After last weeks impressive victory over the Newcastle Knights, the Warriors made the trip back to their makeshift home at Central Coast Stadium to host the 3rd placed Parramatta Eels.
After the Sharks lost on Friday night, a win here would see the Warriors only one win out of the eight with a chance to level up with Cronulla in round 18. It wasn't to be, however, as the Warriors went down 24-18, albeit in controversial fashion.
Man what a demoralising defeat. At the start of the match the Eels were at their best, constantly making breaks and after thier first try I thought the Warriors were on the way to a massive defeat, but then the Warriors started to fight back and got themselves back into the match with some solid defense and exciting moments with the ball in hand.
Man what a demoralising defeat. At the start of the match the Eels were at their best, constantly making breaks and after thier first try I thought the Warriors were on the way to a massive defeat, but then the Warriors started to fight back and got themselves back into the match with some solid defense and exciting moments with the ball in hand.
Losing Jazz Tevaga for ten minutes saw the Warriors concede 12 points and ultimately in my opinion put the Warriors on the backfoot and they could never recover.
They fought back and almost got themselves the much needed victory but the Eels did just enough to hold on but should wipe any hopes for Parramatta fans the their side have a shot at title glory.
Does this result stamp out the playoff dreams for the Warriors? I think so unfortuantely, they need to win their last three matches and rely on the Sharks to lose all three. Now while I don't see the Sharks winning again this season, I struggle to see the Warriors defeating the Raiders in Round 19 so it will be yet another year that the Warriors miss the playoffs by just a few points.
I truly hope that isn the case and we see the Warriors sneak into the playoffs as I believe they are a better team than some of the teams that are currently sitting in the eight (Knights and Sharks if I am to call any out).
Before I move on to my positives and negatives from the match, I will just mention the elephant in the room. Grant Atkins performance with the whistle tonight was tremendously poor.
It isn't the first time this year that Atkins has had a howler and I think he could be stood down once again much like he was in the 2019 season. His sin bin decision was one of the biggest overreactions I have seen in a game of league in some time. Labelling Tevaga's push to Nathan Brown while in a tackle as a punch was laughable and has dire consequences on the result. You can't turn back the clock but if the Warriors didn't lose Jazz, you could argue that the Eels wouldn't have scored the 12 points that saw them charge out in front.
It wasn't just the sinsbinning decision though, as Atkins missed several forward passes (for both sides to be fair) and there were also plenty of six again calls that he missed when the Eels were adding some extra niggle in the tackles.
Referees, just like players can have off nights but when a playoff spot is on line you cannot allow your decisions to affect the result which is what happened this week.
It is going to be interesting to watch Graham Annesley's football briefing this week to see what he has to say about this match.
Despite the result, there was some aspect of the match that made me smile, which leads me to my positives from the game.
Being down 16-0, the game appeared to be over but the Warriors hit back strong and I thought were the better team for the majority of the match. They showed more on attack expect for a period towards the end of the match (more on that below).
Despite everything the team has gone through this year, it is fantastic to watch the toughness they have developed. When the odds are stacked against them, they keep pushing through and performing better than anyone thought they could. If only they had started this run a few rounds earlier.
The Warriors were physical throughout this match and you could see that it was getting under the Eels skin. If you can front up to your opposition and not take a backstep then you are on your way to wrestling a match in your favor. The Warriors got in the Eels faces and as a result they Eels appeared to deviate from their gameplan. We know the Warriors need to win the last three games of the season and if they bring this physicality into these games they will give themselves a hell of a shot.
Lastly it was good to see some "Warriors football", the tries Chanel Harris-Tavita scored came off some good ad lib football. I have said it time and time again but when the Warriors can play some second phase football they are incredibly dangerous and hard to stop.
It's also very exciting to watch. If the Warriors somehow can keep playing an exspansive style while also retaining this newfound toughness, then the Warriors will be a tough opponent for any side in the NRL. This season may be done but I have my fingers crossed that this mentality sticks around in 2021.
I also had some concerns, which leads me to my negatives from the match.
