NZ Warriors 2022 Round 22 Review: Warriors end losing streak in style against Bumbling Bulldogs

After their embarrassing loss to the Rabbitohs in Round 21, the Warriors returned home to face the Bulldogs. The Warriors ended their four-game losing streak with a dominant 42-18 victory, which was their biggest win since 2016.

What Went Down

The opening quarter of the match was full of both action and points, with all four first-half tries being scored during this period.
An early high shot landed Braidon Burns on report and saw the home side strike first through a silky pass from halfback Shaun Johnson to Viliami Vailea, allowing the centre to stroll through the Bulldogs' line.
Whilst Josh Addo-Carr was indeed on the field, it would be the man he was marking in Dallin Watene-Zelezniak that would run away for a length-of-the-field try off the back of an intercept from a Matt Burton pass.
A line break saw Burton dragged down within a metre of the Warriors' line only minutes later, with a quick play from Aaron Schoupp at dummy half shuffling the ball off to a rampaging Jake Averillo for the visitors' opening points of the evening.
Ending the first half scoring on the 20-minute mark, Edward Kosi – who scored a hat trick last time he played at Mt. Smart Stadium a fortnight ago – crossed over for his first of the match following a set play from a scrum on the Bulldogs' 10-metre line.
With a try to Kyle Flanagan from a Reece Walsh knock-on and Addo-Carr getting one back with an intercept and length of the field try himself – all within the opening 10 minutes of the second half – it seemed as though this game would go right down to the wire with the score level at 18-all. 

Whilst an Eliesa Katoa try would give the New Zealand outfit some breathing room, the Bulldogs did all they could in an attempt to claw their way back and give themselves a chance at walking away with the two points.
Following a tense period of back-and-forth footy, something finally gave in the Bulldogs' defence, and the Warriors ended this match in the same fast-scoring fashion in which they started it. 

With late tries to Shaun Johnson and Addin Fonua-Blake, as well as a second to Kosi in rapid succession, the Warriors flipped their score from 24 to 42 within the final five minutes of play and secured their second victory back on home soil.

My Thoughts

My optimism was pretty low leading into this match, hence why I predicted a Bulldogs victory last week; however, the Warriors pleasantly surprised me with this large win. 

The Bulldogs have impressed me since they sacked Trent Barrett, and I think this was the first time since Mick Potter took over that they have looked like the Bulldogs of old. They were making silly errors, second-guessing themselves on attack, and despite getting back into the contest, they never really looked any chance of winning this game. A team having an off night does happen, and the Warriors made the most of it; after questioning their heart last week, I think they showed plenty of it in this match. They competed from start to finish and dominated the middle; this meant that the backs had a lot more space and played some good attacking football and reaped the rewards. 

When the Bulldogs levelled the score, the Warriors could have gone into their shell and fallen away, but they kept the pressure on and refused to quit, which is very promising for the future, so perhaps my optimism is coming back.

The following two rounds will be brutally tough against the Cowboys and Panthers, and while I don't see the Warriors getting wins in either of those matches, I want to see this level of effort to either score an upset or take these top four sides to the limit.

There was a lot more to smile about this week, which leads me to my positives from the match.

Match Positives

After disappearing last week, the forwards consistently dented the Bulldog's defensive line with five running over my ideal 100m goal, Tohu Harris (234m), Addin Fonua-Blake (202m), Euan Aitken (147m), Josh Curran (128m) and Jack Murchie (104m). It just makes getting a win so much easier when the big boys in the pack are doing the heavy lifting, and the Warriors need more of this from not only these players, but if the other forwards can get their metres up too, then we should see plenty more points scored before the season is done.

Behind a rolling pack, the Warriors attack looked a lot more dangerous this week; in fairness, I thought the Warriors attack showed promise last week when they got the ball in good field position; they just didn't get a lot of chances. However, this week they had plenty of time with the ball in hand, and they were asking lots of questions of the Bulldogs. Shaun Johnson led the attack well except for one big error, but I thought he made up for it in the long run. Daejarn Asi played a key role, delivering some big bombs. The whole backline looked dangerous for the first time in a while and just shows the damage they can do when they are on; we just need to see more of it, please.

