After the Round six loss to the Roosters, the Warriors made the trip to AAMI Park to face the Storm in their annual ANZAC clash. Warriors fans know that this match every year has been disappointing for some time. Unfortunately, we witnessed another horrible outing with the Storm dominating the Warriors, scoring ten tries in a second-half onslaught, seeing the Warriors go down 70-10.
For a breakdown of how the match went, check out my match report at the link below.Ingers League Wrap-Up Round 7 Match Report
Seeing the side get flogged like this hurts me to my core, but I think the fact that they were in the contest for the first half made it hurt even more. Call me stupidly optimistic, but after last week's match against the Roosters, I thought the Warriors would show more fight against a top tier side, but I was wrong. The Storm are one of the best sides in the competition, and if you give them an inch, they will take a mile which is what we saw here, and once they got on a roll, they starved the Warriors of possession and turned the match into a training session.
The Warriors only had six sets in the second half, which shows how dominant the Storm was but the fact that the Warriors only managed to complete two of those six sets shows how poor they were.
It's a reality check for the Warriors, and they need to learn as much as they can from this embarrassment and use it as fuel to bounce back; otherwise, we are in for a tough season.
Injuries to Josh Curran and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak do not help matters, Curran has been one of the Warrior's best players, and he is now set to spend some time on the sidelines, and that is a massive concern for me. DWZ getting knocked out was horrible to see; it was a freak accident, and I hope he is ok and back soon as the Warriors have thin stocks in the outside backs as it is.
There wasnt much to smile about this week, but I managed to find some glimmers of hope, which leads me to my positives from the match.
Match Positives
The match is over; take the lessons on board and move on.
We are another week closer to getting Tohu Harris back, I'm not saying he would have changed the outcome of this match by any means, but his experience and leadership are needed now more than ever.
This was the worst performance (at least the second half), but this may be just the result needed to either wake the players up or open the door to bring in other players to give them a shot. They have some inexperienced players like Junior Ratuva and Pride Petterson-Robati that could be given a chance to stake their claim at starting spots, and now that the Warriors are at an all-time low, it could be the time to blood some new talent.
However, I had plenty of concerns, which brings me to my negatives from the game.
Match Negatives
As mentioned above injuries to Curran and DWZ are massive concerns depending on how long they will be out for but I believe Shaun Johnson was playing injured too, judging by how little kicking he was doing during the match, Chanel Harris-Tavita went down in the first half also and looked to not be 100%. No word yet on how serious any injuries with the halves are yet, but my confidence will be at an all-time low if they are set to spend time off the park.
The Warriors only made 9 errors in this match, but when almost every error led to a Storm try, it must be mentioned as a negative. The Storms three tries in the first half all came from Warrior's mistakes, and they need to just show respect for the ball, especially in a game like this where they didn't get a lot of time with the ball.
The defence or lack thereof was a concern; the Warriors ended the match with 41 missed tackles. Most of these came in the second half when the side was just playing human turnstiles for a Storm side playing the game on easy mode. I have constantly criticised defensive coach Justin Morgan, and I will continue to do so until I see this side improve their defence structures; they often find themselves out of position defensively and are made to pay. This needs to be fixed immediately.
The Warrior's struggle with the ball in hand continued here; it's hard to judge the second half attack as they had limited sets to work with. Still, in the first half, we saw the Warriors struggle to pile pressure and too often made poor choices; kicking early in the tackle count continually broke me, and while they did manage to score a try of one of these early kicks, most of the time it just resulted in gifting the Storm more possession. It may be down to Johnson not being fully fit, but the Warrior's attack needs plenty of work if they are to dig themselves out of the hole they find themselves in.
Lastly is Heart, Nathan Brown mentioned in the post-match conference that he felt that several players gave up in this match and I have to agree, after the Warriors lost DWZ it felt like all the air was sucked out of the stadium and the Warriors were just waiting for the match to be over. I have been involved in matches where my team has put up a cricket score on the opposition but I have never been on the losing side in that situation so I cannot comment on the mental impact it has on you and your performance, I am certain that it is hard to continue to give it your all when the floodgates have opened but the fans of this club just want to see the Warriors fight, they stick with the side through thick and thin and if they see the team giving up, why should they continue to tune in. Win or lose just show that you are in the fight and good things will come, look at the Tigers right now.
