Post Match Warriors v Sharks - [Round 1, 2024]

[kos]

In all seriousness it's about growing Lussick who has dummy half foundations. I think its too important a position to have a hybrid unless it's of a high quality player. Too early to panic. Just need to keep your heads in the game for the whole game. Turn up. Switch on. Stay on. Lussick is it. A problem and a solution. Perhaps if Charnze returns, Lussick goes better. Charnze, Niukore and Egan to come back and meanwhile. We have Lussick. Still better than Jazz in my opinionated opinion.

Lussick is an amazing tackler.

 

[Beastmode]

In all seriousness it's about growing Lussick who has dummy half foundations. I think its too important a position to have a hybrid unless it's of a high quality player. Too early to panic. Just need to keep your heads in the game for the whole game. Turn up. Switch on. Stay on. Lussick is it. A problem and a solution. Perhaps if Charnze returns, Lussick goes better. Charnze, Niukore and Egan to come back and meanwhile. We have Lussick. Still better than Jazz in my opinionated opinion.

Not trying to hate on Lussick but you’re right we don’t have a better alternative.

Too early to judge but similar to Metcalf he really stagnates the attack. It’s looking clunky with these two distributing. Worst with Jazz or CHT I imagine. How far away is Roache??

 

[Beastmode]

Lussick is an amazing tackler.

Amazing is a reach

I’d say serviceable

 

[run_it_str8_again]

Amazing is a reach

I’d say serviceable

Distribution is what we need improvement on. Maybe get Aaron Smith to give him a one handed bullet passing lesson.

 

[Beastmode]

Distribution is what we need improvement on. Maybe get Aaron Smith to give him a one handed bullet passing lesson.

Great idea
But if he’s already given it…

 

[MrFrankWhite]

Im obviously not a fan of Metcalf other than he is an adequate back up player. I have watched him fairly closely as you have done for Reese Walsh. If anyone is expecting anything much more than what we saw tonight then it's going to be a long season for you. You will get the odd highlight reel play. That try he scored was a great try. But you can't ignore the rest of his game because those highlights are going to be few and far between and don't make up for the remaining chunk of play. You have RTS and Montoya outside him who looked sharp in the first trial with a half who has been out of the game for a season. What you saw last night is exactly what you saw last season with Pompey and Montoya and everyone was jumping on Pompey as the weak link. You only had to look at their body language to realise they were completely frustrated The reality is you have a guy with some speed who wants to be a half but has a very limited passing game and limited decision making. The trials he was caught on the 5th a few times or out of position when it mattered. Last night not aware enough for an RTS offload, caught on the last a few times (passing to AFB for the last tackle kick wtf?) and completely missing in that second half. If you talk about heart, Reece Walsh at least wants to be involved with the game on the line and have ball in hand trying something, creating something. Go back and watch the last 20 minutes. He is completely static on most plays. I actually think he looks lost and the team either don't trust him or he doesn't want to be involved when the going gets tough. I would even say that the team either can't rely on him, don't trust him, possibly don't like playing with him or even could be all of the above - watch the last 20 with those things in mind. I don't think I'm wrong.

SJ was playing for a long period there with a rookie FB who I thought was actually pretty good, just needs to work more on those link plays (CNK took a while to get them too), a back up 9 and a 6 who was missing - and he still kept us in the game.

So, IMO, expect more of the same. Highlight plays every so often. We will beat weaker teams but RTS and Montoya are unlikely to look good on that edge and unlikely to get much good quality, quick ball that puts them in space to take advantage of RTS skills. And, as I said preseason, you will have posters asking if RTS was worth bringing back and why he doesn't look that good at centre. You actually don't have to look far for the answer.

I expect largely the same team to be named next week with the exception of injuries. But I'm expecting the left edge to look pretty much the same and us to be competitive if we have 3/4 of our spine playing. We are better with TMM or dare I say it CHT at 6. They aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination and will make errors too, but they would take us to 3.5/4 spine players and unlock that left edge.

