Post Match Warriors v Raiders - [Round 3, 2024]

[marv.]

fuck man i know a lot of you guys reckon refs are 100% neutral but fuck me days. what was that???

also CHT takes 14 when he’s got the lungs back.

and also metcalf ran montoya out of space for a certain try. kicking getting better though. and was wide open all the way to the line if jacko ford? shoveled it to his left. great try but it was 93% DWZ.

no forced HIA for rapana? but tuaupiki forced off?

captains challenges were fucking laughable man

that play the ball with no balance and control or whatever it was?! when the fuck was one of those last blown???

rog is getting better every week.
rocco berry omfg.


View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4tojHPyUoN/?igsh=ZTUzMG1uMXhjYnFl

 

[Ever Hopeful]

I'm just relieved to get the season back on track.

A scruffy win probably gives Webster the ammo to get them up week after week now.

We can't be that wasteful again, or it will be a long season

 

[tajhay]

fuck man i know a lot of you guys reckon refs are 100% neutral but fuck me days. what was that???

Went both ways. Ref weren't the problem. We were.

 

[Buzz Killington]

We beat the top of the table Raiders!

 

[Dlenai]

We beat a top 8 certainty team with another spine reshuffle.

Raiders are the grittiest team in the league and we out grit them.

They’ll be playing finals footy.

 

[afakasi247]

Good win. We finally decided to finish the game strong. And see it thru 80min.

Rapana is a asshole. I saw CHT ghost him post game. Good job. Fuck him.

We’re not full strength yet. Someone said in the game day thread, and I agree,

“The first win is always hard after a few loses”.

 

[RiceOwl]

First things first, we needed that win badly so thank god we got it! That was one hell of a nerve wracking watch though, both teams wanted it badly.

Some other thoughts:
- There were some fing bewildering decisions both ways. It swung heavily to the Raiders early which I was steaming about, and then swung back our way before that rubbish bunker call with CHT being taken out.
- The fact that Rapana was able to stay on the field and not even go for an HIA assessment was a huge decision, yet Taine goes off and we have to reshuffle our backline immensely. This had a huge bearing on the remaining time played out as they targeted that right edge but thankfully held strong.
- The Raiders played that grinding tough style that they are renown for and credit to them to be fair exceeding expectations so far.
- How good is Timoko! I knew he was good, but have an even greater amount of respect for him after this game.
- There was some key guys that stood up today. SJ was fantastic at guiding the team around the park, RTS with some big plays, but without AFB I dont think we go on with it (special mention to Harris...I didnt include him as he just does what Tohu does each and every week).
- Rocco had another really good game and is growing from week to week.
- Couple of other guys that deserve some wraps I believe. Jazz brought the energy off the bench tonight that helped immensely. Tom Ale deserves more game time, he did all that he could when he was on as well.
- But geez we miss those key guys in Egan, CNK, Niukore, and Walker. We just looked a bit clunky and out of sorts at times.

I will enjoy the fact that it was a W, but I havent enjoyed it as much as I maybe should've! Hell of a lot of work to do if we are to believe we can give this competition a shake.

 

[Worried2Death]

East stand absolutely went off when Dallin set up that Luke try, he singlehandedly stood up and won us that game. Love you forever for that big Dal. (not in a rainbow way. Well maybe, we'll see what happens tonight in my dreams)

 

[afakasi247]

Jazz - 10 runs, 101m, 28 tackles in 33mins.

A solid stint for him - and he needed it.

 

[MrFrankWhite]

1600 and a Warriors W... Good night

 

[JaggedJ]

No Egan, no CNK

No Niukore, no Walker

Great effort, execution still well off.

2 Points were all that mattered after letting points slip last week.

All hail, the Berrysiah.

 

[sup42]

Jazz - 10 runs, 101m, 28 tackles in 33mins.

A solid stint for him - and he needed it.

I watched him closely.

when they had the ball, he was epic and must play next week.

 

[Zarjaz]

How epic was Barnett tonight? Looked like he was involved in every tackle.
Great win! They probably/definitely blew a couple of tries.

 

[Zarjaz]

Also have to give the ChCh crowd an A+ for their voice. Atmosphere sounded huge.

 

[Buzz Killington]

Some utter nonsense in that game. I thought Ford played the ball with balance and control, then lost balance after the fact. CHT def taken in the air! The HIA for head clash! Surely both heads that are involved must be sent for HIA!

