Post Match Sydney City Roosters v NZ Warriors - [Round 1, 2026]

[sup42]

Ten Observations from the game:

1) James Fisher Harris is money in the bank for protecting a lead in the last ten minutes. He is an elite prop and better for this team than AFB was.
2) We find out where we are at next week when we take on last year's minor premiers. This is going to be a battle up front. Tapine single handedly intimidated us last year but this time we have Fish and Barnett back. Will be one for the ages. But beating the Roosters is a great scalp.
3) Laban had / has really bad ball security. I don't care that someone is putting hands in there and pushing the ball out illegally. Hold the ball anyway. I started watching ball security during the match and both TSS and CNK are like the bank of England at ball security. No one can pry it free from their clasp no matter what antics they try. Would really like to see Laban work on this.
4) Boyd played at new levels he has never gone to before. He is starting to believe (Matrix reference).
5) No comment on Ali's defence as it has already been quite rightly said. He either wants to be a part of the NRL or he doesn't. Commit to the tackle young man.
6) CHT was great. Loved the partial return of Jungle ball. It is in our DNA let's play this way.
7) The winning of the game was the crowd. Great support if you were there. I am going to the Warriors game in Wellington. We can only hope to come close to what Mt Smart put out on Friday. It really helps with referee decisions. Keep it up.
8) This game was won up front. Jackson Ford. We always said about him that the knock was his pathetic ill discipline. And people said just let him get older. Well now he is 28 years old. Has he arrived? He very much is the type of forward you find making an impact for a top four team. You don't find a forward like him playing for a bottom 4 team or they would not be in the bottom 4. He looked legit.
9) CNK looked a million dollars. Can he keep this up all season or will he fatigue by round 10. Let's hope he is back.
10) All our attacking succcess barring the CNK try is coming down our lethal left edge. Take a bow CHT/ Capewell/ Pompey/ Roger - these guys are the engine room of the team. I bequeath that name to this edge. The left edge is the engine room of the team especially offensively.

Great win - our PD already off to a flying start.

Good write up.

On Labans hands, I would add some nuance, he has great hands (that guy can pluck it out of the air like a tennis ball with his huge mitts) but yes, he needs to develop the ball protection that Props and Fullbacks are naturally bred with as part of their specific roles.

There will always be rangy tall athletic gliding big back rowers that carry it one arm ala Colin Meads, and they will always suffer more turn overs than the next guy, but they are also the breed that SBW, Lauiti'iti, Mark Graham and Kearney come from. It is an asset overall that they have this natural risk way of handling a football in motion, Kikau has plenty of turn overs for this reason. Long reply short - I wouldn't sweat it....like Ford the solution is obvious (as you rightly noted).

 

[John Nick]

Ten Observations from the game:

1) James Fisher Harris is money in the bank for protecting a lead in the last ten minutes. He is an elite prop and better for this team than AFB was.
2) We find out where we are at next week when we take on last year's minor premiers. This is going to be a battle up front. Tapine single handedly intimidated us last year but this time we have Fish and Barnett back. Will be one for the ages. But beating the Roosters is a great scalp.
3) Laban had / has really bad ball security. I don't care that someone is putting hands in there and pushing the ball out illegally. Hold the ball anyway. I started watching ball security during the match and both TSS and CNK are like the bank of England at ball security. No one can pry it free from their clasp no matter what antics they try. Would really like to see Laban work on this.
4) Boyd played at new levels he has never gone to before. He is starting to believe (Matrix reference).
5) No comment on Ali's defence as it has already been quite rightly said. He either wants to be a part of the NRL or he doesn't. Commit to the tackle young man.
6) CHT was great. Loved the partial return of Jungle ball. It is in our DNA let's play this way.
7) The winning of the game was the crowd. Great support if you were there. I am going to the Warriors game in Wellington. We can only hope to come close to what Mt Smart put out on Friday. It really helps with referee decisions. Keep it up.
8) This game was won up front. Jackson Ford. We always said about him that the knock was his pathetic ill discipline. And people said just let him get older. Well now he is 28 years old. Has he arrived? He very much is the type of forward you find making an impact for a top four team. You don't find a forward like him playing for a bottom 4 team or they would not be in the bottom 4. He looked legit.
9) CNK looked a million dollars. Can he keep this up all season or will he fatigue by round 10. Let's hope he is back.
10) All our attacking succcess barring the CNK try is coming down our lethal left edge. Take a bow CHT/ Capewell/ Pompey/ Roger - these guys are the engine room of the team. I bequeath that name to this edge. The left edge is the engine room of the team especially offensively.

