From SMH...
THE Wests Tigers may have timed it like a late-charging racehorse last season, but for the Warriors to surmount their minus-four start and still be realistic contenders for this year's premiership would be the equivalent of Phar Lap rising from the grave and winning the Melbourne Cup.
Yet despite this sluggish opening-round defeat by Melbourne, there was a strangely positive air at Ericsson Stadium yesterday as captain Steve Price talked about the performance being 80 per cent right and new coach Ivan Cleary relaxed and untroubled that his side was already six points off the pace.
Former Kiwis coach Graham Lowe has tipped the Warriors to be potential premiers, and their debutant Grant Rovelli, after his first taste of the NRL, was prepared to make an equally bold prediction.
"Once we get off the mark, we'll be hard to stop," said Rovelli, a 22-year-old halfback who overcame a five-year wait for first grade at the Roosters by being easily the Warriors' best player yesterday. "When we get our game together and a bit of confidence, we will be unstoppable towards the end of the season.
"Look at the Wests Tigers' success last year. They started off poorly and built their game throughout the season and at the end of the year they had that roll, that snowball effect."
Perhaps, for the Warriors, the sunny mood was because the start of the season meant they finally had an excuse to ignore an uneasy month of media attention in New Zealand, where the club's latest off-field failings have happily been pounced upon.
A salary cap issue the club hoped to contain by their new "transparency" policy has now mutated so far that the current debate is on what the future might hold for their out-of-the-country millionaire owner Eric Watson.
Watson didn't miss much in a stodgy first half on which Price admitted his side was doing well to trail only 8-0. It was lit up only by a neat solo try from the emerging Greg Inglis, who collected a stray pass from a scrum, twice fended off Tony Martin, then rounded Brent Webb comfortably on the outside.
The Storm's only other coherent attack brought a second try from Matt Geyer and a realisation that the Warriors' weak right flank was a fertile hunting ground.
The Warriors started the second half with two tries in a three-minute spell which suggested things will get better. Converted second-rower Sione Faumuina will be one of the NRL's biggest five-eighths, and the highlight of his mixed start to his new career was an inside pass to Jerome Ropati that led to a try.
Wairangi Koopu gave the Warriors a briefly held 10-8 lead, but the Storm were back in front when Faumuina committed a second high tackle, both of which could earn him a suspension, to set the field position for a close-range score by hooker Cameron Smith.
That was immediately followed by a sweeping move, heavily featuring Inglis and provided Geyer with his second try, and the 19-year-old centre already looks a real Origin prospect.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy was happy to praise Inglis's efforts afterwards, and Billy Slater - who went through a similar star-building process two years ago - says he won't be affected by the attention.
He said: "He's got a lot of talent and a lot of confidence, but he's not at all cocky. Greggy doesn't get too much attention in Melbourne, it's not the same as Benji Marshall gets in Sydney and we get pulled into line by guys like Matt Geyer, anyway."
The other Melburnians to earn attention were the front-row trio of Brett White, Garret Crossman and Antonio Kaufusi who had only 66 first-grade games between them.
The Warriors have not won in New Zealand outside Auckland. With games in Hamilton, against Parramatta, and Christchurch, against the Tigers, coming next, they know they have to alter that record for this season to mean anything.
Cleary, however, remained as sunny as the Auckland skies. He said: "I'm not going to worry about the minus four.
"We don't judge success on the first round. What we're doing well will last a long time and the errors are a short-term thing that will improve."
MATCH FOCUS
THEY SAID WHAT?
"I rated him very highly after that first try, but when he bombed the last one he wasn't as high." Smiling Storm coach Craig Bellamy gives Greg Inglis a gentle gee-up.
BONE CRUNCHER
Youth overcame experience as Antonio Kaufusi (19 games) produced a bell-ringer on Steve Price (239) to set up Steve Turner's winner and make it an unhappy 32nd birthday for the Warriors skipper.