 

[sup42]

Also have to give the ChCh crowd an A+ for their voice. Atmosphere sounded huge.

From that pov this was an epic win, remembering they have witnessed so many disappointing losses including this year in preseason.

So vital the Warriors paid them back.

 

[The Shah of Iran]

I have to give Canberra credit as I had slightly underestimated their form heading into this one. I'm happy that we had to win with defence and grit. I'm sure Webby will be addressing the lack of composure in closing out the game.

Shout out to Barnett, Ford and Tohu. Metres were hard to come by but they all toiled away. Very valuable contributions.

I'd rather we build to something than explode out of the blocks and trail off.

 

[Playdaball]

Good to see Jazz back to his best - a couple of good low tackles

 

[Kestrel84]

It has already been said, but even though it wasn't a great performance per se, we were missing a lot of of first-choice players - still got the job done. I'm generally a pretty harsh critic, but beating a team off the back of two good performance by 8 with a number of key players missing... that shows guts.

I'm really excited to see CNK at fullback and RTS at centre, I think it will be dynamite.

 

[Worried2Death]

Shoutout to those sensible bros who stopped the pitch invasion after the Metcalf try, a bunch of fans lost their heads in the excitement and tried to go and kiss Dallin by the look of it, could have been embarrassing. I thought the whole stand was going to collapse at one point such was the euphoria.
Drummers were awesome too, like a pounding heartbeat throughout the game at exactly the right times.

 

[Horriors2013]

Enjoyed the game. Canberra were intense. We did well to beat them when understrength. I'll reserve my stinging comments for the match officials on another thread on another day.

People keep trying to say RTS back to FB. But damn he's an awesome center. Will only get better. Not many can stop Timoko on a good day, so I forgive him for that. Berry is a good lad. What a combo. I'm excited to see how both progress.

Feel for Taine. He didn't look affected. Would love to see the processes employed for these HIA. Doesn't make sense.

Rapana wasn't contesting the ball. He had lost the contest and failed to get out of the way. That ruling was inconsistent. The commentators knew it. Why didn't bunker? This happens almost every game.

I propose that every time bunker pronounces a decision, that they quote the rulebook and explain their decision from there. It's not hard to be consistent.

We need Maiuu to succeed this year. We can't rely on Niukore, he gets suspended and HIA a lot. Bunty and Barnett are not having the impact AFB offers, and as we know, our intensity drops when he's off.

DWZ 3
Tohu 2
Jaz 1

Watching Sticky, he was incredibly controlled in presser. Good on him. He's got a good team. Maybe not the most talented, but they play hard footy.

All in all I am pleased.

 

[Billyspleen75]

 

[Dantheman]

Jazz was great today.

 

[Dantheman]

CNK might have some trouble displacing Taine, he definitely ain't walking straight back in despite his amazingness

Na, CNK straight back in 100%

 

[Makasene]

CNK might have some trouble displacing Taine, he definitely ain't walking straight back in despite his amazingness

It's no knock on Taine but CNK is the first name on paper when he is ready.

 

[Rizzah]

View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C40A_hJPnv1/?igsh=MWoyODIyMTZoa3FrMA==

 

[Stalefish540]

Relief to get on the board, that last 10mins I kept picking up and then putting the defib back down minute after minute.

People are a bit worried about our attack, and the lack of directness which is fair. Freddy has played 72 and 69mins the past fortnight, while safe I won't add any more.

But I think people underestimate just how good Egan is at what he does, hes top three in the NRL for service and craft. He guides our sets perfectly right down the field, and very rarely make the wrong play or decision. He can generate momentum in a set when our forwards aren't exactly banging down the front door down, and when the forwards are our sets are almost unstoppable moving up field with him pulling the strings tieing up markers as he steps out. When we are in the red zone, you are 90% of the time getting a bullet off the deck and out in front. In terms of the forwards you are hitting balls at the advantage line moving up field, when in the red zone our link forwaro or halves are getting the extra half step of time to play square and weigh up options from his pass delivery.

As someone who's favourite position is hooker and loves just watching them go about their business. I honestly can't say enough about just how important what Egan does for us, he is the glue that sets the team free with the ball and I will die on that hill.

