Pick Your Team Cronulla Sharks v NZ Warriors - [Round 15, 2026]

[Sammyw]

Could be wrong, but I think there's a good chance Barney gets dropped from the NSW origin squad if Haas comes back. I also doubt Ford will get picked. So that's a massive bonus for this game given that the Sharks will be without AFB.

probably likelier that Saifiti gets dropped for haas. id be shocked if Barney isnt in the blues side. iwould be equally shocked if Ford and Egan actually got picked, laurie dailey is a spanner.

this rhetoric about LM having a long kicking game is odd.. he is rusty, not 100% match fit, been horrific in nrl starts and ordinary in cup. im perplexed why everyone is shoehorning him back into the side. our kcik metres against penrith were almost identical to theirs, Boyds long kicking game is better than the rest of the halves we have and outside of him its much of a muchness. TMM is in form and building good combos, CHT is the 6 and deserves it, i actually think his attacking bombs and cross field kicks were on point.

keep it simple, healey is out, put the young buck tafua on the bench.

1. tt
2. dwz
3. ali
4. pompey
5. akp
6. cht
7. tmm
8. ford
9. egan
10. jfh
11. laban
12. niukore
13. clarke

14. tafua
15. vaimauga
16. tss
17. fatialofa (keen to see him spell niukore and make his debut)
18. cnk
19. eit

this has more than enough to beat a depleted sharks side at home

 

[Beastmode]

Sam healey broken thumb. ITS TAFUA TIME

Last month it was Barney now Healey?

Where are these guys putting their thumbs???

 

[Dead Man Switch]

Makaia Tafua is a GUN!!! I have this guy as a LONG TERM - 10+ years Warrior. Kid can play and he will bring a HUGE amount to the table for this side.

I expect big things from this guy and think he will be a crucial/first picked player in years to come in that spine position for the Warriors.

 

[Warriors55]

probably likelier that Saifiti gets dropped for haas. id be shocked if Barney isnt in the blues side. iwould be equally shocked if Ford and Egan actually got picked, laurie dailey is a spanner.

this rhetoric about LM having a long kicking game is odd.. he is rusty, not 100% match fit, been horrific in nrl starts and ordinary in cup. im perplexed why everyone is shoehorning him back into the side. our kcik metres against penrith were almost identical to theirs, Boyds long kicking game is better than the rest of the halves we have and outside of him its much of a muchness. TMM is in form and building good combos, CHT is the 6 and deserves it, i actually think his attacking bombs and cross field kicks were on point.

keep it simple, healey is out, put the young buck tafua on the bench.

1. tt
2. dwz
3. ali
4. pompey
5. akp
6. cht
7. tmm
8. ford
9. egan
10. jfh
11. laban
12. niukore
13. clarke

14. tafua
15. vaimauga
16. tss
17. fatialofa (keen to see him spell niukore and make his debut)
18. cnk
19. eit

this has more than enough to beat a depleted sharks side at home

Those of us who are advocating for Metcalf are thinking about September and not about the Sharks game.

If Nathan Cleary had played in the weekend their kick meters would have been far superior to us, no doubt about that.
Our short kicking game is fine and I liked the bombs CHT put up in the red zone but we lack someone who can get us out of trouble with a long kick when the pressure is on or someone who can potentially kick a clutch 40/20 or field goal. Luke has been clutch even if he can be inconsistent and has a great long kicking game. He showed that last season before he got injured.

If we stick with TMM we will still go deep in the finals but I don't think we will beat a full strength Penrith team in the grand final with TMM at 7. Would love to be proved wrong but that is just what I think at the moment.

And if Metcalf is going to come into the team he needs as much time as possible to gel with the boys again and build combinations. So if not the Sharks game he has to come in shortly after that otherwise they are clearly not going to use him unless injury occurs.

Also, if injury does strike very late in the year and we need a 7, bringing Metcalf or Jett in is probably not going to work out well for us. I think the Sharks game is the perfect opportunity to give Metcalf a run at 7 and put TMM at 14 in place of Healey.

 

[Dannevegas]

you need to have at least a year of playing against grown men in cup before you start first grade. Linnane has barely played 4 games in cup and looks as skinny as Kade Reed. Dragons threw him into the deep end and he was clearly not up to the physicality and now he's sitting out the rest of the year on the sidelines. Throwing Linnane into first grade after only a handful of games and well before he is ready is what a desperate club like the dragons or parra would do. Not a club that is serious about development.

