Pick Your Team NZ Warriors v Cronulla Sharks - [Round 5, 2026]

[Noitall]

View: https://x.com/i/status/2038530149038412064

With Anderson injured too, I wonder if the trade could commence early if he’s who they agree on?

 

[Tookey 2.0]

The thing im so surprised about is LM and Tannah only having one game together.
I get that LM was maybe physically fit enough to play rd 1 like theyre claiming, but if this halves pairing only had one training run together that likely meant Luke's only had one run as a 6 potentially? Kinda asking for a thrashing when the 2 players who jave looked good next to Boyd this year has had a full off-season training there, or 13 games last year...

To change that now seems mad, especially with LM being so underdone....hopefully its good learning for Webby as coach.

He's kinda backed himself into a corner now...cant drop Boyd, cant drop LM. Maybe Chanel had a few reps at hooker this week's training as we probably have to give up Healys elusive running to have a plan B incase Mets stinks it up again.

 

[Blain]

With Anderson injured too, I wonder if the trade could commence early if he’s who they agree on?

That would be a massive L for us - Losing our captain with a 4 week injury for a fringe first grader who is out for half the year. So I highly doubt that.

 

[Jonno13]

On to the footy....well with Tanner I was wondering whether Webster thought (as others have said) that he would rotate the young forwards, and perhaps....he thought the Tigers would be a safer option to do that little experiment with?

I was wondering bout this when watching at the game. TSS came on after 25 mins and and Barney soon after for Fish and Clarke. Straight away we had no link man. No one seemed to be playing the 13 role. Possibly Barney played there but that’s a stretch. We were up 10-0 at this stage and our attack pretty much stop from this point. Mix that with Lukey Met and Tannah not being as smooth is they could be. Writing was on the wall. Demi plays 13 and prop. Even in the last 15mins when we were down by 6 or 12, and were chasing points, we Broughton TSS for a 2nd stint. Demi gives that X factor that we were looking for. Surely Webby wasn’t playing week on, week off turns with his young props. Guess we’ll probably never know.

 

[Dannevegas]

Metcalf has to be dropped, or else everything Webby has said about holding players accountable is a whole garbage pile full of shit

Why, because he played poor first game back from an ACL?? If we have a chance at a premiership it’ll be off the back of Metcalf. Not to discredit Boyd at all.

Roger’s my all time fav warriors player, but if anyone needs to be dropped it’s him.

 

[Noitall]

That would be a massive L for us - Losing our captain with a 4 week injury for a fringe first grader who is out for half the year. So I highly doubt that.

Seems like they preparing for life without him by playing him off the bench? Perhaps still easing him back after his layoff? I’m sure Barnett still has a huge influence, but it feels like JFH is the focal point around leadership with plenty of experience in the team behind him. The club should consider it if his child needs the medical help NZ can’t offer, he seems committed though

 

[Boats n Hoes]

Wtf? Lol.... You're talking like Ali is a wiley old veteran that has played 200 plus games and we've given him enough chances already? Smh.....Ali has just turned 23. Hes only played 18 games of 1st grade. Most of the forum wanted Boyd to stay in NSW Cup this year. Boyd is now one of the form halves of the competition.

Eli Katoa, Apparently he was a big for nothing sloth. Get him out.of here.
I personally was a big fan and wish he stayed with us. He turned into a beast with Melbourne.
Ali has plenty of potential. Let the kid find his feet.
Singling him out as a lazy fucker when half of our experienced players could slot into that category after our last performance vs Tigers.

Nah fuck that. Diesnt take 200 games before u realize u need to move your lazy arse. This club has moved on from the bad old days where we made excuses for young prodigies who carved up lower grades ball in hand but were lazy as fuck without the ball...Konrad Hurrell like and a never ending list of unrealised potential. Why youd be happy for Leiataua to never reach his potential i dont know. Thankfully the development behind this club now is about trying to make these kids more rounded on both sides of the ball by the time they come into first grade. I guarantee u the work their putting in to Bishop Neal behind the scenes will have nothing to do with what he can do carrying the ball.

Leka at 20 will make mistakes, miss tackles, take poor options but it wont be because of lack of effort....just a few weeks ago after playing 80 minutes and scoring a pretty amazing try his coach publicly came out and said the most impressive parts about his game was his work without the ball. 2nd highest tackle count, working in the line, filling spaces.

Tannah Stowers Smith younger and less games......work his ass off
Laban younger and just 23 games.....works his ass off
Demetric Vaimauga.....younger and 34 games.....works his ass off

Clearly the stumbling block for Leiataua and the reason he hasnt nailed a first grade spot is his lack of urgency off the ball and his "effort areas"....sorry when u just watch your winger make a break and never break out of a trot to put yourself into a position to support....im gonna call it for what it is.....lazy fucker....and unfortunately for Ali he has history of this.....the message doesnt seem to be getting through......mightve been accepted cause of what he can do ball in hand by the Warriors of old......but not by this regime thank god.