I've spoken a lot about the Warrior's attack in this match, but I think the most significant improvement was their defence; now, to be fair, the defence last week was so bad that anything would be better, but they ended the match with a 91.23% tackle efficiency, with only 18 missed tackles and 7 ineffective tackles. The Bulldogs playing poorly did help them out, but they held their line better and being at the match, I could see and hear them actually communicating. Im sure they worked on it a lot during the week, but I think a more settled lineup helped also. The next two weeks are going to test their defence plenty, so hopefully, this wasnt a one-night-only performance and the defensive attitude remains.

Lastly, I want to highlight the ongoing redemption of Ed Kosi, I already mentioned it a few weeks back, but since his return four weeks ago, he has scored 7 tries, made 9 linebreaks and 10 tackle-breaks. He is far from a finished product, but his upside is now bigger than his downside, and if he can keep his error rate down, he could find himself a regular winger in the Warriors for some time. It's great to see as I want all Warriors players to grow and develop, and hopefully, his determination to improve starts to rub off on others in the squad.

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

Match Negatives

The errors were still too high for my liking, with the Warriors making ten in total. It was only of the only stats that the Bulldogs won in this match (they only made 9 errors). While the Warrior's defence did enough to make sure these errors didn't cost them, they just can't afford to make double-digit mistakes against any top eight sides. A bit more ball security close to their own line and keeping the 50/50 passes to a minimum should set them on the right path.

I'm still not convinced about Stacey Jone's use of the interchange, I feel like he got the rotation a bit better in this match, but I just wasnt a fan of moving Josh Curran to the bench and starting Bunty Afoa at lock. It did seem to work with Curran being injected into the match and making an immediate impact against tiring defenders, so Jones may have had the right idea there (let's be honest, I'm no coach). 

However, I don't understand bringing Tom Ale into the gameday 17 and only giving him four minutes. I really rate Ale, and I wanted to see him get more time to show his potential; to his credit, in his short amount of time, he made four runs for 53m and hopefully, this leads to him getting more minutes in the future.

Warrior of the Match

My Warrior of the match goes to Tohu Harris.

The skipper was back to his best in this match, leading his side in both running metres (234m) and tackles (33). I'm not sure what more I can say about Harris that I haven't already said; he adds an extra dimension to the Warrior's attack and never tries to avoid work; he's just a great follow-me type of leader. He gives his all, and the Warriors are a much more potent side with him in it, so fingers crossed he stays injury free in 2023 as I will be more confident in the Warrior's playoff aspirations if he is the first line on the team sheet every week.

Warrior to Improve

I couldn't pick a Warrior to improve this week, they all did a good job out there, and I couldn't pinpoint anyone that let the side down, and some did not get the required minutes to review their performance.

Next round thoughts and prediction

Round 23 sees the Warriors head back across the ditch to Queensland Country Bank Stadium to face the Cowboys, who went down 32-18 against the Roosters in Round 22.

Regarding the team I would pick, I would keep it exactly the same.

None of the players did anything to warrant being dropped; however, I would move Josh Curran back to the starting lineup and Bunty Afoa back to the interchange.

This will be a tough match; this Cowboys outfit is not the same side that lost to the Warriors by one point in Round 5. They will be hurting from their loss to the Roosters and will be wanting to make a statement this week. This makes me nervous, and the Warriors could be on a hiding to nothing unless they all show up for each other. I am going into the match optimistic and believe that the Warriors will bring the fight to North Queensland, but I still think they will not have enough to get the job done, so I am picking the Cowboys to win by 16.

So that was an improved Round 22, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions.

Do you think Kosi can become a regular mainstay in this Warriors team?

Would you make any changes to the lineup?

How many wins do you think the Warriors will get in the final three rounds?

