Absolutely.Ivan must be a great person to learn from as well as a coach.
Team List Warriors vs Raiders - [Round 12, 2025]
- Thread starter mt.wellington
- Start date
I'm contend with this game given the outs we have, but would be absolutely huge if we somehow beat them to pull away on the ladder head to head
I think in the ladder thread I said even if we lose all the harder games from now, as long as we win the rest including beating the Titans twice we have 16 wins which should be enough for top 4, and pinch 1 more we finish top 2.
I think in the ladder thread I said even if we lose all the harder games from now, as long as we win the rest including beating the Titans twice we have 16 wins which should be enough for top 4, and pinch 1 more we finish top 2.
I can’t really conceive of looking at the ladder and being like “yeah, we’ll maintain this spot” other teams in other years have had starts like this where a bunch of close games went in their favour and then they steadily fell down the ladder.
Got to get rid of these second half fade / square up scenarios, we seem to have so much confidence in the defence to back it to hold out the opposition and take the win, but it only takes an unlucky bounce and your chasing the game with less energy as you’ve spent the whole half tackling.
This is sort of a “get through it game” - that as the raiders are also exceeding expectations, already bashed us, coming off an easy win last week - they are a bit flat.
But after this week the following should occur:
Full strength backline for the first time all year
Able to put Halasima or Niukore back to an impact role.
Able to have Healey as impact.
A chance once all that gets settled it will get us away from some of these nailbiters.
Got to get rid of these second half fade / square up scenarios, we seem to have so much confidence in the defence to back it to hold out the opposition and take the win, but it only takes an unlucky bounce and your chasing the game with less energy as you’ve spent the whole half tackling.
This is sort of a “get through it game” - that as the raiders are also exceeding expectations, already bashed us, coming off an easy win last week - they are a bit flat.
But after this week the following should occur:
Full strength backline for the first time all year
Able to put Halasima or Niukore back to an impact role.
Able to have Healey as impact.
A chance once all that gets settled it will get us away from some of these nailbiters.
I still think Penrith will make the 8.
And if they make the 8, they have muscle memory on how to get to the dance and win it.
I love the idea of Marata starting and going hard for about 25, 30 minutes before Leka comes on. If Leka is absolutely smashing it, you then keep him on for the rest of the game and add Niukore to the middle rotation, which means less minutes for everyone but hopefully more impact.
If it's not Leka's day (and it won't be every game), sub him off after 40 ish min and let Niukore close out the game
The Raiders remind me of the Daniel Anderson Warriors side.
As such it is kinda like us playing against the Ghosts of our past. Modern Warriors vs Old-school Warriors.
They are a team that leaks points but wins games by posting points on you from anywhere.
Their forwards on their day will bash you in the contact, run over the top of you and their backs are powerful with pace....very oldschool Warrior esque.
Watching round one vs them it is hard to pin point a narrative that isn't bedding in the cliche of winning up front.
That is where we really got a hiding.
Only one Try in that game was through poor defence on our part (Marata with a terrible miss in the middle of the park) otherwise our defence had good shape, good numbering, the Raiders attack frankly was just strong for us.
Ergo I do not expect our backline will offer significantly more in defence against them since round one....I do not think our defensive progress will show on the edges, because as I say we were not poor last time.
It is our middle defence that will need to find a new level, bloody piss poor time to be without our star Props.
As such it is kinda like us playing against the Ghosts of our past. Modern Warriors vs Old-school Warriors.
They are a team that leaks points but wins games by posting points on you from anywhere.
Their forwards on their day will bash you in the contact, run over the top of you and their backs are powerful with pace....very oldschool Warrior esque.
Watching round one vs them it is hard to pin point a narrative that isn't bedding in the cliche of winning up front.
That is where we really got a hiding.
Only one Try in that game was through poor defence on our part (Marata with a terrible miss in the middle of the park) otherwise our defence had good shape, good numbering, the Raiders attack frankly was just strong for us.
Ergo I do not expect our backline will offer significantly more in defence against them since round one....I do not think our defensive progress will show on the edges, because as I say we were not poor last time.
It is our middle defence that will need to find a new level, bloody piss poor time to be without our star Props.