That’s Kade Reed lol. These 2 aren’t the same
There’s exceptions for some players, I reckon the club thinks the same about Linnane as well, That’s why we he got a top 30 contract off the bat. Linnane looks real solid defensively and aggressive, also fast asf

idk what it is about Pompey, just so slow and uninspiring. Looks like he’s operating on 150 testosterone levels.

 

[sup42]

Those of us who are advocating for Metcalf are thinking about September and not about the Sharks game.

If Nathan Cleary had played in the weekend their kick meters would have been far superior to us, no doubt about that.
Our short kicking game is fine and I liked the bombs CHT put up in the red zone but we lack someone who can get us out of trouble with a long kick when the pressure is on or someone who can potentially kick a clutch 40/20 or field goal. Luke has been clutch even if he can be inconsistent and has a great long kicking game. He showed that last season before he got injured.

If we stick with TMM we will still go deep in the finals but I don't think we will beat a full strength Penrith team in the grand final with TMM at 7. Would love to be proved wrong but that is just what I think at the moment.

And if Metcalf is going to come into the team he needs as much time as possible to gel with the boys again and build combinations. So if not the Sharks game he has to come in shortly after that otherwise they are clearly not going to use him unless injury occurs.

Also, if injury does strike very late in the year and we need a 7, bringing Metcalf or Jett in is probably not going to work out well for us. I think the Sharks game is the perfect opportunity to give Metcalf a run at 7 and put TMM at 14 in place of Healey.

When Nathan plays his kicking game will be far superior to Metcalf's. Luke will not be able to close the gap in any meaningful way vs Cleary.

You do realise that Martin has one win and a narrow two point loss that could easily have been two wins V the Panthers right?

Any day dreaming about whether Metcalf could lead us to victory over the Panthers is not grounded in any evidence - it is purely fans remembering fondly a patch of form from Metcalf, and assuming that translates to beating the Panthers - which if we are talking about Form, the Metcalf free Warriors are in better form than anything Metcalf produced).

Webster has said very clearly, that this years team is picking itself 100% on form. And you cannot call a 2 point loss to the Panthers a dip in form (not saying you are, just saying the Warriors are in red hot form and still hold that right to claim so).

 

[Dannevegas]

You do realise that Martin has one win and a narrow two point loss that could easily have been two wins V the Panthers right?

Both those games were without Cleary Tbf

 

[Inruin]

Both those games were without Cleary Tbf

And both away from home

This one was at home without Cleary, Edwards and Yeo

Warriors v Panthers

Warriors versus Penrith Panthers match centre includes live scores and updates. Includes official live player and team stats. Run metres, fantasy points scoring.

www.nrl.com

 

[sup42]

Both those games were without Cleary Tbf

Which is great because so was Metcalf's game Vs the Panthers a 28-18 loss, so we are precisely comparing like for like.

Except Metcalf had CHT next to him (Martins victory had Charnze as his six!), which pretty much shuts the book on missing players.

 

[MrFrankWhite]

Metcalf has the best tactical kicking game, but not the best distance. Last year he was nailing the bombs to the 5m line. But he never had the long boot.

Now is the perfect time for Tafua to get on the field, even if he has to be the main man for 60mins. We’ve just seen the hooker depth get tested by 1 injury to Healey. God forbid anything happened to Egan.

Plus Tafua looked a class above in his last game in cup. He was into absolutely everything on both sides of the ball.

 

[sydneywarrior92]

Those of us who are advocating for Metcalf are thinking about September and not about the Sharks game.

If Nathan Cleary had played in the weekend their kick meters would have been far superior to us, no doubt about that.
Our short kicking game is fine and I liked the bombs CHT put up in the red zone but we lack someone who can get us out of trouble with a long kick when the pressure is on or someone who can potentially kick a clutch 40/20 or field goal. Luke has been clutch even if he can be inconsistent and has a great long kicking game. He showed that last season before he got injured.

If we stick with TMM we will still go deep in the finals but I don't think we will beat a full strength Penrith team in the grand final with TMM at 7. Would love to be proved wrong but that is just what I think at the moment.

And if Metcalf is going to come into the team he needs as much time as possible to gel with the boys again and build combinations. So if not the Sharks game he has to come in shortly after that otherwise they are clearly not going to use him unless injury occurs.

Also, if injury does strike very late in the year and we need a 7, bringing Metcalf or Jett in is probably not going to work out well for us. I think the Sharks game is the perfect opportunity to give Metcalf a run at 7 and put TMM at 14 in place of Healey.