What is your score prediction against the Cowboys?

NZ Warriors 2022 Round 21 Review: Warriors never in the fight as Rabbitohs cruise to victory

 

After their disappointing loss to the Storm in Round 20, the Warriors made their way to the Central Coast to face the Rabbitohs. The Warriors were never in the contest as the Rabbitohs dominated the match from start to finish, ending with their biggest win of the season, 48-10.

What Went Down

The Rabbitohs bolted out the gates and never looked back, scoring four tries in the first 21 minutes of the match. Targeting some poor Warriors defence, Souths made it look easy as Lachlan Ilias, Damien Cook, Tevita Tatalo and Keaon Koloamantangi all crossed with Cameron Murray playing a hand in the first three tries, causing plenty of headaches for the visitors.

The Warriors finally found themselves on the scoreboard when Ed Kosi finished a nice right-to-left play in only their second set played within the Rabbitohs half.

Souths weren’t done yet as they finished the first half in style, scoring another two tries via Latell Mitchell and Alex Johnston. Johnston’s try was the 159th of his career as he continues his climb up the all-time tryscoring leaderboard. This saw the teams go into the sheds with the home side leading by 30 points and much improvement needed by the Warriors.

The second half started in the same manner as the first, with the Rabbitohs taking only three minutes to score their seventh try via debutant Izaac Thompson. Minutes later, Johnston looked sure to cross for his second, scorching down the field with Dallin Watene-Zeleaniak making a massive try-saving tackle, desperately dragging the winger’s leg over the sideline at the last moment.

After learning a penalty, the Warriors were in good field position, and Kosi looked dangerous before being dragged down close to the line; the New Zealand side kept the pressure on, and Shaun Johnson scored after receiving a Jack Murchie offload.

The Rabbitohs almost scored a length of the field try but were given a penalty after Reece Walsh hit Johnston without the ball; Souths went back to work. Mitchell crossed for his second try when a decoy run parted the Warrior’s goal-line defence like the red sea in the game’s final scoring play in only the 56th minute.

Both sides had a few more highlight reel plays left in them, with the Rabbitohs almost scoring via Thompson and the Warriors making a huge break thanks to Reece Walsh, who passed the ball to Murchie, who showed some impressive pace before being dragged down just before the line. The visitors looked ready to cross again but let Souths off the hook with a forward pass.

The Warriors had one final attempt at scoring when Johnson put a kick up that was tapped back by Marcelo Montoya before being tapped again by Souths and ending up in the hands of Taniela Otukolo, who was held up just under the crossbar.

Despite a few close calls, the Rabbitohs had done more than enough damage in the first half to see them finish with the biggest win of their season while the Warriors continue to countdown to the offseason after another disappointing display.

My Thoughts

I was quite worried about this match but went in optimistic that the Warriors could show up and be competitive, but boy, I was wrong.

After weeks of saying the Warriors have been showing improvements, they went all the way back to where they started. 

The Rabbitohs have been in great form since the return of Latrell Mitchell, but even the Knights showed more fight in their 40-28 loss in Round 17.

It was a hard watch, and I know most won’t even read this review due to not wanting to relive this performance or lack thereof.

It just looked like most of the players had thrown in the towel; there was no heart and a clear lack of attitude, which meant they never had a chance.

The Warriors have a tough run home, and my original thoughts on them losing all their remaining matches except the final round against the Titans looks to be firming unless some serious actions are taken.

There wasn’t much, but I found a few things to smile about this week, which leads me to my positives from the match.

Match Positives

I thought the Warriors showed some slight glimpses of promise on attack when they were inside the Rabbitohs half, scoring two nice tries and asking some questions of the Rabbitohs defence. They had a few other chances but let themselves down with some wayward passes. Their biggest issue was that their poor defence limited their chances, and the Rabbitohs forced them to play most of the match within their own half. If they sort that part out, then they should be able to get more points on the board.