Great win - our PD already off to a flying start.

Good post there Wrighty
For a relatively self proclaimed newbie to our game you have a wonderful grasp of what it takes to make it in the NRL.

 

[Tokyo Warrior]

I always look forward to the post-game Wrighty wright-ups

 

[Beastmode]

Good post there Wrighty
For a relatively self proclaimed newbie to our game you have a wonderful grasp of what it takes to make it in the NRL.

Don’t be fooled. That’s too good a post to be his.
That’s AI
The real @Wrighty doesn’t know a thing about league. He’s new to the game and states this in every post

 

[the WARs]

No other NRL team is going to pick him up with that defence. I reckon he will be super league bound and be a star there. He isn't a rookie, he is 23, golden years for a centre.

Not even NSW cup worthy IMHO I don't get how such a BIG body is bad in D.. sooner Rocco is back the better ..and when he does I hope he can play out the season as the guy is a FG centre

 

[Bay39er]

Ten Observations from the game:

1) James Fisher Harris is money in the bank for protecting a lead in the last ten minutes. He is an elite prop and better for this team than AFB was.
2) We find out where we are at next week when we take on last year's minor premiers. This is going to be a battle up front. Tapine single handedly intimidated us last year but this time we have Fish and Barnett back. Will be one for the ages. But beating the Roosters is a great scalp.
3) Laban had / has really bad ball security. I don't care that someone is putting hands in there and pushing the ball out illegally. Hold the ball anyway. I started watching ball security during the match and both TSS and CNK are like the bank of England at ball security. No one can pry it free from their clasp no matter what antics they try. Would really like to see Laban work on this.
4) Boyd played at new levels he has never gone to before. He is starting to believe (Matrix reference).
5) No comment on Ali's defence as it has already been quite rightly said. He either wants to be a part of the NRL or he doesn't. Commit to the tackle young man.
6) CHT was great. Loved the partial return of Jungle ball. It is in our DNA let's play this way.
7) The winning of the game was the crowd. Great support if you were there. I am going to the Warriors game in Wellington. We can only hope to come close to what Mt Smart put out on Friday. It really helps with referee decisions. Keep it up.
8) This game was won up front. Jackson Ford. We always said about him that the knock was his pathetic ill discipline. And people said just let him get older. Well now he is 28 years old. Has he arrived? He very much is the type of forward you find making an impact for a top four team. You don't find a forward like him playing for a bottom 4 team or they would not be in the bottom 4. He looked legit.
9) CNK looked a million dollars. Can he keep this up all season or will he fatigue by round 10. Let's hope he is back.
10) All our attacking succcess barring the CNK try is coming down our lethal left edge. Take a bow CHT/ Capewell/ Pompey/ Roger - these guys are the engine room of the team. I bequeath that name to this edge. The left edge is the engine room of the team especially offensively.

Great win - our PD already off to a flying start.

One error and you are calling out Laban!

 

[Beastmode]

One error and you are calling out Laban!

Even AI makes mistakes

Eyes don’t like. He’s got great hands. Caught some beautiful bombs in cup and also FG if I recall correctly

 

[FormerlyJamesW]

Even AI makes mistakes

Is the Chat Wrighty-T hallucinating again?

Dammit.

I’ll roll it back to a more stable version and submit a job ticket with the dev team.

 

[The Warrior Waka]

Watching the replay.

Loved Erin & Naufahu's lil one on one battle. Erin kept him quiet. Which is hard to do.

Last year, Boyd missing those kicks he would drop lip and be down on himself. This game, he just went hard in everything else and didn't drop lip. Tackled hard, ran hard, kicked well. Great organisation.