Warrior of the Match
I have no Warrior of the match this week; the players that did not let themselves down were still not good enough to praise. I hope this is the only time I can't pick a player to highlight.
Warrior to Improve
I feel for Kosi, I really do, but once he dropped his first ball in this match, nothing went right for the winger. The Storm targeted him, and he folded; too many errors and either a lack of pace or lack of effort defensively highlighted that first grade may not be the place for him. I want to see him succeed, and I hope he takes this performance to heart and grows from it.
Next round thoughts and prediction
Round 8 sees the Warriors return to their makeshift home at Moreton Daily Stadium in Redcliffe to face the Raiders, who went down 36-6 to the Panthers. It's rock bottom for both sides, and I think this should lead to an interesting matchup as both clubs will want to make up for their round 7 efforts.Regarding the team I would pick, I think DWZ will be out, and Kosi should be sent to reserve grade, so I would bring Rocco Berry back to the centres and move Adam Pompey to one wing and either give Junior Ratuva a chance on the other win or bring Viliami Vailea back and move Jesse Arthars to the wing. Curran will be out in the forwards, so Jazz Tevaga stays at lock with Eliesa Katoa returning to the second row. I would drop Bayley Sironen and give Petterson-Robati a bench spot.
This is a challenging game to pick, and my thoughts may change when we see the announced team, but right now, I am going with home-field advantage, so I am picking the Warriors to win by 8.
So that was an embarrassing Round 7, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions.
What changes would you make to the game day 17?Did you have a Warrior of the match?
Are you concerned that some players appeared to give up?
What is your score prediction against the Raiders?
100% on the button about Justin Morgan! I've said this often myself. He was blowing during the week about this side playing the Storm was based on line defence....is he serious?? Look how that turned out!
ReplyDeleteGood to see you say it how it is...more people inside the club need to take note!!
Maybe use Murchie & Katoa the same way Payten did in his short stint as coach with warriors. Sironen to the bench. Aitkens back to centre. BMM back on the bench. Get Egan to run more often. Finally give the ball boy from the storm game a contract to replace Kosi...the kids got some mean as wheels!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome mate, a really good summary the game and the situation goong on atm
ReplyDeleteLike a lot of us, I am trying to forget about this game as soon as I can as I did feel
ReplyDeletepretty bad about it initially.
To be brief, my main concerns are: No matter how bad a game gets, there is just no excuse for letting in 10 tries in a half of football. Why did this happen? And, are the team capable of turning away from the memories of this game and not letting it have any long term psychological effects? It is also crucial that we get straight back on the horse against the Raiders who may well be even more desperate than us.
I might be alone here, but I would almost be tempted to retain Kosi in the team. He had played pretty well before this game and a real test for him would be to be given the opportunity to prove himself again immediately rather than wallow in sadness. In fact, I would keep the team the same as possible for this reason, make them face their shame!
My Warrior of the match would be Egan or Aitken, they did appear to be trying pretty hard and CHT had some moments too.
Definitely concerning IF some players did indeed "give up", that is never okay. Would any of them admit to that though?
This game against the Raiders is an important one for both sides for slightly different reasons but sadly I think the Canberra side will be more motivated than us. Lets go for a golden point draw.
The team are lazy with no work ethic. Until they put in rral training effort, the mental side of the game is lost to them. No work ethic gives them no confidence in their playing which leads to a poor mental game when they are challenged. It is all linked.
ReplyDeleteI think you went easy on the team Brad . The Warriors were outclassed in so many areas in the 2nd half.
ReplyDeleteThis is the team and staff that was left by Phil Gould and Peter O'Sullivan. Looking past the rah rah, we've gone nowhere during their time with us.
The sooner we are back at Mt Smart, the sooner we can start going forward.
The teams been away far too long and it's showing. They need proper home ground support on a regular basis.
Further on that, going to Wellington next year may be good for the coffers. It may help NZ get a 2nd NRL side. But after so long away its a poor decision for the teams interests. And whoever agreed to it needs the same rocket the players would have got after the weekends loss.