That's all I've got to say about that. (Is the hang up the phone the new mic drop?)

Ooft excellent analysis mate. On two fronts. One being I don’t watch Metcalf that closely in games so the fact you’ve noticed that speaks volumes. I believe you 100% on your observations of him, on the strength of that alone, and how it fits with how it’s playing out on the ground.

That being case, I would put CHT there immediately. We won’t win a prem with a non existent left side attack.

I will say I hope he comes right, but do we have the time?

 

[kurgal]

Can somebody explain why that mid-air interception of DWZ was deemed a penalty only, and not a penalty try? But for the interception, DWZ would have planted that ball down.

 

[MrFrankWhite]

Can somebody explain why that mid-air interception of DWZ was deemed a penalty only, and not a penalty try? But for the interception, DWZ would have planted that ball down.

Coz warriors

 

[John Nick]

Ooft excellent analysis mate. On two fronts. One being I don’t watch Metcalf that closely in games so the fact you’ve noticed that speaks volumes. I believe you 100% on your observations of him, on the strength of that alone, and how it fits with how it’s playing out on the good.

That being case, I would put CHT there immediately. We won’t win a prem with a non existent left side attack.

I will say I hope he comes right, but do we have the time?

I am also hopeful that he settles into the 6 jersey.
My point is that whoever has the job will take time.
Swapping these guys is not helpful.
I prefer to be positive about Our players

 

[Bobby]

Few players to return over the coming weeks. We will be better. Webby won't be happy and will have them ready for next week.

They have had a whole preseason to get ready. The sharks were out of sorts for the first 20, once they got their shit together the warriors were terrible.

 

[Rizzah]

Full match up on YouTube.

View: https://youtu.be/yYswuDB-M3U?si=0V-ZWXGIS17Jkoag

 

[Wrighty]

My review

1) Lussick was fine. Of course Egan is better. Lussick is a back up hooker and that is all he will ever be. But he is useful and I thought did an ok job and did not influence the result one way or the other apart from an ill advised dummy half sneak on the 4th tackle 2 metres out from the line in the 70th minute instead of giving the pill to SJ to make a play happen.

2) Enough has been said about Ford already. My only additional point is not to give him the pill or run a play around him in the red zone to begin with. Just use him as a tackle bot and hit ups out of our own end. With the nature of salary cap you need to have 3 to 4 minimum wage players in your 17 and find a role for them to play. We seem to run plays around him like he is David Fifita. Putting him into a hole and expecting him to stiff arm the full back and crash over for the try. He is not David Fifita. Quit running offensive plays around him. Or if running lines and scoring tries is a requirement of his edge forward position then get Laban in there next week because Ford can not catch passes fed to him at short range no matter how soft the hands are the half uses.

3) We lost the game on Defence in my view. That Ramien dummy half sneak try was soft as and Ford and Metcalf should be told off at training for allowing it in. For those of you who want to win the premiership this season Webster explained in his pre-season interviews we will need to be the number one team in the NRL at defence as opposed to just being good at defence.

4) The coaching staff told us all off season long that they were aware teams would come hunting the warriors this year and try to put a notch on their bed post by beating a top four team and premiership contender. Webster even said "Let them come" in one video clip. Well someone didn't explain this point to the players because you could tell they were expecting the 2023 version of the Sharks and effectively we got ambushed by a hungrier more determined team who were out to make a name for themselves by challenging and beating the fastest gun in the west to use a movie analogy That said, I don't agree with people who posted that the Sharks are a good side and there is no shame in losing to them. The Sharks will do well to finish 6th at most this year. Why are we ok with losing to a team who at best is 6th and more likely to finish 8th to 10th? We should have won last night and it was one of our easier games of our first 5 matches. All the teams are going to turn up like the Sharks did last night against the Warriors this year. All the games will be harder than last year. And while I am on a roll it looked like pre-season had been too long for the boys. They had cabin fever and wanted to be on the field too badly. All the forwards were excited about scoring a try in the red zone instead of leaving it up the players who are paid to score and set up tries to do so. I was watching our clunky offence and in my view it all came down to every man and his dog putting his hand up every play to have the pill and wanting to be involved presumably because after pre-season they were all dieing to play footie. At times on offence we had players getting in the way of each other and all sorts of people trying to score hero bar tries instead of giving the ball the Metcalf or SJ to make a play happen. No wonder Luke Metcalf went invisible in the second half. He was getting out called by the forwards who thought they could barge their way through 5 or 6 tacklers from 10 metres out to score the match winning try by themselves.
Role players need to be role players. Match winners need the pill in the championship minutes and we didn't seem to have had that conversation with ourselves. We didn't completely look like a rabble. But we looked more like a rabble than a team. Last year we looked like a team even in game one of the season last year.

