Post Match NZ Warriors v Cronulla Sharks - [Round 5, 2026]

WAH MAN · Apr 5, 2026

CWC said:
Felt like a prep for the storm game then we lost form and Luke pulls his hammy again

I don’t know what they’ll do to fix that amateur right edge

Get some pride into our defence. We were soft. Attitude is one thing. Application is another. Organisation is still another. Communication is another. With all the Instagram wrestling and reps videos we put out we probably need to dial it back to backing each other to the death and hunting our opponents together. Learn how to communicate jamming so that the whole edge jams and forces options rather than provides options.

Or watch Penrith games and see how applying your defence as a thing you pride yourself on and double down and stop being Temu Penrith

Kestrel84 · Apr 5, 2026

WAH MAN said:
The nobody at dummy half thing needs to stop. That gets right on my goat

I was ranting about that to my wife. You know things are fucked up when I'm ranting about league to my wife. "You don't understand, it is unforgivable"

"Go to bed, you're drunk"

Both things are true.

(But seriously, it is the most disgusting thing I've seen from the team in the past few years)

kos · Apr 5, 2026

On the other side of the coin the Shark s played well as a team
Talakai coming on and busting our line to score highlighted their depth
Lots of comments on Will Kennedy s past performances but he was on today
KL Iro shame he is not playing for us. Why is that? With Warriors past players Kevin and Tony Iro
On our side TSS has showed marvellous improvement from last year.
Maybe we should park that short forward passing game for a while and go back to grinding. I thought there was a few hospital passes amongst our guys.
Onto next week a 930 pm Nz time game which is ominous
But the Storm are way down in performance compared to past years

Kestrel84 · Apr 5, 2026

I'm done with Metcalf. I'm sorry - but we can't pay that kind of money for a player in that position and only have him available 1/3 of the time. And of that time, he needs to re-settle into combinations and be tentative. Fuck that.

I love peak Metcalf. I wanted us to re-sign peak Metcalf, and I'm happy we did. But now we need to move on. His is a career of potential and injury, and I'd bet against us taking advantage of his health to get us into a grand final.

It sucks. I'm sorry - but he is done.

CNK can also quietly retreat into the background. Mad respect to him, and I'm not a hater - but he is not a centre. He is not a winger. And I personally believe Tuauiki is a better and more dangerous fullback. Fine, have a debate over Tuaupiki vs CNK - but if CNK does not fit in fullback, he fits nowhere. I don't think Tauapiki has let himself down in any moments at fullback, beyond what is reasonable from any fullback.

While I'm not thrilled about Ali as our best centre option, I need him in this team over CNK. I need something, not plodding bullshit.

CWC · Apr 5, 2026

Can we make it 3 weeks in a row playing Houdini making the dummy half disappear?

Beastmode · Apr 5, 2026

Kestrel84 said:
I'm done with Metcalf. I'm sorry - but we can't pay that kind of money for a player in that position and only have him available 1/3 of the time. And of that time, he needs to re-settle into combinations and be tentative. Fuck that.

I love peak Metcalf. I wanted us to re-sign peak Metcalf, and I'm happy we did. But now we need to move on. His is a career of potential and injury, and I'd bet against us taking advantage of his health to get us into a grand final.

It sucks. I'm sorry - but he is done.

CNK can also quietly retreat into the background. Mad respect to him, and I'm not a hater - but he is not a centre. He is not a winger. And I personally believe Tuauiki is a better and more dangerous fullback. Fine, have a debate over Tuaupiki vs CNK - but if CNK does not fit in fullback, he fits nowhere. I don't think Tauapiki has let himself down in any moments at fullback, beyond what is reasonable from any fullback.

While I'm not thrilled about Ali as our best centre option, I need him in this team over CNK. I need something, not plodding bullshit.

Add RTS to your list

Dude has checked out and only doing the bare minimum. Effort plays have vanished

Noitall · Apr 5, 2026

7.1K views · 415 reactions | I can't imagine inviting guests over for a sporting event and it turns into this 🤨 | Jeff Scott Soto

I can't imagine inviting guests over for a sporting event and it turns into this 🤨

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Hope no tv’s were harmed in today’s Warriors game

pleatedpantspete · Apr 5, 2026

let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. metcalf took a little while to get going in 2024 before he broke out for us in 2025.
and tannah has been solid but we don't know if this is temporary or not yet
in saying that it does seem the two of them don't gel. CHT seems to be the better foil for either of them, is able to let either play be the dominant half.

CNK needs to be tapped on the shoulder though.

BangBro's (still banging) · Apr 5, 2026

Kestrel84 said:
I was ranting about that to my wife. You know things are fucked up when I'm ranting about league to my wife. "You don't understand, it is unforgivable"

"Go to bed, you're drunk"

Both things are true.

(But seriously, it is the most disgusting thing I've seen from the team in the past few years)

Im laughing but I agree entirely! Where did this bullshit come from?