That was really all I could find, so I will say at least we have another game at Mount Smart coming this week. There is also a members forum on Thursday, which should lead to an interesting night after such a disappointing season. I’m not sure how many will be in the crowd this Friday night after this poor performance, but hopefully, the Warriors will give the live crowd something worth watching.

However, I had a few concerns, which brings me to my negatives from the game.

Match Negatives

Defence is the most obvious negative here; the Warriors missed 33 missed tackles and made 30 ineffective tackles. In the past few weeks, they have shown good defence in patches, but there was none of that in this match. Their attitude needs to be a lot better; however, I don’t think they were helped with the lineup changes; they looked to not be on the same page, and this created some massive holes in the defensive line, and the Rabbitohs did not have to be asked twice to take advantage. If they stick to their assignments and trust the man on either side to do their job, then the defensive structure should improve.

Errors played a part in this poor performance; the Warriors ended the match with 13.

When your defence is letting you down, the last thing you can afford to do is just throw the ball away. Mistakes happen but dropping simple passes or throwing wayward passes isn’t NRL level. The coach killers need to go ASAP! 

Lastly, the side selection made by Stacey Jones for this match was a massive gamble, and they failed. Dropping Pompey was the right call, and I want to see that trend continue, but every other change he made was wrong; Wayde Egan did another serviceable job at five-eighth, but the side plays better with him at hooker and Aaron Pene should not have been lock over Josh Curran. I know Jones came out after the selections and said he was focused on picking a team to win games rather than develop younger talent, and while I get that, I don’t think the team he picked had any chance of being competitive. It will make this week’s team naming very interesting, and I feel like he has thrown in the towel.

Warrior of the Match

My Warrior of the match goes to Jack Murchie.

I struggled to pick a Warrior of the week here as I think the whole side didn’t deliver, but I decided to give props to Murchie. He was one of only two Warriors forwards to run for over 100m, ending the game with 128m (Addin Fonua-Blake ran for 169m). His stats were helped by his big run after Walsh’s linebreak, but he was one of the only forwards that looked dangerous with the ball in hand; his wraparound play to set up Johnson’s try looked great, and his defence wasnt too bad with 36 tackles and 2 misses. If he can deliver more efforts like that, I wouldn’t mind the Warriors extending his stay with the club.

Warrior to Improve

My Warrior to improve goes to Aaron Pene.

I had high hopes for Pene when his signing was announced, but he has failed to deliver so far in 2022; I already mentioned that picking him over Curran to start the match was a mistake, and he barely had any impact in the game, only running twice for a combined total of 23 metres, he also only made 22 tackles with 1 miss and exited the match after 27 uninspiring minutes. I still believe he is a quality player; however, we haven’t got the best out of him yet, and I think he will be better suited joining the match from the bench.

Next round thoughts and prediction

Round 22 sees the Warriors return to Mount Smart to face the Bulldogs, who went down 28-14 against the Cowboys in Round 21.

Regarding the team, I would pick; in the backs; the only change I would make is bringing Ronald Volkman or Daejarn Asi into the halves to partner with Johnson, moving Egan back to hooker. 

In the forwards, Curran goes into lock, with Pene moving to the bench.

The Bulldogs have been one of the big improvers the past few weeks and have looked dangerous against even the top four sides, so they are no longer the easy beats they have been the last couple of seasons. It will be a massive task despite playing at home, and unfortunately, I think the Bulldogs have shown me more lately, so I will pick the Bulldogs to win by 10.

So that was an embarrassing Round 21, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions.

What changes would you make to the game day 17?

Has the side given up?

Are you going to the Members Forum?

What is your score prediction against the Bulldogs?

NZ Warriors 2022 Round 20 Review: Another week, another Warriors second-half collapse as Storm end losing streak

After their disappointing loss to the Raiders in Round 19, the Warriors return to home soil to face the Melbourne Storm. Despite a close first half, the Warriors could not keep up with the Storm, and for the first time in a while, I actually got my prediction correct with the Storm winning this one by twelve with the final score being 24-12.

