Yikes. I've watched all five Warriors games so far this season and it's hard to overstate how poor the performances have been. From the Harold Matts and SG Ball through to last night's NRL trial, they've looked undercooked: slow, predictable, lacking in aggression, low on creativity, and less fit than the opposition. They also look, frankly, under-coached. Because the club has adopted Webster's philosophy and systems for alignment through the grades, the accountability starts with him. The current one-out, hit-it-up-the-middle tactics with minimal variation, risk, or ad-lib is brutal to watch, and it's showing up across the grades.
The frustrating part is that it's so clear that the game has moved on from that approach. Recent rule changes, including the tweaks this season, have opened matches up even further. Speed, support play, and off-the-cuff moments are now more dangerous than ever (as we've seen from other teams in both the trials and the junior grades), yet Webby seems to have retreated even further into conservatism. And for anyone arguing he's playing 4D chess and hiding some revolutionary attacking shape to unveil in Round 1, that's not how Webby has ever operated. The attack was bland and one-dimensional last season, and looked much the same in their initial hit-out. And yes, the Panthers and Storm also got hammered in their first trials. But they didn't field teams anywhere near as close to NRL standard as the Warriors did. Playing at home. In the wet. Against a combined NSW Cup/SG Ball team.
Webby may well be one of the NRL's best man-managers. The players clearly like him and management publicly backs him. That's a meaningful part of building a high-performance environment. But the serious question remains: can he actually coach this team to look consistently sharp and well-drilled? Honestly, aside from the heavily structured and well executed sweep plays in 2023, have Webster teams ever looked really well coached in the same way the Panthers do, or the Storm, Roosters, Raiders, and now the Bulldogs? I'm starting to wonder. The ultra-conservative game plan, embedded across the grades, plus the unwavering loyalty to players and coaches (assistant and lower grade) may end up being his fatal flaw.
I desperately want Webby to succeed here. I love his positivity, how he has embraced New Zealand, his drive to win. But he said something profound a while back that has stuck with me: you can’t win a premiership in the off-season, but you can lose one. Meaning, you can muck the pre-season up for the season ahead by focusing on the wrong things, not working hard enough, or pushing the squad too hard. I feel like something has happened here, one of the three has materialised. But I'm not sure which yet. If we see more of the same on Friday night, it's fair to ask whether this is a slow start or signs of a deeper issue manifesting.
