| Copyright Photo: Getty Images |
After missing out on the gameday 17 since round 10, Murchie finally got another chance to show the Warriors what he can offer and he delivered in spades.
I liked what I saw from the young forwards in the early stages of this season and was perplexed at his axing but with Katoa and Jack Hetherington playing well it did make it hard for him to get a look in.
He showed a lot more on attack this week than in his early matches, back then it looked like he was a young large forward that would be a battering ram but this match highlighted the attacking weapon he can be. He scored two nice tries and showed some great hands when helping set Adam Pompey up for his try.
He needs to be in the gameday 17 as I said above but I don't see him getting a starting spot of Katoa or Harris so an interchange forward would be his ideal spot right now, especially with Papali'i and my warriors to improve not really delivering what is required from the Warriors right now.
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| Copyright Photo: Stuff |
My Warrior to improve goes to Lachlan Burr.
News during the week was that Burr will not be at the Warriors club next year and will be looking for a gig elsewhere. Unfortunately for him this match showed why the Warriors are not extended his contract, he was not awful by any means but he just lacked any punch when running with the ball, watching the match I thought his biggest issue is that he runs too high when going into contact and lacks the strength to continue to push forward after being wrapped up by defenders. He also had a few wayward offloads that wound up going to Bulldog players. I like Burr and think he can continue playing in the NRL as an interchange forward and I wish him well with wherever his future leads him.
Round 15 sees the Warriors host the Newcastle Knights at Scully Park in Tamworth.
It's great to see the Warriors take a match to Tamworth where they spent their quarantine and should be a great match for the locals to watch.
I was looking forward to seeing the Warriors play Blake Green for the first time since his exit from the club but it looks like he has injured his ACL in the Knights 12-0 win over the Cowboys.
It's horrible to see that happen to anyone and I really feel for Green as I thought he had been playing well for the Knights and at his age, this could well be the end of his career, I really hope that isn't the case and wish him well in his recovery.
The Knights are relatively safe in the top eight but have not looked that convincing for the past month and the Warriors are in with a chance to come away with the victory. The Warriors should have Katoa and Chanel Harris-Tavita back in their lineup and I their inclusions firm up the Warriors chances.
I think the Warriors have the edge in this match with thier new physical style and the Knights missing some key players so I'm predicting the Warriors to win this match by 10.
So that was a closer than expected Round 15, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions.
Where do you see the Warriors ending up on the ladder?
Where do you see the Warriors ending up on the ladder?
What do you do with Jack Murchie when Eliesa Katoa returns this week?
Who was your player of the day?
Who was your player of the day?
What is your score prediction for the Knights clash?
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