Post Match NZ Warriors v Newcastle Knights - [Round 3, 2026]

[WAH MAN]

We had no where near the structure, organisation and cohesion last year, he just had some individual brilliant moments. Now granted that may be down to the team as a whole.....we are just better this year but theres room for them both anyway with CHT at 14 so all good, as long as we fit them all in

Funny. CHT is also in great form thus far minus his HIA. Two tries in week one. Try assists etc. Oh the pain we are in with too many good players to put in place. Poor us

 

[Beastmode]

I'll reiterate that the biggest loser of all of this is Healey. If CHT is 14 then Healey is not in the squad.

Healey will be fine

Only 3 rounds in and he’s had plenty of game time already

 

[Makasene]

Healey will be fine

Only 3 rounds in and he’s had plenty of game time already

Sure, but this is about when Metcalf is back

 

[CWC]

Funny. CHT is also in great form thus far minus his HIA. Two tries in week one. Try assists etc. Oh the pain we are in with too many good players to put in place. Poor us

 

[Makasene]

View attachment 16431

Like complaining about the caviar on your lobster meal

 

[FormerlyJamesW]

I really don't understand the amount of posts asking 'what will we do??'

I'll be honest, I just like to stir the pot.

 

[RobRoyMcCoy]

Just watched the replay. Had a Viking housewarming on saturday night. Ended up watching the game about 2am when I was hammered so the replay was essential.

My first impression was that Newcastle were not that bad. They were up for it but we won through our discipline on defence around the ruck and our ability to hold the ball on attack and minimise our errors. Once we get into good positions we can throw real risk at them.

Our young guys are doing a good job and clearly following JFH and Barnet.

Controversially, Tanah cannot be dropped for Luka. Also TT cannot be dropped for CNK. Taine deserves to be picked for the next game no matter who is available. He is such a good ball player and runner, CNK might have to be on the bench.

 

[sup42]

Wrighty's review - 7 observations this week.

1) Is it a bird, it is a plane? No in an even rarer sight than spotting Superman I spotted Ali doing one percenters in this game. At first I shook my head and dismissed it but it kept happening throughout the game. Decoy runs, useful cover defence, generally scrambling around. He just might have a future in the NRL. We all know he can score tries but he looked like a 360 degree player in this match. Let's see if he can do it again next week before I conclude he has turned over a new leaf.
2) Jackson Ford has conceded one penalty and 3 six again offences over the first 3 games. What remarkable discipline given the volume of minutes he has played.
3) Our edge defence has improved. I am not going to say how on the open Internet as I don't want to give the Warriors IP to opposition analysts.
4) Well done to Wizards and all the posters who had the Kahuna's to say we would comfortably beat the Knights. You were right !! And perhaps Wizards was right about the reason they didn't chance Sharpe. Maybe they figured the Warriors of 2026 were too good for him to make a difference. Certainly in past years star players miraculously recovered just in time to play the Warriors.
5) My complaint about the match is that after Trey Mooney took a run at Tannah Boyd we got into handbags with them. That was not enough of a reaction from the Warriors enforcers as far as I am concerned. If you watch the replay Mooney really tried a cheap shot take out hit on Boyd that could have knocked him unconscious as he aimed to nail him with an illegal shoulder charge. We should have thrown hands/fists at Mooney for that and taken a suspension ourselves. We need to draw a line in the sand and protect our halves from people taking runs at them. Who cares if you get banned for a game. As coach I would be addressing this behind closed doors. NO ONE should get away with taking a run at Boyd or Metcalf or CHT period.
6) The next observation is just my take. So cool your jets if you watched the game and simply didn't see this. You are allowed to have your view, I am just typing up my view. Feel free to ignore therefore. The warriors in 2026 have radically changed their tackle technique. In past years circa 2020 and 2021 and 2019 we used to do big hits. And bone crunching tackles. And sometimes we would tackle someone and frogmarch them 10 metres back. These big hits didn't really get us anywhere as we would finish 10th or 14th overall in the standings but in all likelihood we were the biggest bone jarring tackling team in the league. For whatever that was worth. In this game vs the Knights it really looked like we just wanted to bring the Knight player safely to the ground rather than splitting him in two with a big hit. We almost carefully and almost gently were wrestling the opposition to the ground. However we were also surgical about it as we left the tackled player invariably on his back so he absolutely couldn't do a quick PTB. 2026 more effective tackling but less spectacular.
7) Tannah Boyd is second only to Cleary on form for halfbacks in the NRL at the moment.

You can't go around punching people in the head when you are angry.

Ya just can't, that type of behavior carries over to life off the paddock for a lot of blokes.

I used to love the scraps. The world has evolved.

 

[jonesy101]

You can't go around punching people in the head when you are angry.

Ya just can't, that type of behavior carries over to life off the paddock for a lot of blokes.

I used to love the scraps. The world has evolved.

Watching Steve Price get floored in Origin was one of the scariest things to see. It all changed after that and players would be stupid these days to risk a long stint on the sidelines.

 

[Makasene]

Watching Steve Price get floored in Origin was one of the scariest things to see. It all changed after that and players would be stupid these days to risk a long stint on the sidelines.

Yea that was a bad one.

Think it was Gallen V Myles that was the catalyst. Seem to remember a big change in rules after that

 

[WAH MAN]

You can't go around punching people in the head when you are angry.

Ya just can't, that type of behavior carries over to life off the paddock for a lot of blokes.

I used to love the scraps. The world has evolved.

Marata would be in NRL prison again and Barnett would be in NRL prison again and Fish would be in NRL prison and Demetric would be in NRL prison and Leka would be in NRL prison and Erin would be in NRL prison and Egan would be in NRL hospital.

But yes the world has evolved and the throwing of handbags is set aside for State of my organ where Queensland and New South Wales are encouraged to throw handbags to sell the marquee rugby league event.

No good our team having punch throwers. That's why Fish has a weaponised frown. It's all we can throw.

So after that we can revert to legally bashing the absolute snot out of them in the game.

 

[WAH MAN]

Watching Steve Price get floored in Origin was one of the scariest things to see. It all changed after that and players would be stupid these days to risk a long stint on the sidelines.

An issue with it is that there are no rules or boundaries so if someone got dropped and killed by a punch or a punch followed by a kick to the head in sports anger then the game would take serious damage as well as the other fallout to those involved.

 

[FormerlyJamesW]

Youtube replay of the game is here:

It's currently streaming, but it'll turn into a normal video when it's done.


View: https://youtu.be/9-w6psgylg4?si=C3l9TSpuK2ZmFFn5

 

[sydneywarrior92]

Great to see ultimate wahs hater Sean Omerod of Sportsbet confronted over his awful takes on us for the Knights game that just happened. Still very cringe that he clings on to this notion that we have been gifted our wins by the ref. But still, enjoyable watch.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2HxcK_iJTU&t=1367s