5) For those wanting RTS at Fullback next week. Let that pipe dream go. If you watch Webster's presser he said Taine had a terrific game and has no intention of replacing him. We may go winless to start this season until CNK returns and then go on a run after that. Taine would have been ok if he concentrated on defence but he really injected himself in the red zone and as a result screwed up many of our offensive chances.

6) To finish on some good notes. Webster in his post game presser sounded like he was well aware of all the issues and says they are fixable. So in Webby we trust and let's see if we can put one on Storm next week. I think we can do it.
I thought AFB looked incredible. SJ looked in good nick. And many elite teams lose the first game of the season and then heat up in rounds 2 and 3.

 

[Wrighty]

I have a question for someone observant - what is the name of the song we used to play 20 seconds or so before each match started just before kick off? They didn't play it last night? Except briefly before the 2nd half restart.

 

[John Nick]

My review

1) Lussick was fine. Of course Egan is better. Lussick is a back up hooker and that is all he will ever be. But he is useful and I thought did an ok job and did not influence the result one way or the other apart from an ill advised dummy half sneak on the 4th tackle 2 metres out from the line in the 70th minute instead of giving the pill to SJ to make a play happen.

2) Enough has been said about Ford already. My only additional point is not to give him the pill or run a play around him in the red zone to begin with. Just use him as a tackle bot and hit ups out of our own end. With the nature of salary cap you need to have 3 to 4 minimum wage players in your 17 and find a role for them to play. We seem to run plays around him like he is David Fifita. Putting him into a hole and expecting him to stiff arm the full back and crash over for the try. He is not David Fifita. Quit running offensive plays around him. Or if running lines and scoring tries is a requirement of his edge forward position then get Laban in there next week because Ford can not catch passes fed to him at short range no matter how soft the hands are the half uses.

3) We lost the game on Defence in my view. That Ramien dummy half sneak try was soft as and Ford and Metcalf should be told off at training for allowing it in. For those of you who want to win the premiership this season Webster explained in his pre-season interviews we will need to be the number one team in the NRL at defence as opposed to just being good at defence.

4) The coaching staff told us all off season long that they were aware teams would come hunting the warriors this year and try to put a notch on their bed post by beating a top four team and premiership contender. Webster even said "Let them come" in one video clip. Well someone didn't explain this point to the players because you could tell they were expecting the 2023 version of the Sharks and effectively we got ambushed by a hungrier more determined team who were out to make a name for themselves by challenging and beating the fastest gun in the west to use a movie analogy That said, I don't agree with people who posted that the Sharks are a good side and there is no shame in losing to them. The Sharks will do well to finish 6th at most this year. Why are we ok with losing to a team who at best is 6th and more likely to finish 8th to 10th? We should have won last night and it was one of our easier games of our first 5 matches. All the teams are going to turn up like the Sharks did last night against the Warriors this year. All the games will be harder than last year. And while I am on a roll it looked like pre-season had been too long for the boys. They had cabin fever and wanted to be on the field too badly. All the forwards were excited about scoring a try in the red zone instead of leaving it up the players who are paid to score and set up tries to do so. I was watching our clunky offence and in my view it all came down to every man and his dog putting his hand up every play to have the pill and wanting to be involved presumably because after pre-season they were all dieing to play footie. At times on offence we had players getting in the way of each other and all sorts of people trying to score hero bar tries instead of giving the ball the Metcalf or SJ to make a play happen. No wonder Luke Metcalf went invisible in the second half. He was getting out called by the forwards who thought they could barge their way through 5 or 6 tacklers from 10 metres out to score the match winning try by themselves.
Role players need to be role players. Match winners need the pill in the championship minutes and we didn't seem to have had that conversation with ourselves. We didn't completely look like a rabble. But we looked more like a rabble than a team. Last year we looked like a team even in game one of the season last year.