Unfortunately the cliché holds true. I remember the first nines tournament when SJ was supposed to dance us to victory but Souths brought a proper front row of props who marched over the top of everyone.
Win the middle. Win the collision. Win the play the ball. Win the ruck speed.
After that, the world's your oyster and your crayfish too
All due respect lads about leka off the bench, can I say a loud F no?
I get where fans are coming from with the impact stuff, I love an impact forward as much as the next guy.
But....if Leka Halasima is to reach his true potential then he has to be a starting forward that is capable of playing eighty.
I get that fans see Leka being contained lately as a starter, I get that he is doing heavier work as a starter, I get that fans miss and expect these magic moments at least once a game from a talent like him.
That is not what I want from him, I am happy to see him having these solid quieter games where he is contained and learning to grind it out.
But most of all the reason I want Leka starting is that if he is a bench forward for fan titilation he will Never be Gordon Tallis, or Sam Burgess, or Sonny Bill Williams, I could name others but you get the point with pedigree like them blokes.
If Leka is to be the greatest forward the Warriors have ever produced then he cannot be a bench player. I know that underrates the role of the bench but it is the way it is in sport we love, none of the greatest players ever in Rugby league forward packs was a bench player.
Give the boy the shit job shovelling coal in the engine room from day one, teach him to love that shit, teach him to be happy to have quiet games where he is over marked because he is a starter while other people get the glory.
There no reason why the Warriors cannot put him on good ball as a starter and I see Webster is trying this already, Barnett got the ball and played pivot to give leka a run up.....it is happening....the Warriors are already using greats like Barnett to lay on moves for Leka...give it time.
Lemme add that I too can see the benefit of him off the bench in the immediate term in terms of our teams needs, I know we would be more of an attacking threat with him there come this weekend.
But I honestly feel that we cannot look at the game that way anymore because Leka is different, his selection should be based on what we want from him for the next decade.
The value of playing Leka is playing him as you described. The long term is necessary. And remember that when he's heavily marked. Someone else is not marked at all.
*Edit. His presence on offense creates space for Metcalf and Leiataua and Capewell and Pompey etc. it's a valuable asset towards success.
This is it.
And I would add that Leka being stuck grinding means he is taking workload off our other Grinders like Clark, Barnett, and JFH, and that obviously is huge in a forward pack that Webster is building for big engine performance.
If Leka is a heavy lifter then we start to look more and more like the Panthers and Storm packs....no fancy pants passengers in our pack, all heavy lifters that strangle the opposition packs and can win games with 12 players on the paddock.
And as the Warriors start to understand this guy, even when he is tired, he still has speed and can be put in space and become legend.
I have no time for Anasta
He gives zero TV time for Wahs
If we beat a top team
He’ll say opposition had off day
Conceited self entitled prick
At least Ben Ikin gives us a fair shout
Kevy Walter’s commentary on Dolphins game was same attitude
Off for a lie down
Take my pills
6/9 "experts" on nrl.com tipping us this week against the Raiders:
No surprise with Ennis being at raiders a couple of seasons back
Joey loves us though. Even tipped us against the Knights.
Worrying that the best people tip against us and all the bottom dwellers tipping us lol
The entire channel 9 team (Phil Gould, Andrew Johns and Fittler) all tipped us this week. So there are many big people in the game backing us this weekend. But let's be honest, there's no science to tipping. It's all guesswork at the end of the day. Many of our games on this 5 game winning streak, these "experts" were largely against us actually. I just wanted to note the fascinating dichotomy between neutral observers for this game who view us as slight favorites whereas many wahs fans on this forum are convinced that we are going to drop this one. The reality on Sunday is probably somewhere in the middle: gonna be a contender for game of the year and at most 6 pt margin either way. I can smell a LM field goal to win this in golden pt to cement his status as the new prince of Penrose.
odd - i'd put him back in the top side no question
Maxigesic Recovery Report: Three cleared for action
Three One New Zealand Warriors players cleared from injury list to return to action this week.www.warriors.kiwi
Looks like Leiataua might be coming back via nsw cup? Still in the extended team named though
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