What Went Down

With two penalties against Nelson Asofa-Solomona in the opening three minutes of play, the Warriors were gifted field position early into this match. With starting hooker Wayde Egan an early casualty with a jaw injury off the back of the second Asofa-Solomona dangerous tackle penalty, the home side could not convert their weight of possession into points.

Eventually, it was passive goal-line defence from the Warriors that saw Justin Olam slot straight through and open up the scoring off a pass from Cameron Munster during Melbourne’s first set inside the Warrior's red zone.

Hitting back, the Warriors managed to cross for their first points following another Melbourne penalty. A Harbour Bridge pass from five-eighth Chanel Harris-Tevita saw Edward Kosi capitalise on an overlap on the left edge.

After picking out the man with the injured knee in Harris-Tevita, Melbourne crossed for their second of the evening. It was a neat series of passes that both started and ended with Harry Grant, with touches from Jahrome Hughes and Felise Kaufusi in between, that saw the Melbourne hooker fall over the line to take the lead for his side once again.

In almost identical fashion to their first try, the Warriors once again crossed on the left edge with a double for Kosi. Replacing Harris-Tevita from their first try for the assist, it was Egan that threw the looping pass that allowed his winger to slide in for his second meat pie of the evening and make it a two-point game heading into half-time.

Right off the kick-off for the second half, Melbourne was back to business. It was a quick play from dummy half from Grant – whilst essentially on top of the Warriors’ try-line – that put Hughes through a large gap and over the mark for the first points of the second 40.

A deep shift to the right edge saw Grant Anderson put in a perfectly weighted kick for replacement fullback Nick Meaney to time his run and plant the ball down in the in-goal for Melbourne’s second try in a row. 

Originally sent up to The Bunker as “no try”, a quick review showed the put down from Meaney was legitimate.

In yet another duplicate of the first two tries, Kosi went over for his hat-trick. Halfback Shaun Johnson was the man to throw the pass this time, leaving Kosi to do what he had already done twice before.

Despite utilising two kickers in Reece Walsh and Johnson, the inability to nail conversions hurt the Warriors, finishing the match 12 points behind the Storm after missing all three conversion attempts.

My Thoughts

So the losing streak against the Storm extends to thirteen.

 I wasnt surprised; despite the form slump the Storm has been in, they are never an easy team to face, and if you compare this loss to the previous sixty-point defeat on ANZAC day, then it wasnt too bad. However, a loss is still a loss, and the Warriors were in this match for the first 40 (much like last week) but left the door wide open for the Storm to take control, and they refused to let the Warriors get back into the contest. 

Overall though, I think the Warriors showed further improvements and played well in patches; they just need to keep building and play for the whole 80 as they have another tough clash this week against the Rabbitohs.

There were a few things to smile about this week, which leads me to my positives from the match.

Match Positives

I thought the front rowers stood up, led by Tohu Harris (190m), Addin Fonua-Blake (138m) and Bunty Afoa (106m), also kept the pressure on the Storm middle, although I felt that AFB had less impact than I expect and I'm not sure if he has an injury or just in a rut. Jackson Frei had a limited stint towards the end of the match, and I liked what I saw from him, so hopefully, he gets more time on the field sooner rather than later. 

The Warriors will find themselves in a better place if they have four props that can hit the triple-digit running metres, bending that defensive line but the coaches need to ensure they are rotated correctly to keep them all fresh. 

I have requested more respect for the ball the past few weeks, and we saw that with the Warriors only making six errors in this match. They still chanced their arm from time to time, and it did work with those big cutout passes, but they played smarter with fewer 50/50 plays. I want to see them play more like this for the rest of the season as they can score points without playing risky football all the time; there is a time and place for it, so it's good to have in the back pocket, but they need to improve their basics first.

