Post Match Warriors v Dolphins - [Round 22, 2025]

[pleatedpantspete]

The defining moment for me was in the dying moments of game. Fins decide to go for corner instead of taking 2 points and going to golden point. With the highest points scorer in comp as thier kicker. They just knew they could Crack our edge defense. Real confidence. Rts Ford Capewell Clarke all had good games.Just a bridge to far in our current state.

I don’t know if it was confidence, Just that they knew they might not get a better chance - 12v13 in golden point would be a significant handicap.
but I think win or lose it was the right play for dolphins.

Also everyone was gassed

 

[LeagueJunkie]

Does the result of an injury like an MCL or ACL receive more weight at the judiciary? I thought it looked pretty bad on first glance

It should. Kafusi is a grub, and has history. Punishment should be directly tied to the injury recovery period as a starter where there is blatant or reckless foul play leading to injury. Then that player should get additional weeks on top as a deterrent. Doing it this way would stamp out the grubby shit from the game quick smart.

 

[Roadrunner]

Well I've never had so much fun reading all the comments after this game.Thats what I like the passion that league fans have for their team and each other kill or be killed.My own view last night was the biggest disappointment I had was how we played out the last few minutes considering how much work we had put into it injuries, ref calls etc.There were some totally insane stupid dumb brain explosions but I enjoyed the 80 min ride.Freshen up fans and look forward to the fun nxt week now back to my meds

 

[Warriors55]

I'm still trying to digest yesterdays result. There are some really concerning things that I am seeing over the last few weeks. Some players are excelling and some are simply not up to it or not performing as they should be. I would absolutely love to have a centre who can distribute to his winger properly. We need Rocco back desperately. I had high hopes for CNK at centre he seems to have lost his ability to distribute. You can basically predict what he is going to do every time he gets the ball and that is run full speed into the opposition. Pompey is not much better in that regard.

For all the good things DWZ did last night I think he is on the decline and he will cost us some big games. Tanah looks lost out there at times. He has a great boot but his attacking game has not been good enough the last 3 weeks. I have much much higher hopes for Jett Cleary.

I think Healey is a great prospect.

We are really missing Metcalf at the moment along with a few others that are out injured.

Roger was absolutely outstanding last night. What a beast of a game from him.

 

[The Warrior Waka]

Correct, but he wasnt injured. If we take this line of reasoning, any time you are hanging on on your goal line, a player can just lie down and make the ref stop play.

He had cramp for the final 20 mins. He kept pulling up with it. But carried on. Then he kept grabbing his Hammy. Webby the dummy kept him on.

 

[3rdstriker]

I'm still trying to digest yesterdays result. There are some really concerning things that I am seeing over the last few weeks. Some players are excelling and some are simply not up to it or not performing as they should be. I would absolutely love to have a centre who can distribute to his winger properly. We need Rocco back desperately. I had high hopes for CNK at centre he seems to have lost his ability to distribute. You can basically predict what he is going to do every time he gets the ball and that is run full speed into the opposition. Pompey is not much better in that regard.

For all the good things DWZ did last night I think he is on the decline and he will cost us some big games. Tanah looks lost out there at times. He has a great boot but his attacking game has not been good enough the last 3 weeks. I have much much higher hopes for Jett Cleary.

I think Healey is a great prospect.

We are really missing Metcalf at the moment along with a few others that are out injured.

Roger was absolutely outstanding last night. What a beast of a game from him.

This is what happens @ the backend of injury plagued season's.

 

[Naynay]

Running the ball on the last when you're in their 10 is the right percentage play. Yes, maybe throw a little more effort up on attack but the last thing you want to do is either give them a 7 tackle set through a grubber going dead or catching a bomb in goal, or throwing crazy offloads or big cut out passes to the wing.
With 2 minutes to go you don't wanna give the opposition any more of a piggy back up field.

Back your defence (which has been our strength all year) to hold a 12 man team from scoring. Right play, wrong execution unfortunately

I agree it makes sense, what was needed was to throw something at them. Twice TMM just kinda went to the short side corner, some nothing pass for 3 on 3 and then just danced in a circle before surrendering. Should have been spread plays to take up time and challenge the defense

 

[Wrighty]

I encourage everyone to watch Webster in the presser. He says somethings the fans need to hear. It very much sounded like he is not happy with the final piece of defence and I suspect he will be holding them to account. Listen/ Watch it.

 

[Bluecat]

I'm not too down on last night. I wasn't expecting a win with the team we had and I enjoyed watching the fight they put up.
Losing it at the end was disappointing but I did feel that if we'd won we would have pinched it.
Barnett and Fish upfront and Metcalf on board and I think we would have put a good score on the Dolphins.

A couple of things I liked from the game.
Healey passing wide out of dummy half to avoid the big guys waiting the middle. It let us create momentum. Actually I liked Healey full stop.
TMM not bombing every time he had to kick. Kicks in behind create opportunities. And both halves landing the odd kick where we could compete. Probably not from the Webby playbook but it got results. TMM may not have got the stats from last night but I didn't think he looked out of place.
Pompey inside DWZ. Yes he got smoked by Farnsworth but Farnsworth is an elite centre and most centres do struggle against him. I thought the right side defence looked a bit more confident with him there and he got 2 nice passes to put DWZ away.
We were moving the ball around off second phase and causing some worry in the Dolphins defence. The occasional offload isn't a bad thing.