Have I been a fan boy since watching him tear up in junior grades? Sure, but I don't believe anything I have said is untrue.

I'm unsure why Feddy is getting 70mins a game, I can only imagine CHT's motor is still not FG ready otherwise it just doesn't make sense. CHT only got two sets with the ball last week before we defended for 5mins to finish. Tonight he came on and changed tempo well adding crisp passing with a bit of vision. He's the 14 for me by seasons end if we are going to carry a hooker on the bench.

 

[Hatchet Harry]

Now that the nerves and euphoria of a first win has worn off, a few observations

1. Raiders are gritty as hell. Really strong forward ms effort by them and Fogerty got them out of trouble with his boot well.
2. We matched their intensity and effort on defence. That’s saying something given AFB looked a little sore after the neck roll tackle when going for the try which meant our rotations were changed up, and Tuauapiki got wiped out early in the second half meaning Capewell played right centre. Winning the grind was the most pleasing thing for me.
3. When our combinations click, we will score quickly and heavily on teams. Ford took a second to long to pass, Rocco made the wrong decision to not pass to DWZ and if AFB found a way to link with SJ, that’s 3 tries we should have iced. This will come. And that’s a scary prospect.
4. Winning ugly against a Raiders team with 4 of our starting 17 out is huge. Walker and Egan provide so much in terms of linking, CNK provides so much value from the back in terms of power and meters, and I think we underestimate how much we miss Marata Niukore. All teams have injuries - but I’m impressed in how well we are covering them. Our depth is great.
5. Really impressed with our bench this week - thought Ale, Jazz and Bunty contributed really well against a tough forward pack. Delighted for them and Bunty in particular impressed me with his defensive work. Solid.
6. Bunker and Referee made some interesting decisions that impacted both sides. Can someone explain in the rule book what ‘jumping too early’ is defined as? And balance and control? Both dud calls. Raiders probably also got hard done by by the disallowed try after the bomb that Roger dropped - although Rapana should have been called for a knock on as he did touch it. Bewildering at times - but we have come to expect this every week. What was good was that our guys did not lose their heads - they stayed in the moment and got on with the next play. That’s the sign of a good team.
8. Metcalf is developing and you can see we are trying to turn him into another all round threat. I don’t mind the mistakes like him running Montoya into touch. We have to back him as if he is SJ’s likely successor, the next season or two he has to take control. Watch him grow over the course of the season.
9. In the second half we were at 94% completion rate until Bunty knocked on from a CHT shocker of a pass. The lack of penalties and mistakes (like dropped balls) was a great sign given it was dewey on ground and a physical contest. Other years we would be writing about how annoyed we were at mistakes. Bar a couple of bad decisions, I thought we were very solid.
10. What changed between last week and this week re taking the two points? We kicked for goal against the Storm to stay close - but we turned down 3 at least against the Raiders. I know we wanted to put them away - but another 6 points would have made it an easier watch.

All in all a solid performance against a team that just won’t die. They are the Keith Richards of the NRL.

We move on to Newcastle at Go Media. I expect Egan, Walker and CNK back on deck. Another step up and another one we need to win.

This competition is tight so we need to win at home. I reckon after 10 rounds the leader will be 7 and 3 with a log jam of 5 and 5. This will be a tighter year than last year from what I have seen - and injuries will be the difference week to week.

We go again. UP THE WAAAAAHHHHHS!

 

[drunk_monk]

We beat 1st place baby.

Also Raiders had a good chunk of that game where the momentum was their way. Plenty of Warriors of old teams would have let 3 or more tries in there but the Mighty Warriors dug in deep and came out firing when momentum swung our way.

Great fucking game to be at.

 

[defensivebomb]

also thought the recent fringe players (CHT, Jazz, Ale, Lussick) really put their hands up. And DWZ gave 100% all game

 

[Tonbridge(aka Swanley)]

Don't care how we played, we needed those two points.

Now it gives the team confidence and without three genuine starters, our season begins now.

 

[sydneywarrior92]

After rewatching the game, it's quite clear that we really dominated this game for large periods. With the exception of that period between the second raiders try and our second try, the raiders were kicking the ball inside their 30 more often than not. We outran them which is no small feat given their huge pack and created many linebreak opportunities through the middle. Yet for all the opportunities we create, we are lacking a bit of polish: Like the sharks game, we had enough ball to be 20 pts ahead at half time. If we had converted some of those bombed opportunities (Ford and AFB failing to pass, Rocco dummying instead of passing to DWZ), the scoreline would have been closer to 28-10. Raiders fan can whinge all they want- we were the better team yesterday.