With CHT having to go off injured, the Warriors moved Wayde Egan into the halves, and I thought he did a great job; I know he has experience in the halves in his younger days but playing there in first grade is another level. He looked composed, put on a few good passes and didn't look out of his depth. It doesn't mean I want to see him moved to the halves by any means, but I was impressed by his effort out there, especially after having his teeth cracked by Nelson Asofa-Solomona in the early stages of the match.

However, I had a few concerns, which brings me to my negatives from the game.

Match Negatives

The defence is back in the negatives; the Warriors missed 31 tackles in this match; they showed some good defence in patches, but when the Storm applied pressure and had repeat sets, the Warriors just fell off. It has been an ongoing trend all season, and I have repeated time and time again that their attitude and trust in each other needs to get better if the defence is to improve. It just feels like it's one step forward and two steps back when it comes to their defensive structure.

The injury to CHT was a massive blow; with this season being potentially the final time that he plays in the NRL, I would have liked to see him finish the season healthy, but with a suspected MCL injury, it looks like his season is done. A massive shame for the young man, but at least it means the Warriors can give that open halves spot to one of the young players that could potentially be taking that spot over in 2023 (depending on if Asi gets a new deal or if Te Maire Martin signs as all rumours indicate)

I wasnt happy with the interchange rotation now, the Warriors weren't helped by injuries and HIA's, but I feel like Stacey Jones and the coaching staff are not using their bench to the best of their abilities; I think giving Jackson Frei only 14 minutes didn't really help anyone. The Raiders and the Storm displayed excellent use of the bench the past two matches, and it could just be down to inexperience from Jones, but hopefully, we see some smart changes being used in the season's final five games.

Lastly, the officials and, more importantly, the match review committee. I think that Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Josh King were lucky not to be sin-binned, and Graham Annesley has come out and said that he believes NAS should have been sent to the bin. However, since then, the match review committee has come out and cleared both players and then sighted Jackson Frei and fined him. I just want to see the NRL have some consistency as players doing the same thing last week have been suspended. I don't want to say it's because they were Storm players or because it was in a match against the Warriors, but it doesn't look great. Just have the same rules and punishments for all clubs and players.

Warrior of the Match

My Warrior of the match goes to Ed Kosi.

It's fair to say I have been critical of Kosi so far in his short career and was partially savage after his horrid showing against the Storm in Round 7. 

However, I thought he was terrific here, the Storm targeted him all night with kicks, and he made no errors; he ran for 136m and scored his first ever hat-trick. He still looked a bit lost in defence at times, but I saw enough from him not to worry when he is named on the wing. The key is for Kosi to set this level of performance as his baseline and build on it. If anything, it could give the Warriors a chance to drop my Warrior to improve.

Warrior to Improve

For the second week in a row, my Warrior to improve goes to Adam Pompey.

I don't know what else I can say after what I wrote last week, and I just don't get what the Warriors coaching staff see in Pompey right now, half-hearted runs, inept defensive reads at times and the ability to make an error at the drop of a hat. He is a big body, and if he ran like Marcelo Montoya, I believe he could be a dangerous player; however, we just haven't seen it, so I would be dropping him from the starting 17.

Next round thoughts and prediction

Round 21 sees the Warriors fly over to the Central Coast to face a Rabbitohs side that went down 21-20 in Golden Point against the Sharks in Round 20.

Regarding the team, I would pick; in the backs; I would bring Jesse Arthars in for Adam Pompey and bring Ronald Volkman in for CHT (I like Asi, but he fades out in the backend of games). In the forwards, I would be happy to keep them as named for this match. The bench I would also keep the same.

Souths have been at another level since Latrell Mitchell's return, and this match will be tough. The Warriors will need to be at their best and shut Mitchell down. I don't like their chances, and I'm worried about a big defeat here. I will try to be optimistic and pick the Rabbitohs to win by 18

.So that was a disheartening Round 20, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions.

Who would you bring in for CHT?

Do you see the Warriors getting another win this season?

How can the Warriors fix their second-half performance drops?

What is your score prediction against the Rabbitohs?