5) For those wanting RTS at Fullback next week. Let that pipe dream go. If you watch Webster's presser he said Taine had a terrific game and has no intention of replacing him. We may go winless to start this season until CNK returns and then go on a run after that. Taine would have been ok if he concentrated on defence but he really injected himself in the red zone and as a result screwed up many of our offensive chances.

6) To finish on some good notes. Webster in his post game presser sounded like he was well aware of all the issues and says they are fixable. So in Webby we trust and let's see if we can put one on Storm next week. I think we can do it.
I thought AFB looked incredible. SJ looked in good nick. And many elite teams lose the first game of the season and then heat up in rounds 2 and 3.

Fair call

 

[WahsUltras]

I have a question for someone observant - what is the name of the song we used to play 20 seconds or so before each match started just before kick off? They didn't play it last night? Except briefly before the 2nd half restart.

Are you referring to freaks by timmy trumpet and savage?

 

[Christchurch_Warrior]

We will be better next week after that hit out. If we had a couple of passes stick and we would have won that game. I hope we have Egan back though as Lussick really needs to improve his passing. Not sure how you can come through the grades as a hooker with the passing he did in that game. In regards to Ford he gives a 100% effort for the entire game especially off the ball. I just think he has reached his ceiling and it is not that high. If I was Laban I would be knuckling down in cup as I can see him replacing Ford.
Metcalf I didn't think was as bad as what a lot of people were saying. He maybe 25 but he has 20 FG games so you cannot expect him to play like a Munster. His defense is far better than last year and I would give him more time before replacing him. I also have to question the use of the bench. From memory I think Webster said that the bench use during the game was a group decision between all the coaches. Not sure if they collectively forgot about Ale but the NRL is just too tough a competition to carry a 3 person bench. If you have no confidence in him then do not pick him and put in someone you will use.

 

[Wrighty]

Are you referring to freaks by timmy trumpet and savage?

Yes !!!!! Thank you WahsUltras - them not playing that song last night messed with our Mojo !!!!!!!

Don't mess with a winning formula!!!!

 

[BrisbaneWarrior]

My review

1) Lussick was fine. Of course Egan is better. Lussick is a back up hooker and that is all he will ever be. But he is useful and I thought did an ok job and did not influence the result one way or the other apart from an ill advised dummy half sneak on the 4th tackle 2 metres out from the line in the 70th minute instead of giving the pill to SJ to make a play happen.

2) Enough has been said about Ford already. My only additional point is not to give him the pill or run a play around him in the red zone to begin with. Just use him as a tackle bot and hit ups out of our own end. With the nature of salary cap you need to have 3 to 4 minimum wage players in your 17 and find a role for them to play. We seem to run plays around him like he is David Fifita. Putting him into a hole and expecting him to stiff arm the full back and crash over for the try. He is not David Fifita. Quit running offensive plays around him. Or if running lines and scoring tries is a requirement of his edge forward position then get Laban in there next week because Ford can not catch passes fed to him at short range no matter how soft the hands are the half uses.

3) We lost the game on Defence in my view. That Ramien dummy half sneak try was soft as and Ford and Metcalf should be told off at training for allowing it in. For those of you who want to win the premiership this season Webster explained in his pre-season interviews we will need to be the number one team in the NRL at defence as opposed to just being good at defence.