THE Wests Tigers may have timed it like a late-charging racehorse last season, but for the Warriors to surmount their minus-four start and still be realistic contenders for this year's premiership would be the equivalent of Phar Lap rising from the grave and winning the Melbourne Cup.
Yet despite this sluggish opening-round defeat by Melbourne, there was a strangely positive air at Ericsson Stadium yesterday as captain Steve Price talked about the performance being 80 per cent right and new coach Ivan Cleary relaxed and untroubled that his side was already six points off the pace.
Former Kiwis coach Graham Lowe has tipped the Warriors to be potential premiers, and their debutant Grant Rovelli, after his first taste of the NRL, was prepared to make an equally bold prediction.
"Once we get off the mark, we'll be hard to stop," said Rovelli, a 22-year-old halfback who overcame a five-year wait for first grade at the Roosters by being easily the Warriors' best player yesterday. "When we get our game together and a bit of confidence, we will be unstoppable towards the end of the season.
"Look at the Wests Tigers' success last year. They started off poorly and built their game throughout the season and at the end of the year they had that roll, that snowball effect."
Perhaps, for the Warriors, the sunny mood was because the start of the season meant they finally had an excuse to ignore an uneasy month of media attention in New Zealand, where the club's latest off-field failings have happily been pounced upon.
A salary cap issue the club hoped to contain by their new "transparency" policy has now mutated so far that the current debate is on what the future might hold for their out-of-the-country millionaire owner Eric Watson.
Watson didn't miss much in a stodgy first half on which Price admitted his side was doing well to trail only 8-0. It was lit up only by a neat solo try from the emerging Greg Inglis, who collected a stray pass from a scrum, twice fended off Tony Martin, then rounded Brent Webb comfortably on the outside.
The Storm's only other coherent attack brought a second try from Matt Geyer and a realisation that the Warriors' weak right flank was a fertile hunting ground.
The Warriors started the second half with two tries in a three-minute spell which suggested things will get better. Converted second-rower Sione Faumuina will be one of the NRL's biggest five-eighths, and the highlight of his mixed start to his new career was an inside pass to Jerome Ropati that led to a try.
Wairangi Koopu gave the Warriors a briefly held 10-8 lead, but the Storm were back in front when Faumuina committed a second high tackle, both of which could earn him a suspension, to set the field position for a close-range score by hooker Cameron Smith.
That was immediately followed by a sweeping move, heavily featuring Inglis and provided Geyer with his second try, and the 19-year-old centre already looks a real Origin prospect.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy was happy to praise Inglis's efforts afterwards, and Billy Slater - who went through a similar star-building process two years ago - says he won't be affected by the attention.
He said: "He's got a lot of talent and a lot of confidence, but he's not at all cocky. Greggy doesn't get too much attention in Melbourne, it's not the same as Benji Marshall gets in Sydney and we get pulled into line by guys like Matt Geyer, anyway."
The other Melburnians to earn attention were the front-row trio of Brett White, Garret Crossman and Antonio Kaufusi who had only 66 first-grade games between them.
The Warriors have not won in New Zealand outside Auckland. With games in Hamilton, against Parramatta, and Christchurch, against the Tigers, coming next, they know they have to alter that record for this season to mean anything.
Cleary, however, remained as sunny as the Auckland skies. He said: "I'm not going to worry about the minus four.
"We don't judge success on the first round. What we're doing well will last a long time and the errors are a short-term thing that will improve."
MATCH FOCUS
THEY SAID WHAT?
"I rated him very highly after that first try, but when he bombed the last one he wasn't as high." Smiling Storm coach Craig Bellamy gives Greg Inglis a gentle gee-up.
BONE CRUNCHER
Youth overcame experience as Antonio Kaufusi (19 games) produced a bell-ringer on Steve Price (239) to set up Steve Turner's winner and make it an unhappy 32nd birthday for the Warriors skipper.