Also ive never implied he's washed up or doesnt have potential.....quite the opposite, repeatedly pointed out his strengths, plus im rootin for the kid cause if he can sort out both sides of his game then we have ourselves a real weapon here......but he aint gonna do that making excuses for him or turning a blind eye to where he needs to improve.

Oh and incidently i was one Eli Katoas biggest fan bois here. Only the deluded thought he was a big for nothing sloth, He came into grade and Kearney had him playing 80 on an edge where the thing that immediately impressed me other than his obvious destructive capabilities ball in hand was his workrate without it....he made tackles, filled gaps, kept working in the line.......it was only that dipshit Brown who benched him, cut his time to the point of being ineffective till he eventually dropped him.....little wonder he jumped when Bellamy came calling.

 

[CWC]

Guessing it’s this?

14. Healey
15. Demi
16. TSS
17. Marata
18. Gannon/EIT
20. CHT

Same starting line up

 

[sydneywarrior92]

Guessing it’s this?

14. Healey
15. Demi
16. TSS
17. Marata
18. Gannon/EIT
20. CHT

Same starting line up

I actually like that bench. More than capable of getting the job done on Sunday.

 

[Dannevegas]

Nah fuck that. This club has moved on from the bad old days where we made excuses for young prodigies who carved up lower grades ball in hand but were lazy as fuck without the ball...Konrad Hurrell like and a never ending list of unrealised potential. Why youd be happy for Leiataua to never reach his potential i dont know. Thankfully the development behind this club now is about trying to make these kids more rounded on both sides of the ball by the time they come into first grade.

Leka at 20 will make mistakes, miss tackles, take poor options but it wont be because of lack of effort....just a few weeks ago after playing 80 minutes and scoring a pretty amazing try his coach publicly came out and said the most impressive parts about his game was his work without the ball. 2nd highest tackle count, working in the line, filling spaces.

Tannah Stowers Smith younger and less games......work his ass off
Laban younger and just 23 games.....works his ass off
Demetric Vaimauga.....younger and 34 games.....works his ass off

Clearly the stumbling block for Leiataua and the reason he hasnt nailed a first grade spot is his lack of urgency off the ball and his "effort areas"....sorry when u just watch your winger make a break and never break out of a trot to put yourself into a position to support....im gonna call it for what it is.....lazy fucker....and unfortunately for Ali he has history of this.....the message doesnt seem to be getting through......mightve been accepted cause of what he can do ball in hand by the Warriors of old......but not by this regime thank god.

Also ive never implied he's washed up or doesnt have potential.....quite the opposite, repeatedly pointed out his strengths, plus im rootin for the kid cause if he can sort out both sides of his game then we have ourselves a real weapon here......but he aint gonna do that making excuses for him or turning a blind eye to where he needs to improve.

Oh and incidently i was one Eli Katoas biggest fan bois here. Only the deluded thought he was a big for nothing sloth, He came into grade and Kearney had him playing 80 on an edge where the thing that immediately impressed me other than his obvious destructive capabilities ball in hand was his workrate without it....he made tackles, filled gaps, kept working in the line.......it was only that dipshit Brown who benched him, cut his time to the point of being ineffective till he eventually dropped him.....little wonder he jumped when Bellamy came calling.

Ye I’ll never Forgive egg head Brown lol, being the sole reason Big Eli was lost to us.

 

[Warriorsfan92]

Apparently Barnett broken hand

 

[sydneywarrior92]

Like all matches against Cronulla, the key to this is stopping AFB. He made over 200m last week and was the only Sharks middle to run for more than 100m. He is carrying that pack all by himself. Stop him and we go a long way to winning here. Instead of wasting our energies whinging and bitching about Mets playing cup, which is a sideshow imo, the key thing to focus on the battle up front. We need to return the pack to the form of rounds 1-3 where we were the form pack of the comp, simply rolling teams through the middle. We did most of this good work without Barney, so no reason why we can't do our best work by returning to our bench rotation of the first 2 weeks that included both TSS and Demi.

 

[Warriorsfan92]

 

[CWC]

Like all matches against Cronulla, the key to this is stopping AFB. He made over 200m last week and was the only Sharks middle to run for more than 100m. He is carrying that pack all by himself. Stop him and we go a long way to winning here. Instead of wasting our energies whinging and bitching about Mets playing cup, which is a sideshow imo, the key thing to focus on the battle up front. We need to return the pack to the form of rounds 1-3 where we were the form pack of the comp, simply rolling teams through the middle. We did most of this good work without Barney, so no reason why we can't do our best work by returning to our bench rotation of the first 2 weeks that included both TSS and Demi.

