NZ Warriors 2018 Round 20 Review: Woeful Warriors return in Gold Coast blowout

Copyright Photo: www.titans.com.au

After last weeks tight encounter against the Storm the Warriors made their way to the Gold Coast to face the Titans.

The Warriors have enjoyed a rich vein of form against the Titans, winning the past six matches between the two and a comprehensive victory for the New Zealand side was expected by most fans and pundits alike.

The Titans didn't read the form guide however and put the Warriors to the sword with a resounding 36-12 defeat.

Well, I think Stephen Kearney described the Warriors performance in this match best when he labelled the Warriors soft after they fell to pieces in the second half.

The first half performance was more composed than last week most likely due to the return of Blake Green but then that second half came, and the Warriors were truly awful, lacking cohesion and making silly errors on both attack and defence.
I'm not sure what happened in the sheds at halftime, but whatever it was the Warriors need to steer clear of it for the remainder of the season.
Perhaps the Warriors like myself took this game lightly and suffered the consequences of taking their eyes off the prize.
Hopefully, it is the kick in the pants the Warriors need on the final stretch of the 2018 season.
There isn't much to praise, but I do have a select few highlights which leads me to my positives of the match.

The Warriors should welcome back Tohu Harris, Issac Luke and Adam Blair to the game day 17 for this weeks clash against the Dragons.
This is a must-win game for the Warriors, and the Dragons are going to be a challenge but having those three experienced players back will give the Warriors a fighting chance.

My last positive is the young guns Isaiah Papali'i and Joseph Vuna.
In a game where the majority of the side underperformed these two played well beyond their years, it's hard to believe that they are as young as they are.
Papali'i has a bright future and will be a mainstay for the Warriors for years to come as long as his body holds up to the weekly grind of the NRL.
Vuna has impressed me over the past few weeks and while he still has a lot to learn he has time and size on his side.
With the injured players returning I think he has done enough to hold onto a bench spot with Chris Satae and Sam Lisone being the most likely to be dropped back into reserve grade.

That is all I can pick out as positives which brings me to my negatives.

Kearney still appears to be clueless when it comes to his interchange rotation, he had Jazz Tevaga out on the field too long again, instead of moving him into the middle forward role when Karl Lawton came on he should have taken him off for a rest.
In weeks past you could argue that he needed Jazz out there for long periods but Jazz moving into the forward role in this game just meant reduced minutes for Simon Mannering.
Paasi and Gavet also played limited minutes (albeit Gavet's minutes took a hit due to his injury from the crusher tackle).
 I feel like a broken record, but Paasi needs at least 60 minutes of game time each week, I would have him start the first 30 minutes and then return for the final 30.
Paasi is excellent at eating those metres and adds defensive pressure in the middle of the field, and that is too much of an edge for the Warriors to leave on the sidelines.

The Warriors attack was one dimensional, and the Titans were able to shut them down at ease.
To be honest, if Warriors want to be one dimensional, they could have at least just kicked to David Fusitu'a in the corner, but they didn't even do that.
I think the primary issue was the loss of Issac Luke, he is the glue that keeps this team together, and without him, the Warriors lost the edge they would have had in the ruck area.
With him back this week I think the Warriors will once again be on the same page attack wise.

Lastly, the Warriors as Kearney put it were soft, the Warriors fell apart at the seams in that second half, and it was all down to attitude.
They fell off tackles and did not keep their defensive line in check finding themselves in a two on one situation far too often.
It was an embarrassing performance to witness against a side they should have blown off the park.
I'm confident that the Warriors will do some soul searching this week and will put on a better performance in Round 21 and against the Dragons they are going to need it.

Copyright Photo: www.stuff.co.nz

My Warrior of the game goes to Leivaha Pulu.
Pulu was a key performer at the start of the Season, and the Warriors got the wobbles when he got injured, and in his first game back he showed no signs of ring rust putting on a solid performance where many around him faltered.
He ran strong and offered the Warriors second phase opportunities, defensively he started to slip towards the end of the game with match fitness possibly being an issue, but he will be integral to the Warriors push to return to the playoffs.
I expect him to be starting this week and continuing his fine form.