You might not think we can win a prelim/GF v Penrith with TMM, but I doubt we would even get to a prelim/GF if Mets is the 7.

Those of you advocating for Mets have seemingly forgotten how clunky we were last year when our entire attack revolved around Mets. His poor game management was putting us into a position where every game became a cardiac event. We were only winning games because of his clutch moments which is why we barely had a positive p/d this time last year. Yes, this time last year we were also 9-3. But 7/9 of those wins were 12 and under and we were very lucky in all of them. Say that CNK doesn't dive for a penalty in Campbelltown. Or Hunt doesn't screw up a sitter field goal opportunity in regular time at MSS. Or Holmes kicks one more goal at Wollongong. Or the RTS dropped ball gets called at Suncorp. The list goes on. If all of those things go the other way, we would have been closer to the middle of the pack (6th to 8th) instead of being in the top 4 this time last year.

Which brings me to this year. Under Tannah/TMM we've won 7/9 games by 13+. Yes you can argue that neither are as clutch as Mets. But they are also controlling the team in a way so that we aren't relying on clutch moments to win every single game. I am certain that if Mets had played from round 1, we wouldn't be sitting here right now with a 9-3 record with a +157 differential and comfortably being the 2nd best team in the comp right now. We'd be in a shitfight every week and probably a record closer to 6-6 and a zero p/d like last year. That makes us a 6th-8th placed team like last year that gets bundled out in week 1 at best and not qualifying for the big matches.

Sure TMM/CHT have a bit of work to do to better ice big moments in bigger games later in the year. But they showed on Sunday that they are capable of creating big moments in big matches even if the execution needs work. Under mets, I'm certain we're never getting to the big matches at all for his clutch plays to matter.

 

[WAH MAN]

1. Taine
2. Dallin
3. Ali
4. Adam
5. Alofiana
6. Chitty
7. TMM
8. James
9. Wayde/Makaia
10. Marata
11. Jacob
12. Jackson
13. Erin

14. Makaia
15. Demetric to rotate Marata out. Ford to go prop. Demi to back row
16. Tanner to sub James
17. Eddie
18. Luke Metcalf
20. Kayliss

21. Luke Hanson
22. Jason Sala lilo

Reserve Te Jett Cleary

 

[sup42]

You might not think we can win a prelim/GF v Penrith with TMM, but I doubt we would even get to a prelim/GF if Mets is the 7.

Those of you advocating for Mets have seemingly forgotten how clunky we were last year when our entire attack revolved around Mets. His poor game management was putting us into a position where every game became a cardiac event. We were only winning games because of his clutch moments which is why we barely had a positive p/d this time last year. Yes, this time last year we were also 9-3. But 7/9 of those wins were 12 and under and we were very lucky in all of them. Say that CNK doesn't dive for a penalty in Campbelltown. Or Hunt doesn't screw up a sitter field goal opportunity in regular time at MSS. Or Holmes kicks one more goal at Wollongong. Or the RTS dropped ball gets called at Suncorp. The list goes on. If all of those things go the other way, we would have been closer to the middle of the pack (6th to 8th) instead of being in the top 4 this time last year.

Which brings me to this year. Under Tannah/TMM we've won 7/9 games by 13+. Yes you can argue that neither are as clutch as Mets. But they are also controlling the team in a way so that we aren't relying on clutch moments to win every single game. I am certain that if Mets had played from round 1, we wouldn't be sitting here right now with a 9-3 record with a +157 differential and comfortably being the 2nd best team in the comp right now. We'd be in a shitfight every week and probably a record closer to 6-6 and a zero p/d like last year. That makes us a 6th-8th placed team like last year that gets bundled out in week 1 at best and not qualifying for the big matches.

Sure TMM/CHT have a bit of work to do to better ice big moments in bigger games later in the year. But they showed on Sunday that they are capable of creating big moments in big matches even if the execution needs work. Under mets, I'm certain we're never getting to the big matches at all for his clutch plays to matter.

Would you consider Metcalf on the extended bench here and there to have him ready in case? (I don't mean next weekend I mean as the season progresses and he gets match fit in cup).

 

[Muddogz]

I don’t think you can drop Martin, he was pretty good in the weekend, setting up the try for Tuapiki was an act of beauty. Concerns around his kicking game remain but Metcalf doesn’t seem quite ready yet based on Sunday. He still might get a crack if Egan plays origin as CHT or Martin will likely play hooker at some point.

Linnane is three games back from two and a half season absence. He’s a talent but not just yet for me. He might be in contention in a 4-6 weeks time if he can continue his form.