After praising the forwards for the past few weeks they have made their way to my negatives.
Only 3 of the forwards ran for over 100 metres this week. With the Warriors needing to come from behind in this match, they needed a few more of thier big bodies to bend the defensive line. Most of the pack are relatively young and a drop off game was inevitable but hopefully we see a bounce back in round 18. The forwards did front up on defense after a poor start so it wasn't all doom and gloom.
The Warriors defense at the start of the match left plenty to be desired. If they didn't miss the tackle, they failed to wrap the ball carrier up and allowed the Eels to offload almost at will. Some superb scrambling defense kept the Eels from piling on the points. On a positive note though, the Warriors defense got better as the game progressed, they just need to ensure they don't start poorly like that in round 18.
The Warriors let themselves down with some simple handling errors, they made 9 which doesn't seem like a lot but when a game is a close as this one, you cannot afford to hand your opponents the ball back so easily. Normally i give them a slight pass if the errors come from trying to throw the ball around but in this match most of the errors came from losing the ball in the tackle. It is something that can be worked on at least so i expect to see the Warriors show the ball some more respect in the upcoming rounds.
My last negative is the Warriors return to one-out football. After praising the Warriors expansive attack there was a 10 minute period in the second half when the Warriors went back to the just passing one off the ruck 4 times before kicking. It was reminiscent of the lacklustre attack the Warriors started the season with.
I'm not sure what happened to make them change their attacking style in the middle of the match but thankfully it only lasted for a small portion of the game.
Fingers crossed it was a one-off and that we don't see it return any more.
| Copyright Photo: Getty Images |
My Warrior of the match goes to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.
The Warriors skipper gets my MOTM for the second week after another strong performance with 277 running metres, 2 linebreaks, 5 tackle-breaks and 1 try-assist.
What can you really say about RTS that hasn't already been said, he continues to show his class in what has been a brutally tough year for him.
The Warriors new gameplan has opened up plenty of chances for Roger to run in open space and it is something they need to keep doing as he is too valuable as an attacking weapon to be used solely for getting the Warriors out of their own 20.
Look to see him continue to run off the shoulders of his teammates ready to break the opposition wide open.
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My Warriors to improve goes to Kodi Nikorima.
Nikorima has been in career-best form since taking over the mantle as the Warriors lead half but took a step backwards this week.
The Warriors have been playing their best football when Nikorima takes the ball to the line and in this match, he managed only 4 runs. I'm not sure if it was just an off night for him or if iT was due to the pack not running for as many metres as they have in recent weeks. I'm confident that he will get himself back on track, Warriors fans will just be hoping that it's sooner rather than later.
Round 18 sees the Warriors head to Netstrata Jubilee Stadium to face the Sharks in what could be the most important game of the season for both sides.
The winner of this match keeps their playoff dreams alive, while the losing side is basically out of the race (Sharks technically are still in the eight but with tough matches in the final two rounds a loss for them here basically rules them out).
There has been no news on if the Warriors will welcome back their Parramatta loan players George Jennings and Daniel Alvaro, they also could even see Penrith Panther Jack Hetherington return as well which would definitely bolster the Warriors gameday 17.
The Sharks, on the other hand, have been dealt a blow, losing both Chad Townsend and Wade Graham after they both plead guilty to their charges from their match against the Knights.
Shaun Johnson may return from his groin injury but that has not been confirmed yet.
So with the season on the line, this is probably the best time for the Warriors to face an understrength Sharks sides.
I think if the Warriors can get some of the loan players back and can fix some of my negatives, that they give themselves a great shot at walking away with the much-needed two points.
I feel that the Warriors are the better side right now so I'm picking the Warriors to win this match by 14 and keep the slim playoff hunt alive for another week.
So that was a controversial Round 17, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions.
Do the Warriors have any chance to make the eight now?
What was your take on the Sin Bin decision?
Who was your player of the day?
What is your score prediction for the Sharks clash?
This post first appeared on Nz Warriors 2017 Season Preview : Above The Line - The Kearney Era Begins, please read the originial post: here