Copyright Photo: www.nrl.com

My Warrior who needs to improve goes to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.
I almost could have put the majority of the side in this category this week, but Roger had a day to forget on the Gold Coast.
The Titans heaped the pressure on Roger, and he usually is able to rise above it, but it just wasn't to be in this match.
As the points piled on Roger appeared to get worse, making errors out the back that he usually never would make.
It is a blip on the radar for Roger, and he will bounce back this week, players of his calibre rarely underperform in back to back games, so I expect a strong showing from him this week.

Round 21 has the Warriors heading to WIN Stadium to face the St George Illawarra Dragons in what is going to be a tough task.
The Warriors seldom walk away from WIN Stadium with a victory, but they desperately need the two points this week to keep themselves in contention for the playoffs.
To beat the Dragons, the Warriors are going to need a massive performance from the forward pack, and the whole side needs to front defensively to stop the Dragons getting a roll on.
As cliche as it is, this game will be decided by whichever teams forwards get the edge, both sides have lethal threats in the backline, but you have to do the work up front before you can cash in out wide.
I'm picking the Dragons to win by 12 here, I think they will be too strong for the Warriors, but hopefully, my prediction is wrong once again.
The View from the East Stand Podcast crew are making the trip across the ditch for this match so have a listen to their episode this week to hear their plans for the weekend if you are in Sydney and want to meet up and say hi.

So that was my take on an awful Round 20, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions.

Do you think Kearney has an issue with the interchange rotation?
What players would you drop for the returning Luke, Harris and Blair?
Who was your Warrior to improve from Round 21?
What is your score prediction for Round 21?

NZ Warriors 2018 Round 19 Review: Poor execution the difference in tight tussle

Copyright Photo: storm.com.au

After their exciting round 18 victory at Suncorp Stadium, the Warriors were back at Mount Smart to face the Melbourne Storm.
After the embarrassment of the Anzac day clash, the Warriors were looking for revenge, but it was not to be as they lost a much closer battle 12-6.

What a tight game this was, the Warriors showed more spirit in this match than they did in their round 8 encounters against the Storm.
Unfortunately, the Warriors lacked the execution that you need when you play a side like Melbourne, a large part of this I believe was due to the late withdrawal of  Blake Green.
Blake has been integral in leading this Warriors team around the park and in his absence.
I don't believe that Shaun Johnson and Mason Lino were up to the task in this match, making some questionable choices and not trying to settle the side down when time was running out, cool heads needed to prevail, and it felt like the team was panicking and just throwing the ball around without thought.

It wasn't all bad by any means which leads me to my positives.
The Warriors defensive effort improved in this performance, still too many missed tackles for my liking, but there weren't too many areas of the defensive line that the Storm could target.
Gerard Beale is adding some much-needed structure on the right edge, but if I could nitpick one thing, it would be Solomona Kata's desire to rush out of the defensive line nearly everytime the Storm ran his way.

Paasi shined once again with another strong performance. Unfortunately, Stephen Kearney forgot that he was in the side and only gave him 41 minutes in this match.
I firmly believe that if Paasi were given more minutes, the Warriors would have won this matchup.
He fights for every metre and is always a nuisance defensively.
He can play more minutes as he showed last week so they should be using him more.

Lastly, the Warriors did not give up in this match, even in the dying stages of the game they were still pushing the Storm to the limit, but they were just unable to finish their opportunities.
It's a learning lesson for the Warriors and a close hard fought match like this is perfect when it comes to preparing for finals football, and I think with Blake Green back the Warriors will have a better chance of converting their opportunities into points and ultimately getting them the win.

There were still areas of concern though which leads me to my negatives.

