NZ Warriors Indigenous Round Review: Torrid week continues with error riddled Warriors fall to Knights

After their frustrating Round 11 defeat to the Dragons, the Warriors returned to Moreton Daily Stadium to face the Knights. After bolting out of the gates, scoring two tries early. The Warriors started to fall apart and eventually went down 24-16 in their fourth loss in a row and their first defeat at their makeshift home ground.

For a breakdown of how the match went, check out my match report at the link below.

Ingers League Wrap-Up Indigenous Round Match Report

The week leading up to this match may have been the worst in some time for Warriors fans, almost to the point that I had lost interest in watching this match. Rumours about Lodge's exit and payout, an owner rubbing everyone the wrong way, and whispers about a fractured squad have made the week 
harder for many a fan.
Unfortunately, this performance did nothing to fix that.

The match started well, but once I began to feel confident in the side, the same old errors and silly decisions reared their head. This was a must-win game against a side that has struggled in 2022, and watching the Warriors miss another opportunity is frustrating, to say the least.

Yes, they are missing some key players out there, but they had more than enough talent on the park to get the job done. I'm just at a loss for words right now; it doesn't really matter how good or bad their game plan is if they cannot get the schoolboy stuff done right first. 

The team is clearly broken, and they either don't want to play for Nathan Brown anymore, or they have no trust in their teammates; you can see that they simply aren't on the same page on the field, and they need to get it addressed sooner rather than later.

I love this team and hope I am wrong, but I think any chance of playing finals footy is now gone, and perhaps its time to start giving those young guys on the edges of the gameday 17 a shot because let's face it, they can't be any worse than the players currently running out onto the pitch.

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

They started the match well, scoring two tries in quick succession with some simple but effective passing play. They need to do this for larger patches of the game; sitting on a losing streak, the only way out is by going back to the basics, and they showed in the first ten minutes of the match how easy scoring can be when they do that. So more of that, please.

Losing Addin Fonua-Blake had me worried about the prop rotation, but I thought bench props stepped up; both ran for over 100m, albeit they just got there (Aaron Pene - 102m and Bunty Afoa - 101m). It's encouraging to see both of these players increase their efforts without their superstar front rower; they just need to build on this and then keep this as the new baseline when he returns. Dunamis Lui didn't significantly impact his first game for the club but was averaging just a smidge under 10m a carry, so I expect to see his effort increase. 

Lastly, while I couldn't find that much to be happy about, I need to give credit where credit is due. After selecting Adam Pompey as my Warriors to improve last week and wanting to see him dropped for either Jesse Arthars or Daejarn Asi, he showed improvement and got the best of Dane Gagai, which is no easy feat. He scored a nice try and almost got there a few more times while also running for a team high 167m. He also went a bit quiet in the second half like the rest of the team, but I have to praise the bounceback.

However, I had plenty of concerns, which brings me to my negatives from the game.

Match Negatives

The errors are where this game was lost for the Warriors, they only made 10 errors, but boy, did they make a difference. It was the usual coach killing mistakes that we saw here. There were forced passes, a lack of respect for the ball, a dropped ball straight after a try, and some wayward kicks. Two of which went over the sidelines on the full and a kickoff that went over the Deadball line on the full. These are all schoolboy errors that we should not be seeing from these players, and they are something that should be able to be fixed, but then again, these errors have been happening all season to date, so the odds of them going away anytime soon is wishful thinking. 

After that first ten minutes and then for a brief moment in the second half, the Warrior's attack was abysmal. The side looked lost or confused and was definitely not on the same page, Shaun Johnson kept electing to kick on the fourth, and the rest of the side never seemed to know what he was doing, resulting in many of the kicks not having a sufficient chase following them. 

Again they can improve this; they just need to play simple footy and communicate; it's a team sport, and if everyone is reading from the same script, points and, more importantly, wins will come.

I praised the bench front rowers, but unfortunately, the starting props front row will not be so lucky. Both did not make a lot of hit ups or metres (Ben Murdoch-Masila - 7 runs for 57m and Jazz Tevaga - 10 runs for 86m). I will give Tevaga a pass here because he is not a prop, and you cannot deny that he was doing the best he could out there. However, BMM needs to be doing more with AFB not out there, he is the big dog in the pack, and he needs to start acting like it.

I think Afoa or Pene need to come into the starting lineup moving forward; Tevaga cannot be named in the front row again, and perhaps with one of those guys starting, it may spur BMM into stronger performances.

Warrior of the Match

For the second week in a row, my Warrior of the match goes to Tohu Harris.

Harris has not put a foot wrong since making his return from injury; he was busy in this match, running for 162m and making 41 tackles with 0 misses. His passing game has added dimension to the Warrior's attack, making them more dangerous if the passes stick. 

As Captain of this club, he has a lot of work to do to get everyone back into the right frame of mind, but if the rest of the squad can start emulating his effort levels, then they may turn this season around, or at least end it on a happier note.

Warrior to Improve

My Warrior to improve goes to Shaun Johnson.

It was another 50/50 game from SJ; he set up a nice try for DWZ, forced four repeat sets, and threw a few good passes for strong attacking sets. However, he also had kicks go out on the full, missed some key tackles and made a few silly handling errors. If the rumours about him refusing to stick to Brown's game plan are true, I would at least like to think his idea of what to do on attack would be better than what he is currently offering. I'm not expecting to see the Magic Johnson of old, but I would at least like to see the try assist machine that was playing for the Sharks; instead, we are just stuck somewhere in between getting the worst of both worlds.

Next round thoughts and prediction

Round 13 sees the Warriors travel to 4 Pines Park in Sydney to face the Sea Eagles, who were convincingly defeated 28-8 by the Storm in the Indigenous Round.

Regarding the side I would pick, I would make a few changes.

In the backs, I would probably keep it the same this week, see if SJ and CHT can pair up better, and the outside backs did nothing that warranted getting dropped.

I would bring Afoa into the starting lineup in the forwards, moving Tevaga back to lock for Murchie.

If Wayde Egan is fit, I would bring him back to the hooker, with either Lussick or Otukolo taking a bench spot (I thought they both had goof patches in this match).

To join either of them on the bench, I would keep Pene and Lui and give the last spot either to Murchie or give Pride Petterson-Robati a much-deserved chance.

Regarding how I see the match going, It is another hard one to predict; the Sea Eagles come into this match without their Origin stars and the injured Tommy Turbo. On paper, the Warriors should be favoured in this match, but they haven't been playing well enough to justify that optimism from me right now, so I am going with a Sea Eagles win by 8.

So that was an embarrassing Round 12, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions.

How are you feeling as a Warriors fan after the past week?

What changes would you make to the game day 17?

Do you think it's time to bring some youngsters in?

What is your score prediction against the Sea Eagles?