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

[Bay39er]

it's the key to the 5/8 issue - TMM or Metcalf? Get you a man who can do both

Does that make his points invalid?

 

[Dangerous]

Coming in a close 2nd of shithouse performance after our attack for 60 minutes was the ground announcer trying to get the crowd going. It's not authentic and thought it made the atmosphere worse.

Sounded soooo bad on TV as well !!!!

 

[regenerated borg]

Thought I'd let the dust settle before commenting... not much to read from this game..
Sharks were hungry once they got a chance..
As for us.... the addition of Capes, RTS plus the absence of Marata and CNK, made a difference. However our new recruits and Taine did well but still finding their feet.
The first 30min proved we can dominate a game, but I would of expected to be 24 pts up by then. I think the Sharks did their homework and shut our attack down.. As the game wore on we looked like a team with no plan B and became predictable.
Anyway a long season still ahead with a few creases to iron out we should be back on track... the last thing we all want is to peak in round 1 but not in the finals

 

[Warriorshopeful]

4 of our first string 17 with injuries already CNK, Egan, Niukore and Capewell. Will we ever catch a break?

 

[Beastmode]

4 of our first string 17 with injuries already CNK, Egan, Niukore and Capewell. Will we ever catch a break?

Too early for the doom and gloom buddy

It’s only rd 1

 

[Stalefish540]

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.

I agree with a lot of your points, but point one is far more nuanced and I can't agree on that.

"Giving the pill to SJ to a make a play happen" is exactly why there is nuance.

Your hooker is the focal point of everything you do with ball in hand, and as soon as Egan went off we lost our whole structure.

Now this isn't so much a knock on Freddy as he just played to his ability with ball in hand which isn't at an NRL standard.

The set Egan came on we fell straight back into step and were rolling. He unfortunately only lasted one set. Had he stayed on we had more than enough ball and high possibility we win.

So we have a bit of a dilemma, with a few issues. The coaching staff see Freddy as deserving of 30mins when he's not up to NRL standard with the ball. Roache is better on attack, but don't believe he is defensively as sound as Freddy. Then you have Egan who can't stay on the field because his durability is his archillies heel.

Not seeing an easy fix unfortunately, other than Wade can't be off the field for 30mins and just have to run the risk with his lack of durability.

 

[run_it_str8_again]

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.

Saves me having to write it. We just need to get better.

 

[run_it_str8_again]

RTS was pretty shithouse now I watch it back. I think he is too well respected and needs some more time with the backline and he'll be good again.

Tuaupiki was decent but not the linking genius of CNK.....yet.

Lussick was fine in my view. We were slower in ruck speed and the result is a loss. I'm not sure if Egan would have sped things up. Even Lussick was holding his hands in the air appealing for some referee help with the holding down allowance given to the Sharks.

SJ did his best behind a slower ruck speed

Cronulla beat us and the refs were helpful. It's such a crappy cliché to use but the refs were so biased and it's true.

 

[CWC]

RTS had 173m (4th) including post contact 67m (2nd), earned a penalty, made 2-3 offloads, made his tackles some dominating, and was given the ball with no shape and 3 defenders marking him in the second half, so not sure why he is picked on lol, musical chair?

The team stats should be good enough to win the game, it felt like that Roosters game in the rain, they didn’t know how to crack the goal line defense

Sironin had those flat Egan like passes, they could do with that service last night, why can’t Freddy a professional hooker copy those sweeping off the ground passes?

 

[Citygirl]

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.

For me, why wasn't it a binning, it was a professional foul

 

[CWC]

Metcalf signed a 2-year extension

Inruin




It’s for tears in case people are confused

 

[Noitall]

Metcalf signed a 2-year extension

Inruin

View attachment 6045


It’s for tears in case people are confused

Don’t laugh too soon. He might have hung up the phone on them

 

[Makasene]

Am I the only one who thinks RTS is overrated? There was nothing to like about his performance.

Yes

 

[giffy]

First hit out of the year with some great highs and an otherwise average 2nd half. I'm not concerned at all. Both left and right edges are building their combinations and timing. This was Metcalf's first game of first grade since August 2023. Lussick will continue to develop and learn from Wegan. Jackson will learn to hold onto the ball. Webster will learn from the bench disruption.

Our middle depth is the one area where I think we still have a systemic problem, everything else is solvable with hard work (or hungry NSW cup talent! )

Bring on the Storm!!

 

[Beastmode]

Ok folks

To make you all feel better

Broncos, Souths, Knigjts and the reining prems Penrith also lost this weekend

We are in good company.

 

[CWC]

Don’t laugh too soon. He might have hung up the phone on them

oh maybe he was mic dropping on his old team the Sharks

He could be gesturing a modern day headphone and mic and dropping it

 

[CWC]

Ok folks

To make you all feel better

Broncos, Souths, Knigjts and the reining prems Penrith also lost this weekend

We are in good company.

To be honest in many sports champion teams go off a sluggish start and turn hot mid tournament, that’s my copium

 

[Beastmode]

To be honest in many sports champion teams go off a sluggish start and turn hot mid tournament, that’s my copium

I feel following the Warriors is like parenting. You worry and overthink the minute something goes wrong, and even when they do well - you think it’s too good to be true or they must have cheated .

 

[Makasene]

I feel following the Warriors is like parenting. You worry and overthink the minute something goes wrong, and even when they do well - you think it’s too good to be true or they must have cheated .

Yes and no matter how many times you dissapoint me I'll still be there for you

 

[CWC]

I feel following the Warriors is like parenting. You worry and overthink the minute something goes wrong, and even when they do well - you think it’s too good to be true or they must have cheated .

You mean I get to spank Rocco and teach him a lesson?

As an Asian parent I am extremely disappointed at Webby’s performance of only finishing in the top 4 in his freshman year