We aimed up in a big way last year against the Storm with arguably on paper a weaker side than we are rolling out this week.
Lussick was hooker.
Walker was stand off.
Kosi on the wing.
Pompey at center (very contentious to say Roger is a better center at this stage because Pompeys defence kept us in big games against star Centers).
Montoya was at Center, I think it is fair to argue that Roger and or Berry are more dynamic options than Marcello.
Bayley Sirronen was on the bench with Bunty and Ale. If Capewell plays you would think he brings more than Bayley and as much as the other bench player that night in Curran.
We did have Marata playing that night though.
A key player in that good loss was Jazz till injured.
I expect (until proven wrong) that the Warriors will aim up again this time around, I struggle to imagine a Universe under Webster where the Warriors will come in anything less than fizzing to have a go at the Storm.
As such I am really looking forward to this game. It does not get any better.
I am more concerned with Taine at Fullback than Lussick at hooker.
CNK was a vital link player in two of our try's vs the Storm which put Air Dallin in the corner. It is not fair to expect Taine to do that at this stage.
And lumping on another layer of worry, Melbourne scored two of their Try's off kicks against us because they could not go through us as easily as we were carving them, again you look to the fullback playing for the Warriors for that type of Try line defence.
Do I want Roger at Fullback over Taine already? heart say's yes, head say's no!
Now a lot of folk will say I have the head and heart mixed up.
I do not. Thing is, Roger will be the great center the Warriors need to activate a left edge attack, and the sooner he gets there, the more likely we are to play finals football, I truly believe that
Metcalf and Roger clicking is the answer to elevating this team up into the stratosphere, the upper top four, therefore bite down hard, grin and bear it, Roger becoming a superstar center is more important than winning one single game in round two.
Furthermore, you could make and argument (I do anyway) that we need Taine to be a really good replacement fullback, and I think he is capable, if you put Roger there, you basically waste a development opportunity for both players to learn to be specialists.
Long term, if you want Roger to be a killer, you make him into something new, otherwise, you create a CNK vs RTS battle which is silly when you have a fullback as good as CNK. Those boys (CNK and RTS) are clones already, they play so similar it is not funny, if you can make one something different for the sake of the team then stick with it. Force Roger to adopt his new role.
Also if Taine cracks it, then we have serious depth, the kind of depth you miss out on if you put RTS ahead of Taine as Fullback replacement.
And therein lies the rub, the Warriors, to take the next step, need to show they have crazy depth in their junior players, otherwise when Old Roger retires, what do they have? more of the same, lose a veteran, no one ready to walk in and keep winning games.
It is time we start backing all of our Juniors, we have the system headed by the right coach, play Juniors like Taine in their specialist roles and believe in the system.