On the negative side most of the usual issues. Some from players and some from the coach and game plan and some from injuries. But everyone seems to have them covered.
Oh and Doggies next week. That's very likely a negative too

 

[Kav1]

Loved how we used the ball more. Some exciting play by us. Thought the effort was outstanding for the most part. Considering it's a red hot dolphins side and we were missing so many players it was a heartening performance. Did pretty well considering we didn't really have any real go forward dominance for the majority of the game.

Up by two why aren't we taking the two and getting the ball back with the penalty next to the posts?

RTS MOM
Capewell and Clark not far behind.

Genuinely don’t know the reasoning behind running the ball on last twice. 12 men and they want to chew up 5 tackles for time when if we take the 2 the clock stays on. How are NRL players not aware of this

Webby wanted to keep them down their end. Kicking the goal gave us a 4 point lead but made us vulnerable to a short kickoff and their ball in our half.

 

[Beastmode]

I encourage everyone to watch Webster in the presser. He says somethings the fans need to hear. It very much sounded like he is not happy with the final piece of defence and I suspect he will be holding them to account. Listen/ Watch it.

Yes mate . Everyone standing around like zombies with one guy taking a nap on the ground. Of course he wasn’t happy. Isn’t it obvious? He was pissed because they all choked and lost the game..

 

[Inruin]

Webby wanted to keep them down their end. Kicking the goal gave us a 4 point lead but made us vulnerable to a short kickoff and their ball in our half.

Yeah I get that. But it also eats up time, more than likely get the ball back and if we don't we are defending 12 but up by 4. If the plan was to keep them down their end then dying with the ball on the last isn't as smart as making them field a kick. They get one less tackle from fielding a kick than from a hand over. It could be the smallest of grubbers even.

 

[Next Year]

Would love to hear any arguments to keep Ford in the team. His discipline is disgusting.

Okay, I accept the challenge:

IMO Ford and Clarke were the engine room throughout last night's game. The man has a V8 motor. If he is not there, a lot of work simply doesn't get done and the 'Phins roll over the top. He knew he was representing Barney and JFH last night and did not shirk the work.

• During his 68 minutes on the park, Ford made 121 running metres from 17 runs, the 5th highest in the team. (Clarke 166, 18 runs). 1x line break. The other three were our back three though Clarke ran a few more than DWZ.
• He made 46 tackles, a team high (Clark 36). Leka next best, made 40. For the 'Phins only Donoghoe made more - 52. Niukore made 22 as a comparison.
• Across the 2025 NRL season, Ford is ranked 8th most penalties conceded - just below Carrigan and above Tapine.
• His work isn't pretty, and sometimes there is a kind of unco-clumsiness that gives a penalty away but he is continually improving on that. His current average is 0.72 penalties per game.
• With Barney and Fish out of the picture, the team absolutely needs his relentless effort. The upside is way above any liability that comes with him.

Does that help..?

 

[Next Year]

I encourage everyone to watch Webster in the presser. He says somethings the fans need to hear. It very much sounded like he is not happy with the final piece of defence and I suspect he will be holding them to account. Listen/ Watch it.

Well spotted Wrighty. That was his first reaction.

 

[Next Year]

Did anyone else see Lemuelu's knock on moments before the DWZ high shot? Looked like the ball went straight down and Kodi stopped for a moment when he passed the ball to him.

Yep, I was waiting for a whistle too. Klein either did not see it, or did not want to,

 

[Next Year]

Something that was so disappointing last night was when Healey came back on and immediately threw an absolute bludger of a pass to Boyd on last that resulted in an obstruction penalty.

He's deadly with his running game, particularly when we seem to have been given the licence to offload at long last, but needs to nail the details.

Healey's point of difference was two fold.

• Outright speed. He's quick off the mark and can catch lazy markers out, as he should.
• His ability to flick the ball wider than one-out from the ruck. The wide ball caught the 'Phins on the hop a couple of times by making things less predictable. Also keen to look for the offload.

 

[Next Year]

To me the penalty is irrelevant.

Look at the defensive structure before that penalty and also before the try.

Dolphins were able to make a line break of the back of complete break down of their attack, so broken their play makers were literally standing still in concrete.

But, so were we as defenders. It was atrocious.

I disagree with a lot of posters in here tonight. That was an almighty choke by us.

Agree that we lost that more than they won it. We should have stopped that last play in it's tracks. What it exposed more than anything was our lack of on field leadership in the crunch moments. Either or both of Barney and Fish on the paddock would have demanded the shutdown of that 12 on 13 scenario. Instead we looked dumb and clocked out a minute early.

 

[Wrighty]

I wish to single out two people for priase
1) Webster for the courageous team we picked. We nearly won.
2) Jacob Laban - he played with the heart of a Lion during his short stint. Had he not got injured we would have won. Truly inspirational carries. His whanau must be so proud after last night.

 

[Wrighty]

Yes mate . Everyone standing around like zombies with one guy taking a nap on the ground. Of course he wasn’t happy. Isn’t it obvious? He was pissed because they all choked and lost the game..

Leka is going to at a minimum get a telling off by the looks of things, Not completely off the cards that Webster drops him for two weeks to reserve grade. Webster was not happy.

 

[John Nick]

Yeah I get that. But it also eats up time, more than likely get the ball back and if we don't we are defending 12 but up by 4. If the plan was to keep them down their end then dying with the ball on the last isn't as smart as making them field a kick. They get one less tackle from fielding a kick than from a hand over. It could be the smallest of grubbers even.

If my Auntie had balls she would be my uncle
What could have been and the truth is pure conjecture