4) The coaching staff told us all off season long that they were aware teams would come hunting the warriors this year and try to put a notch on their bed post by beating a top four team and premiership contender. Webster even said "Let them come" in one video clip. Well someone didn't explain this point to the players because you could tell they were expecting the 2023 version of the Sharks and effectively we got ambushed by a hungrier more determined team who were out to make a name for themselves by challenging and beating the fastest gun in the west to use a movie analogy That said, I don't agree with people who posted that the Sharks are a good side and there is no shame in losing to them. The Sharks will do well to finish 6th at most this year. Why are we ok with losing to a team who at best is 6th and more likely to finish 8th to 10th? We should have won last night and it was one of our easier games of our first 5 matches. All the teams are going to turn up like the Sharks did last night against the Warriors this year. All the games will be harder than last year. And while I am on a roll it looked like pre-season had been too long for the boys. They had cabin fever and wanted to be on the field too badly. All the forwards were excited about scoring a try in the red zone instead of leaving it up the players who are paid to score and set up tries to do so. I was watching our clunky offence and in my view it all came down to every man and his dog putting his hand up every play to have the pill and wanting to be involved presumably because after pre-season they were all dieing to play footie. At times on offence we had players getting in the way of each other and all sorts of people trying to score hero bar tries instead of giving the ball the Metcalf or SJ to make a play happen. No wonder Luke Metcalf went invisible in the second half. He was getting out called by the forwards who thought they could barge their way through 5 or 6 tacklers from 10 metres out to score the match winning try by themselves.
Role players need to be role players. Match winners need the pill in the championship minutes and we didn't seem to have had that conversation with ourselves. We didn't completely look like a rabble. But we looked more like a rabble than a team. Last year we looked like a team even in game one of the season last year.

5) For those wanting RTS at Fullback next week. Let that pipe dream go. If you watch Webster's presser he said Taine had a terrific game and has no intention of replacing him. We may go winless to start this season until CNK returns and then go on a run after that. Taine would have been ok if he concentrated on defence but he really injected himself in the red zone and as a result screwed up many of our offensive chances.

6) To finish on some good notes. Webster in his post game presser sounded like he was well aware of all the issues and says they are fixable. So in Webby we trust and let's see if we can put one on Storm next week. I think we can do it.
I thought AFB looked incredible. SJ looked in good nick. And many elite teams lose the first game of the season and then heat up in rounds 2 and 3.

Well said Wrighty comprehensive review

 

[WahsUltras]

My review

1) Lussick was fine. Of course Egan is better. Lussick is a back up hooker and that is all he will ever be. But he is useful and I thought did an ok job and did not influence the result one way or the other apart from an ill advised dummy half sneak on the 4th tackle 2 metres out from the line in the 70th minute instead of giving the pill to SJ to make a play happen.

2) Enough has been said about Ford already. My only additional point is not to give him the pill or run a play around him in the red zone to begin with. Just use him as a tackle bot and hit ups out of our own end. With the nature of salary cap you need to have 3 to 4 minimum wage players in your 17 and find a role for them to play. We seem to run plays around him like he is David Fifita. Putting him into a hole and expecting him to stiff arm the full back and crash over for the try. He is not David Fifita. Quit running offensive plays around him. Or if running lines and scoring tries is a requirement of his edge forward position then get Laban in there next week because Ford can not catch passes fed to him at short range no matter how soft the hands are the half uses.

3) We lost the game on Defence in my view. That Ramien dummy half sneak try was soft as and Ford and Metcalf should be told off at training for allowing it in. For those of you who want to win the premiership this season Webster explained in his pre-season interviews we will need to be the number one team in the NRL at defence as opposed to just being good at defence.