I thought their D was horrible and gassed after 65min, we need to go hard through the middle then play our structure and the 2nd rowers/centres would be scoring a lot

Weird Barney keeps getting hurt the game before the sharks, maybe dont play him the week before the corresponding match up lol

 

[sydneywarrior92]

I thought their D was horrible and gassed after 65min, we need to go hard through the middle then play our structure and the 2nd rowers/centres would be scoring a lot

Weird Barney keeps getting hurt the game before the sharks, maybe dont play him the week before the corresponding match up lol

It happened last year when we played them at Shark Park too. Our more mobile, fitter pack simply outlasted them at the end, which is exactly what happened in the Phins game last week as well. They need 4 props on the bench because other than AFB, none of them are particularly mobile. So the equation really is simple: stop AFB and we win the middle. It's really remarkable how piss poor the running meter stats are for the other sharks middles. Never seen a pack so dependent on one player (as we were when he was over here).

 

[CWC]

It happened last year when we played them at Shark Park too. Our more mobile, fitter pack simply outlasted them at the end, which is exactly what happened in the Phins game last week as well. They need 4 props on the bench because other than AFB, none of them are particularly mobile. So the equation really is simple: stop AFB and we win the middle. It's really remarkable how piss poor the running meter stats are for the other sharks middles. Never seen a pack so dependent on one player (as we were when he was over here).

Brownie Ball is contagious

 

[enterthewarrior]

Eh. Broken hand. How did he do it? There's no report on any of the websites. He only just returned from injury.

 

[Stalefish540]

Love Barney, can't fault the guy and it's completely out of his hands injury wise.

I thought he was going to be back round 7-8 from the ACL, play a few games then go into the origin squad. Came back early, now will essentially be the same scenario by the time he returns from the broken hand.

Hopefully hes not injured/cooked after origin, or what a shitshow bang for buck in his departing season.

 

[The Warrior Waka]

Nah fuck that. Diesnt take 200 games before u realize u need to move your lazy arse. This club has moved on from the bad old days where we made excuses for young prodigies who carved up lower grades ball in hand but were lazy as fuck without the ball...Konrad Hurrell like and a never ending list of unrealised potential. Why youd be happy for Leiataua to never reach his potential i dont know. Thankfully the development behind this club now is about trying to make these kids more rounded on both sides of the ball by the time they come into first grade. I guarantee u the work their putting in to Bishop Neal behind the scenes will have nothing to do with what he can do carrying the ball.

Leka at 20 will make mistakes, miss tackles, take poor options but it wont be because of lack of effort....just a few weeks ago after playing 80 minutes and scoring a pretty amazing try his coach publicly came out and said the most impressive parts about his game was his work without the ball. 2nd highest tackle count, working in the line, filling spaces.

Tannah Stowers Smith younger and less games......work his ass off
Laban younger and just 23 games.....works his ass off
Demetric Vaimauga.....younger and 34 games.....works his ass off

Clearly the stumbling block for Leiataua and the reason he hasnt nailed a first grade spot is his lack of urgency off the ball and his "effort areas"....sorry when u just watch your winger make a break and never break out of a trot to put yourself into a position to support....im gonna call it for what it is.....lazy fucker....and unfortunately for Ali he has history of this.....the message doesnt seem to be getting through......mightve been accepted cause of what he can do ball in hand by the Warriors of old......but not by this regime thank god.

Also ive never implied he's washed up or doesnt have potential.....quite the opposite, repeatedly pointed out his strengths, plus im rootin for the kid cause if he can sort out both sides of his game then we have ourselves a real weapon here......but he aint gonna do that making excuses for him or turning a blind eye to where he needs to improve.

Oh and incidently i was one Eli Katoas biggest fan bois here. Only the deluded thought he was a big for nothing sloth, He came into grade and Kearney had him playing 80 on an edge where the thing that immediately impressed me other than his obvious destructive capabilities ball in hand was his workrate without it....he made tackles, filled gaps, kept working in the line.......it was only that dipshit Brown who benched him, cut his time to the point of being ineffective till he eventually dropped him.....little wonder he jumped when Bellamy came calling.

Sorry bro. Short attention span. Take me days to read that.
Sounds like you're being way to dramatic in regards to Ali.

Dallin is still here? His missed tackles and laziness is legendary!

Take a deep breath, Have a hard wank & a smoke. At the same time. You'll live. Ali will too.

 

[CWC]

Love Barney, can't fault the guy and it's completely out of his hands injury wise.

I thought he was going to be back round 7-8 from the ACL, play a few games then go into the origin squad. Came back early, now will essentially be the same scenario by the time he returns from the broken hand.

Hopefully hes not injured/cooked after origin, or what a shitshow bang for buck in his departing season.

At this rate probably misses origin, which is good for us and he can go all out for the final half of the season