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

[run_it_str8_again]

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?

At the end of round one we have the time. I'm not convinced it's a "who" issue but more a "how" one. As in I reckon the personnel from last night can actually do the job with some sharpening up and some calming down to execute the plans smoothly. I reckon same team as much as possible next week and get it righter

 

[wizard of Tauranga]

4 of last years top 5 lost in round 1.

We’re in good company!

 

[Beastmode]

I think everyone likes Te-Maire because he’s handsome.
IMO he is over rated, still handy to have, but Metcalf’s easily the better half, he didn’t have the best game last night, no one did.
Metcalf also has a good kicking game, which he showed in both trial games, just needs to put his hand up more

You saying Metcalf not handsome ?

Or maybe because he’s got a wealth of experience, played for the kiwis, a GF, overcame huge adversity that almost derailed his career early…has great awareness, timing and strong on defense .. did I mention experience???

Sure, Metcalf has potential but we don’t have time for potential this year

 

[Beastmode]

Pompey at this stage would be better than RTS

Faq we got some jokers in here ?!!

 

[run_it_str8_again]

Can you explain the fascination with Metcalf?

All I hear is speed

If he’s so dam fast he should play on the wing

I was converted when he stood his ground against Olakauuatu (sorry if spelling is wrong) and got absolutely steamrolled but held on long enough to allow backup to stop that Goliath of a brute. Before that I had nothing good to say about him. He looks like a weasel to me but I'm fine with him now. Now I don't prefer him over anyone else just want form to dictate who plays as much as is doable.

 

[run_it_str8_again]

Faq we got some jokers in here ?!!

I didn't rate RTS last night. Mostly because his best is outstanding and he wasn't that last night in my view. Pompey was an ordinary quite dependable bloke and was dropped for RTS and quite rightly. But he'll go alright if he has to play. But just alright

 

[Beastmode]

I didn't rate RTS last night. Mostly because his best is outstanding and he wasn't that last night in my view. Pompey was an ordinary quite dependable bloke and was dropped for RTS and quite rightly. But he'll go alright if he has to play. But just alright

Personally I would prefer to see him on the right outside SJ and not Metcalf

SJ-RTS-CNK-DWZ

The abbreviations alone are awesome !

 

[run_it_str8_again]

Personally I would prefer to see him on the right outside SJ and not Metcalf

SJ-RTS-CNK-DWZ

The abbreviations alone are awesome !

SJ doesn't have a hyphen so it's not a legit matchy matchy line up

 

[BabylonPink]

It almost felt like individually every player had gotten better, but the team didn't work so well. Too many individuals not enough team plays imo.
I guess it's round one. But I feel we need to just stick to the grind for 80 and not assume we are a prem threat. Cart . Donkey . Etc.

 

[BabylonPink]

And yeah I still think LM is a young SJ.
Good running, creates shit out of nothing, but goes missing.
TMM in for me.
LM to bide his time, unless he slammed his phone on his manager the other night.

 

[BabylonPink]

I also feel that game was a perfect storm of sorts.

Rog to FB ( only if CNK and Taine go down) tick

Capewell injured. Tick

Johnson trying the old grubber n run. Tick

Egan exposed as a man of glass. Tick

No bench impact. Tick

Metcalf flash in pan. Tick

Overhyped. Tick

PLEASE WEBBY!

 

[BabylonPink]

As soon as Rog went to FB. Walker at centre. Egan off.

We lost our shit totally

 

[BabylonPink]

Not in a game sense.


Spiritually.

 

[BabylonPink]

Ford blasted by SJ dropping it.
Hands made of Feet as always.
The self fulfilling prophecy.
He let the try in. Strapped head and all.

 

[BabylonPink]

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.

TMM was consistently present in NSW cup.
Metcalf or TMM?
Or CHT?

 

[Makasene]

It almost felt like individually every player had gotten better, but the team didn't work so well. Too many individuals not enough team plays imo.
I guess it's round one. But I feel we need to just stick to the grind for 80 and not assume we are a prem threat. Cart . Donkey . Etc.

My opinion hasn't changed in that if that game is our worst then we are in a good spot.

In the end the trials games we had where things looked good was against pretty average opposition.

We're going to waste a few average teams this year. But if we go a 10% win rate against Roosters, Panthers, Storm, Rabbitohs you can be sure we won't be winning the comp.

We are going to learn a shitload next week about what the team is made of.

 

[Sir Arrow]

Nah, but what if RTS is cursed..

 

[Sir Arrow]

Nah, but what if RTS is cursed..

Hear me out... RTS mistakes always seem to be at a crucial point in the game, it's uncanny...it's cursed

 

[marv.]

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?)

chanel also brings solid left footer kicking game and kicks goals.

he’d be my choice, probably needs a bit in reggies to get back up to speed but i think that’s what will happen.

until then he may actually even take lussicks spot at 14.

 

[run_it_str8_again]

He would be 10 times better than Lussick!!by the time lussick gets his pass away the D line is in our face!!

I rewatched the game and Lussick was fine. We were slower in the play the ball but Lussick was always there ready. Ruck speed is where we did Lussick a disservice. Which had a flow on effect. Cohesion has been mentioned rightly and I reckon we'll click soon.