There seems to be deep disharmony within the squad. Forget even about the performances of late, just look at the body language on the field: AFB blowing-up at someone - perhaps Tohu - when the review was unsuccessful; Egan remonstrating angrily at Walker. More concerning, Michael Burgess today quoted a Warriors supporter on Facebook who was at the match and said he couldn't believe the way the team was sniping at each other behind the posts after the Titans scored their first try.
Something has happened to trigger fractures and this has completely destroyed the resilience that was built during 2023. The players just don't seem to care enough right now to put in that extra effort in to cover for their teammates.
As we've all seen, these issues are most pronounced when the senior players are on the park. Yeah, they're old and slow. But I think this is only half the issue. The more important half is what none of us are privy too.
Webby's in a bind. He went all in this season to win the comp with an aging roster, the addition of two new players on longer deals than they deserve, and the extension of another who is clearly past it. Now he's stuck with them all, unless they walk.
At the same time, his risk averse strategy has meant that he's continued steadfastly with the same out of form players week after week because they're more experienced and
might come good at some point. Being such a new head coach, perhaps he's also worried about the repercussions that losing the senior playing group might have on his own future (and with good reason: I was told that rebellions from Warrior senior players in the past resulted in the demise of Matty Elliott and Alex Corvo).
By staying loyal to a fault, Webby has perhaps created more internal friction with the young ambitious players by giving them the slightest taste of NRL (only when forced to through injury), then dumping them after they shine. Zion gets picked for a game off the bench, kills it with high energy and enthusiasm and is dropped. MGT is selected and plays with determination and aggression. He's been smashing it all season in NSW Cup. He gets dumped. DWZ is suspended. Who does Webby draw upon? Kosi ... again! The perennial failure at NRL level. Laban shows great potential for someone so young. He's solid every time he gets on the field.
Barnett is called up to Origin. Webby ignores him and instead shifts Walker to second row.
It just seems to be such poor player management. All from a guy who prides himself on his people skills.
Webby doesn't drop players. He's Mr Nice Guy. That'll get him so far, until it doesn't. The worse thing for a leader when there's player unrest is to be a nice guy because it generally calls for really tough decisions to be made and people pleasers don't like rocking the boat. When you're winning, you can be everyone's mate. When you're losing, you need to stand up and demand accountability. Montoya said recently that he's never heard Webby give the players a spray. The moment I heard that I knew he was in trouble. Every great coach has a spray or two in them. They have to so that the players understand they aren't the boss.
If nothing else, the massacre from the Titans has unmasked what seemed to be percolating just below the surface all season. I hope Webby finds something in him this week to get to the bottom of it all.
This all feels pretty spot on as usual, mate.
It seems there could be a number of things bubbling under the surface at the club, that finally came to a head possibly in the lead up to this game where it boiled over.
Webby has made some very strange decisions throughout the year, which have appeared very odd and rigid at times with selection, bench use, and style of play.
So as we know it
SJ didn't train from after the Manly game through till the pec injury in the Roosters game only doing captain's run each week. Yet we still ran all the attack and kicking through him for that month, despite it being completely worked out in the Dragons game and then onwards. During that run of losses we also had major middle injuries, and rather than bringing anyone up from cup or giving someone like
Ale a bigger role. He instead went the route of running our senior middles at the red line minutes wise. Even having unused bench players at times, ala Roache who we saw in the Riff game as being more than capable.
It wasn't until the Riff game when his hand was forced with that we saw a change in game style with TMM taking the reins and the injection of some youthful energy/speed. This followed through into Phins game, and then also into the Cows game with Tohu now back in but on the bench where he should be so that was fine. Now while this run of games weren't perfect they definitely showed where we had been going wrong and what had been missing. It did strike me as odd that he mentioned in one of those post match pressers he didn't know TMM was able to do some of what he was doing.
The Storm game comes along which was always going to be tough, and then adding
SJ back into the mix threw another spanner in the works. To me
SJ was near invisible in that game, and everything good we did came on the left side anyway. There appeared to be a tug of war at times, and we played far slower and less direct than with the TMM/CHT in for those previous weeks.
Now something has to have boiled over during the week or pre game for the whole squad to just decide today we all aren't going to turn up and let the wheels completely fall off.
When I saw the teamlist on the Tuesday I thought it was Webby playing his weird games and there was no way we line up that way come kick off. He could have picked any number of combinations that wasn't what he did. Ford edge, Walker 13, Tohu prop or
Ale in there and Tohu to bench. Laban was there and has proven to be solid also. Kosi another start after the Roosters game, when MGT proved his worth in the Phins game and could have easily played centre with Roger on the wing. In the second 20 of the first half I could swear we had Walker edge, Ford and Jazz props, with CHT as 13, with Egan not a Robson type also in there. That honestly just makes no sense whatsoever. He then held Laban and
Ale on the bench till the 55th minute when Roger was sent to the bin.
Alarm bells were ringing in my ears at an ear piercing level watching and after that game. There was all sorts of sniping going on between players throughout the game, and players you can put the house on to give you 100% effort every week without fail were just as bad as the others.
It feels like there is three plausible issues that are bubbling away.
- Junior players showing they are more than worthy of holding spots in grade or being called upon when injuries occur. But instead Webby is going completely different routes which could be frustrating younger players and possibly even senior players who think the juniors are more worthy.
- A group in the team feel that TMM should be running the team, and then possibly others that still think it should be
SJ.
- The AFB situation has been gathering steam throughout the season and is now starting to cause major issues in the playing group.
Tomorrow will be a very interesting list, but given what we've seen from Webby I'm not expecting much change.
SJ out with injury, TMM handed the keys again with CHT at 6.
Barnett will be back on the left edge after 18th man on Weds. DWZ back in for Kosi on the right. Tohu back to the bench with Walker starting at lock. If he somehow manages to get the rise out of them and we win both games with TMM into the bye, then it becomes a very tricky situation with
SJ. But I'm not sure if much can change unless he really digs into that loss, and gets to the bottom of what is bubbling away with the miriad of possible issues.
Just some rambling thoughts anyway, not sure how coherent they are.