4) The coaching staff told us all off season long that they were aware teams would come hunting the warriors this year and try to put a notch on their bed post by beating a top four team and premiership contender. Webster even said "Let them come" in one video clip. Well someone didn't explain this point to the players because you could tell they were expecting the 2023 version of the Sharks and effectively we got ambushed by a hungrier more determined team who were out to make a name for themselves by challenging and beating the fastest gun in the west to use a movie analogy That said, I don't agree with people who posted that the Sharks are a good side and there is no shame in losing to them. The Sharks will do well to finish 6th at most this year. Why are we ok with losing to a team who at best is 6th and more likely to finish 8th to 10th? We should have won last night and it was one of our easier games of our first 5 matches. All the teams are going to turn up like the Sharks did last night against the Warriors this year. All the games will be harder than last year. And while I am on a roll it looked like pre-season had been too long for the boys. They had cabin fever and wanted to be on the field too badly. All the forwards were excited about scoring a try in the red zone instead of leaving it up the players who are paid to score and set up tries to do so. I was watching our clunky offence and in my view it all came down to every man and his dog putting his hand up every play to have the pill and wanting to be involved presumably because after pre-season they were all dieing to play footie. At times on offence we had players getting in the way of each other and all sorts of people trying to score hero bar tries instead of giving the ball the Metcalf or SJ to make a play happen. No wonder Luke Metcalf went invisible in the second half. He was getting out called by the forwards who thought they could barge their way through 5 or 6 tacklers from 10 metres out to score the match winning try by themselves.
Role players need to be role players. Match winners need the pill in the championship minutes and we didn't seem to have had that conversation with ourselves. We didn't completely look like a rabble. But we looked more like a rabble than a team. Last year we looked like a team even in game one of the season last year.

5) For those wanting RTS at Fullback next week. Let that pipe dream go. If you watch Webster's presser he said Taine had a terrific game and has no intention of replacing him. We may go winless to start this season until CNK returns and then go on a run after that. Taine would have been ok if he concentrated on defence but he really injected himself in the red zone and as a result screwed up many of our offensive chances.

6) To finish on some good notes. Webster in his post game presser sounded like he was well aware of all the issues and says they are fixable. So in Webby we trust and let's see if we can put one on Storm next week. I think we can do it.
I thought AFB looked incredible. SJ looked in good nick. And many elite teams lose the first game of the season and then heat up in rounds 2 and 3.

Great analysis and totally agree with each statement.

The people calling for mass changes to be made to our lineup after only 1 round should know from last season that Webby remained 'fairly' consistent with team selections despite individual performances at times being underwhelming. I have no doubt that Jacko and Freddy will be selected next week if they train the house down.

You have been one of only a few comments that I have read that is keeping the faith going into round 2 and I respect that. The fact that many are thinking we don't stand any chance and are going to get a hiding in Melbourne next week is disappointing. Webby will have the lads firing this upcoming week I'm sure of it!

Keep the faith team and back the boys, it's a long season and where here for the long run!

 

[Warriorshopeful]

We will be better next week after that hit out. If we had a couple of passes stick and we would have won that game. I hope we have Egan back though as Lussick really needs to improve his passing. Not sure how you can come through the grades as a hooker with the passing he did in that game. In regards to Ford he gives a 100% effort for the entire game especially off the ball. I just think he has reached his ceiling and it is not that high. If I was Laban I would be knuckling down in cup as I can see him replacing Ford.
Metcalf I didn't think was as bad as what a lot of people were saying. He maybe 25 but he has 20 FG games so you cannot expect him to play like a Munster. His defense is far better than last year and I would give him more time before replacing him. I also have to question the use of the bench. From memory I think Webster said that the bench use during the game was a group decision between all the coaches. Not sure if they collectively forgot about Ale but the NRL is just too tough a competition to carry a 3 person bench. If you have no confidence in him then do not pick him and put in someone you will use.

Webbys explanation was that injuries kind of cooked their bench rotation and Ale was meant to play but due to injuries they preferred to get AFB back out on the field as he was more of a threat of scoring.