First up the referees were not up to scratch not only in this match but in several this round.
In this match however they missed forward passes for both sides, and Cameron Smith's high shot on Ken Maumalo was impossible to miss yet for some reason they missed it.
The NRL need to do something about the poor performances from the referees as it really makes the games frustrating to watch.
Don't get me wrong the Referees were not the reason that the Warriors lost this match I just want some accountability if the officials perform poorly.

Stephen Kearney still seems unable to effectively use his interchange, with Peta Hiku's injury during the week we finally have three forwards on the bench, but he just left his players off the field for too long.
At one stage Kearney had Simon Mannering, James Gavet and Agnatius Paasi all sitting on the bench, against the Storm you cannot keep players like that on the bench for as long as Stephen did, im hopeful that one day he will get it but it most likely won't be this season.

My last negative is the lack of execution.
Shaun Johnson and Mason Lino did not mesh, and neither player seemed to put there hand up to lead the team.
It's no secret that Shaun performs better when he doesn't have the pressure on him to steer the ship but with Mason joining him in the halves he really needed to step up, and he just didn't deliver.
Several times throughout this match they both looked lost and made silly decisions, the play that sticks out in my mind was when Mason put a grubber through for himself on the 2nd tackle when he had a two-man overlap on his outside.
All this will be fine if Blake returns next week but if he doesn't Shaun needs to step up.

Copyright Photo: Getty Images

My Warrior of the game goes to Ken Maumalo.
Ken continues to impress me each and every week, it's hard to believe that this is the same player that couldn't seem to hold onto the ball last season.
His runs are critical to the Warriors performances every week, and it's a joy watching him when he makes a break.
He still has a lot of room to develop, and I believe the best is yet to come from big Ken.

Copyright Photo: Getty Images

My Warrior to improve is Simon Mannering.
After announcing his retirement during the week, I thought a weight would be lifted from his shoulders, but this week he seemed to make a lot of errors that he wouldn't usually do.
He was off on his passing game and tried to offload when it wasn't on.
I think it may have been more a fact that Simon was trying too hard and it just wasn't working.
I firmly believe that this was a blip, Simon will bounce back strong as he nears his 300th game and will finish his career off with much better performances.

Round 20 has the Warriors heading back across the ditch to face the Gold Coast Titans.
The Titans have been the Warriors whipping boys for the past few seasons, and I feel that this trend will continue with the Warriors winning this match by 12.
With the ladder as congested as it is the Warriors really need to get a big win here to improve their points differential.
There is still a buffer between 8th and 9th place, but the Warriors need to add to their win tally to keep themselves comfortably in playoff contention.
Blake Green and Issac Luke should both return this round, but Adam Blair has been cited and will miss one game if he pleads guilty and two weeks if he fights it and loses.
If it were me I would take the guilty plea as missing the match against the Dragons is too big a risk.
Pulu will most likely return to the side in Blair's place after a strong return in reserve grade this week.

So that was my take on a deflating round 19, but as usual, I will leave you with some questions.

Do you think that the Cameron Smith high shot should have been a penalty?
Who was your Warrior to improve?
Would you rush Pulu back into the side?
What is your score prediction for Round 20?

NZ Warriors 2018 Round 18 Review: Redemption at Suncorp

Copyright Photo: Patrick Hamilton / Photosport

After round 17's embarrassing performance against the Penrith Panthers, the Warriors made the journey to Suncorp Stadium to face the Brisbane Broncos with both sides needing a win to keep in playoff contention.
In stark contrast to last weeks match, the Warriors came out victors with a comprehensive 26-6 win.

What a game this was, as I wrote last week I was not confident that the Warriors would be able to come away with the win but I was happy to be wrong this week.
The Warriors improved tenfold this week, there is still lot's of things to work on of course but the Warriors bounced back in style, and you could see that they relished the great weather an dry track they were able to play on which leads me to my positives from the game.

The first positive wasn't from the game itself, but the Warriors members function at Skycity, it was the first time I have gone to the Skycity game screening.
It was a great experience, watching the game on a large screen with a bunch of members was an excellent way to watch this game, and winning a prize at halftime definitely sweetened the function for me so thanks to the Warriors team for putting the event on.