Noitall · Apr 5, 2026

Missed today’s game but have read the comments and although losing is a bastard, I’m happier to be figuring things out this part of the season with it only in early stages still. If I’m honest, I was concerned with our big victories as silly as it sounds that we were peaking too early, we were never going through the season in that fashion but winning is more fun in any fashion admittedly. Defensively giving up 30 points 2 weeks in a row is disappointing, sounds like the right was leaking and although the other side, it’ll be interesting to see if CHT has any impact with Metcalf out again-equally disappointing. CHT’s knock was nasty and makes me wonder if they’ve given extra time and a role to ease him back? Backline performing poorly makes me wonder if the public noise about recruitment in the backs has had an effect? Webster mentioned about how the team will respond after the tigers were too good, now that can be said for the storm match which we shouldn’t need any encouragement for

timburgesstheonlyoneiknow · Apr 5, 2026

MrFrankWhite said:
We need to end the CNK to centre experiment.

Please.

He is Either full back or not all.

Buzz Killington · Apr 6, 2026

Inruin said:
Pretty simple analogy really.

I want the chocolate chip cookies of the first three rounds that everyone loved.

So you are saying, we need to hamburger?

Buzz Killington · Apr 6, 2026

Ryno 2.0 said:
Is Metcalf like raisins? Would be good on its own but doesn’t go well with chocolate chips?

Five&Last · Apr 6, 2026

j_p said:
Where does he go tho then? Fb and Ali to Centre?

He goes and collects his jersey off Geronimo Doyle.

There's absolutely no place for CNK if we want to field our strongest side.

He needs be cut from his final year this offseason too. Buy him out. Can't be on much given he was weighing up super league when he re-signed.

I'd rather promote Putoko or Norris.

I'd even re-sign Berry on a 1 year deal hoping that he comes right. At least when Berry is on the field he actually offers something.

Beastmode · Apr 6, 2026

CNK let in two consecutive tries because he was fooled and went after the inside decoy runner jamming in

The question then becomes should he have jammed ? Tannah was already marking the ball carrier. It’s a tough one to read if you’re not an experienced centre. Ali would have left the decoy runner alone and done a shirt grab if he was given the ball. I thought it was a brilliant coach move if deliberate to exploit the inexperience of CNK at center. Paid big dividends.

We need Berry back ASAP.

unclesteve · Apr 6, 2026

This seems like a massive management failure.

Mets, as I understand came out this week and still said he wanted the 7. He is a less than effective 6 and we all know that.

The signing of Warbrick has also coincided with RTS off the pace along with his new gig.

We didnt need Mets back.

Maybe we dropped the ball in the excitement of being like the Panthers and didnt manage the ins and outs as well as we should.

Something changed and it wasnt just the positional shifts.

CNK, Metcalf and RTS all looked uninterested today.

Is it just coincidence.

Damo · Apr 6, 2026

unclesteve said:
This seems like a massive management failure.

Mets, as I understand came out this week and still said he wanted the 7. He is a less than effective 6 and we all know that.

The signing of Warbrick has also coincided with RTS off the pace along with his new gig.

We didnt need Mets back.

Maybe we dropped the ball in the excitement of being like the Panthers and didnt manage the ins and outs as well as we should.

Something changed and it wasnt just the positional shifts.

CNK, Metcalf and RTS all looked uninterested today.

Is it just coincidence.

These takes baffle me, players are never 'uninterested' sometimes the other team is just better.

Charnze got cooked due to ability, not attitude.
Metcalf is off the pace due to perhaps not getting the reps in during pre-season, he also looked tentative to take contact which meant he threw passes milliseconds earlier than he should. Not an attitude thing.
RTS was barely kicked to, any kicks to a wing predominantly went to DWZ. Few mistakes sure, but it is what it is.

wizard of Tauranga · Apr 6, 2026

Our issues seem to all comes back to defence. We score enough points - 30+ against us is why we lose. Since 3 weeks ago:

1 - CNK has replaced Ali and has been found out in defence. It’s better to make a poor tackle than leave giant holes…

2 - CHT is clearly a better defender than Metcalf.

3 - arguably CNK is a better organiser OF our defensive line and his meters assisting the forward to be refresher for defence.

We need to go back to what worked. We compromised our defence in persuit of fixing something that was already top of the table level.

wizard of Tauranga · Apr 6, 2026

Our edges have been terrible. Our second rowers have been struggling. These stats show a huge improvement is needed:

Capewell back and Halasima (50m) sharing with Laban (30m)

rugged · Apr 6, 2026

The NRL need to sort out the HiA rule with high contact. How can a video ref determine no serious head contact and then a doctor rule a potential concussion from the contact. Madness

An also interested in the try where his ball carrying arm hit the ground. I mean he had so much momentum that you really want that to be a try and it probably should be, but by the letter of the law he is tackled once the ball carrying arm hits the ground and someone is touching him right?
Should the ref have discretion to apply common sense for that one or does it open up all kinds of grey areas and they should just stick to the letter of the law?