CHT seems to chill and relaxed. He isn't a superstar. But is doing the right things when it matters.

CNK looks super fit and uninjured.

Ford is like the likeable mischief kid you know will get in trouble at some point in the game. But he didn't. He was huge for us. They targeted him. And he just kept coming at them. Huge motor, Great leg drive.

Rts doesn't have the speed he once did. But he just knows to be in the right place at the right time. Still has that crazy leg drive & step, With some ball playing added to his impressive arsenal even tho his speed is on the decrease.

 

[BangBro's (still banging)]

If we win 5 in a row and Boyd dominates like he did last night, does Metcalf even come back into the team?

I like the idea of Boyd And Metcalf!

 

[BangBro's (still banging)]

1 C N Klokstad
2 D W Zelezniak
3 A Leiataua
4 A Pompey
5 R T Sheck
6 C H Tavita
7 T Boyd
8 J F Harris c
9 W Egan
10 Universal Soldier
11 K Capewell c
12 J Laban
13 E Clark

14 S Healey
15 D Vaimauga
16 T S Smith
17 L Halasima
18 A K Pereira
19 E I Toeava

20 T Tuaupiki

 

[CWC]

Post match Webster:

‘Boyd's performance naturally raised questions about the halves combination once injured playmaker Luke Metcalf returned, but Webster was happy to keep that discussion for another time.

“Am I allowed to say we will cross that bridge when we get to it?” Webster laughed.

“Nah, I think we've got great depth in the halfback position.

“When that happens, we will work out what the best balance is for our team. I think you also don't have to pigeonhole halves so that they can only wear the 7 jersey. I think everyone is getting a little bit better at being a 6 and a 7, or you just look at them as two halves.’


What do we read into this? Metcalf could come back as a 6 if Boyd keeps smashing it?

He’s saying it could be both Boyd and Metcalf at the same time. Though CHT’s on

If these 2 can keep it up and stay healthy then Metcalf could be 14 and CHT to spell Egan? We all know what happened when TMM/CHT were rolling nicely then they shoved SJ to de facto 6 in 2024

Easy decision would be injuries or a losing streak

 

[Mr Drag]

He’s saying it could be both Boyd and Metcalf at the same time. Though CHT’s on

If these 2 can keep it up and stay healthy then Metcalf could be 14 and CHT to spell Egan? We all know what happened when TMM/CHT were rolling nicely then they shoved SJ to de facto 6 in 2024

Easy decision would be injuries or a losing streak

No one is after CHT! Metcalf is the class!

 

[wizard of Tauranga]

So we sit 4th after round 1 with the top 8 being:

Storm, Sharks, Panthers, Warriors, Rabbits, Knights, Raiders, Bulldogs.

I can see this being 6 of the top 8 come finals with the Broncos and Roosters replacing the Knights/ Rabbits???

The NRL will not be happy. Lots of blowouts and basically no real upsets after round 1 and the gap between the good and bad teams exposed. Typically early season is a lot more upsets, table movement and generally poor form as the better teams build into the season.

My prediction is we get the refs being a lot more ‘active’ in managing closer results and upsets for the good of the competition.

 

[WahsaurusRex]

Dally M votes: Jackson Ford 6, James Tedesco 3, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck 2, Tanah Boyd 1.

 

[FormerlyJamesW]

View attachment 16130

Haha get on it Jacko, ya freak!

Love it.

 

[juju]

Anyone see RTS kick the 2nd ball back onto the field during play. Quite hilarious - he looked instantly guilty for doing something so devious.

 

[Mr Drag]

Just watched the replay, Dam Ali got owned on defence, It was bad bad!

 

[sydneywarrior92]

View attachment 16130

Dally M votes: Jackson Ford 6, James Tedesco 3, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck 2, Tanah Boyd 1.

teddy needs to be docked those dally m pts on account of being an insufferable little b***ch on Friday.

 

[Damo]

Anyone see RTS kick the 2nd ball back onto the field during play. Quite hilarious - he looked instantly guilty for doing something so devious.

Probably as the whole East stand laughed at him