But onto to the game.

The Warriors got back on track with what they do best, running those straight lines opening holes in the defensive line for their agile players to take advantage and consistently kept the Broncos defence on the back foot.
The forwards were prepared for the battle up front and delivered one of their better performances as a unit in quite a while.

Players that I have singled out the past few rounds stood up and redeemed themselves in my eyes with the two I want to point out being Peta Hiku and Jazz Tevaga.
I think a big part of Hiku's improved performance was the positional change that was made, moving Hiku out to the wing helped immensely.
He was less of a defensive liability on the wing but was still able to contribute to the match with some solid runs, if big Ken is 100% this week, however.
I would still be cutting Hiku as I liked what I saw in Beale at centre and Ken's hit-ups out of the Warriors own half are so crucial in getting the Warriors sets started strong.

Jazz is just the little engine that could, he just kept going and going and was the Warriors very owner little cleaner, mopping up any loose tackles and restricted a lot of the Broncos attempts at second phase football.

Speaking of the second phase, the Warriors finally brought the second phase back into their arsenal with the return of the offloads, yes they didn't always stick, but man it makes for an exciting watch when they can throw the football around.


Lastly, the improved defensive effort across the park was a sight for sore eyes, after last week were they appeared lost on defence, so it was great to see the Warriors return to the defensive efforts they showed at the start of the season.
Roger showed more desperate try-saving antics and the teams scrambling defence prevented so many of the Broncos last-ditch attempts to get back into the match, the Warriors were very close to being the first team to keep the Broncos scoreless at Suncorp, but the consolation try the Broncos scored wasn't that hard to swallow.

It still wasn't a perfect performance however which leads me to my negatives.

Not a lot of negatives this week but handling errors still need to be reduced, it was a significant improvement from last week though and im confident that they can bring them down some more.
They cost themselves a few more tries with some errors but it's easier to forgive those when they get a twenty point win, but in those tight encounters they will need to convert those opportunities into points.
The style that they play can lead to handling errors, so it does come with the territory, they just need to find that balance.

Penalties also need to come down but again like the errors they did improve from last week so im confident they can reduce it some more.
Restricting the opposition from as many chances with the ball in hand will be essential to how far the Warriors go this season, and I believe they do have the ability to cause some headaches in the playoffs.

Copyright Photo: nrl.com

My Warrior of the day goes to Agnatius Paasi.
This was Paasi best performance to date by a landslide, with Bunty getting injured Paasi has stepped up and become the Warriors go to forward.
160metres, three Linebreaks, five tackle-breaks and a try show how devastating he was in this match.
He got more minutes this week, and it really helped the Warriors keep the pressure on, and I can't wait until Bunty returns, and the Warriors have both of them causing havoc up the middle.

Copyright Photo: nine.com.au

I have no Warrior to improve this week as I couldn't single anyone out that let the side down, so I will give a shout out to Issac Luke.
Issac had yet another excellent performance busting the Broncos wide open with devastating dummy half runs.
He has returned to form this season, and I think the best is yet to come from Issac this year.
Rumours are getting stronger that Issac will not be retained at the club next season but im still hopeful that there will be some way to keep him around next season as I still believe that he is the glue that holds this side together.

Round 19 sees the Warriors return to Mt Smart to host the Melbourne Storm in what is going to be a tough encounter.
After the humiliating Anzac day clash, the Warriors will be looking for some revenge, and the win would help them climb their way back up the ladder.
In the Warriors only Sunday afternoon match at home I'm going for an eight-point win for the Warriors, the Storm are performing well, but if the Warriors can play with the same intensity they did this week, they have a great chance to come away with the two points.

So that was my take on a wonderful Round 18 performance, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions.

Would you swap Hiku for Ken this week?
Do you want the Warriors to pull out all the stops to retain Issac Luke?
Who was your man of the Match?
What is your score prediction for Round 19?