 

[Tookey 2.0]

Outside of the two dropped balls in Rd 1, I think Ford's been excellent this year.

2 like breaks, a try, good defence (36 tackles per game) and plenty of meters (120m per game) so far.

Still plenty to work on and those dropped balls in the first game were diabolical, however old mate only really became a consistent first grader last year, I imagine by the end of next year he would have ironed out his errors and issues. If he gets up to 140m + a game with very few errors while still keeping those attacking capabilities, I think he could be one of the top 5 edge back rowers in the game

 

[MrFrankWhite]

The best part about Rocco is hes stepping up in every facet. Leading the kick chase, better distribution, better defence, better tackling.

Every time he gets involved now he’s getting the better of his oppo regardless of circumstances.

 

[defensivebomb]

The other thing about Ford is that he is super involved. He’s all out, for 80 minutes. Doesn’t have the best hands and isn’t a visionary playmaker but is always there to do the hard work. I was surprised last night with how many times he popped up in plays

 

[sup42]

He's just small bro. Not sure if he has the frame to build more muscle either. Opposing players only need to get a hold of a little bit of his jersey or shorts and he's going nowhere lol. Of similar size Welsh has quite big muscular legs on him. Plenty of leg drive along with his blistering speed to break tackles.

This is not aimed at you, it is a counter to the critiques of Taine's game of late.

Tuaupiki is a defensive fullback.

He reads the play well, positions himself well, and we look safe when the opposition sets end in a kick. He is performing this magic from a NSW cup background.

He has a brain, a good one, and although he has not broken the field open with his running, his footwork is good enough to more often than not beat the first one or two chasers, he gets ten meters for his side, sometimes he gets fifteen meters, and is often times brought down in a scragging tackle, rather than a dominant tackle which starts us off winning the ruck.


He is a better and more courageous tackler than Sam Tomkins, Reece Walsh, Hayze Perham, the point I am making is his defence is good enough to form a foundation for a player that could with game time, become a good Warriors set move player on attack.

He is seriously underrated and in a way I hope he goes to another club to find his complete game.

Like I say he has the brain of a fullback and the heart of a lion, so all he needs now is opportunity to play fifty games somewhere.

Most underrated Warrior in a while I recon. Fark me he looks as good as Jayden Campbell's early games without all the hype of having a famous father.

 

[Boats n Hoes]

Also i dont think enough has been made of the fantastic shape that right edge threw up when Addin scored.

2 lead runners (Barnett off the ruck, then Capewell running 2nd receiver line) both having the effect of drawing the A and B defenders in, while simultaneously Tauapiki is on the sweep holding the outside defenders who are worried about the extra number he'll create, which then opens the space for Addin and a great selective pass by SJ.

Just such great execution and timing, attack coach hold your head up high for that one.

 

[defensivebomb]

So I bumped into Freddy Lussick this morning. Well, saw him at a cafe and congratulated him about Friday and the extension. I take my hat off to guys like him. Not massive by any means but tackles absolute units all day long. Quite impressive

 

[defensivebomb]

Nice one bro, how was he when you spoke to him, weirdly interested in this kind of thing

He was nice. Friendly. Possibly a bit surprised. Was with his partner and child. I didn’t hang around, just a quick congrats as I was leaving, didn’t go in for a handshake or anything. Less than 10 seconds. Positive vibes only. I don’t think anyone else nearby knew who he was. I probably wouldn’t approach if it was someone more recognisable.

A few years back (in 2017 from memory), back my son did little kickers (preschool football, indoors) and one day one of the dads turned up, where it was usually attended by a mother. The dad was Ryan Hoffman! I had a chat to him about the warriors. This would have been during a heavy loss period, so I actually felt sorry for him, which is weird to feel sorry for one of your heroes. He kept turning the convo back to parenting. Fair enough. So I look back on some of these interactions and just think - short and sweet. Show some appreciation, a nod or something and get out!

I wouldn’t request a selfie / signature or anything during one of these interactions as I hate annoying people. I just see it as showing the love, but not trying to get proof, if that makes sense