Team List Warriors vs Storm - [Round 15, 2024]

[1995warriorsfan]

 

[1995warriorsfan]

This Storm team is beatable

 

[Worried2Death]

No idea where Capewell fits in all this?

He kept that left edge locked down tight on D last week, he was a machine, I reckon his experience is invaluable in reading the opposition, knowing where to be and communicating to his outsides. Gives me confidence seeing him there against the top teams.

 

[Christchurch_Warrior]

Please please beat these shitheads. I do not care if TMM has no try assists nor if Tohu is only held together by bandages and starts or doesn't start. Just so sick of losing to these pricks.

 

[Boats n Hoes]

Yup, probably our best chance we will have or have had for a while. Our strongest lineup vs one of their weakest for a fair while. The result will hinge on our defence. The Storm will let in enough points for us to win. I'm not as worried about NAS as much as some. He's a threat for sure but we can contain him to a large degree. I think its our right edge defence that's going to be targeted and of greater concern to me. A win in this game and we are a good opportunity to have a streak of 7+ IMO

Just on our defence during that losing streak we were conceding on average 27 points a game. On our 3 game winning streak we've got that down to 17 points a game.

Our set completion rate during the losing patch was 81%, we got that up to 86% on our winning run.

We improved our error rate and more importantly our discipline has improved and we've halved the amount of penalties we were giving away.

For mine while the focus has been on the attack and i can acknowledge a change up of variation was needed to our structure, more importantly these are the factors that are vital to playing Webby ball and ultimately winning games, cause u can change up what u do in the attacking zone and have whoever u want playing 6 or 7, but if your not winning these markers your pushing shit up hill.

Like everyone else ill be interested to see how SJ and Te Maire go about complementing each other so we have dual threats, but more importantly if we want to beat the Storm these are the non sexy boxes we need to be ticking first and foremost.

 

[Defence]

Remember Barney was saying they focused on the wrong areas a few weeks back?

Stacy Jones at interview yesterday said they finally focused on the right areas like ruck speed and kick chase (not Berry robot, the whole line, I guess aggression too). Look forward to the experts here analyzing his statements a bit more

The thing that’s stood out to me above all else is just how hard they’ve been going into contact- both sides of the ball.
They just seem to be running and tackling harder- winning that initial collision.
Sounds simple because it is.
It just felt like they were going through the motions a bit early in the season.
Moving Barney and muss has made us much more physical on the edges and I think the players around them grow a leg having them there.
There’s other reasons too obviously- overall just a lot more energy.

 

[slime]

I love what Montoya brings - aggression, will to win, safe under the high ball (after some early season jitters). I don't see the ceiling raised that much with RTS right now tbh. Plus at half the price I would rather our future went with the cheaper option. I wouldn't lose sleep if Webby did go that direction though.

I agree. Montoya is one of the biggest hype men in the team, always big reactions and rushing in to congratulate when we force a turnover, score, etc. He's 100% Wahs FTW.

That side of Pompey/Montoya doesn't sound flash on paper, but it's solid and has provided decent results. I would like that combo to stay until injury or something forces a change.

 

[WarriorsForever]

Not sure if it’s been posted already but Webby mentioned this: Shaun won't be so dominant all the time but will soon have a big impact on the game, he wants to let Te Maire run the show again," Webster said.

 

[Inruin]

Who actually called that TMM was going perform like he has for the last three weeks?

Not 'he had the potential to'.

Like, 'hes going to, if put into that position'

The injuries forced Webbys hand with exploring new possibilities, and it appears that we may have some diamonds lying in the cupboard.

Plus, if SJ wants to call it at the end of the year: CHT is a pretty solid pairing already with TMM and who knows about Metcalf - could be even better.

When you're playing around with 'vibes' between players, you know you got good problems.

Perform as well as he has? No one could foresee that level of performance - its been exceptional. Someone highlighted that SJ and Cleary have never had 4 try assists in a single game before for example.

But, there are plenty on here who rated TMM as a very good player. I feel they have been vindicated somewhat. Others have been made to look a little silly, some continue to do so. A few were even saying he wasn't first grade standard FMD!

In regards to the injuries forcing Webster's hand, I completely agree. He will have learned a lot from the last 7-8 weeks. From trusting his next man up philosophy to trying to get through games with too many players carrying significant injuries to the enthusiasm and energy injected by the younger players selected to the use of his bench and second row. The pleasing thing is he seems to have recognised and adjusted. One concern I have is that the previous three wins have highlighted a number of things which some have been pointing out on the forum and we are slowly turning back to some of these as players return. This week and the games after are potentially going to show whether some or all of these were just anomalies - Tohu at 13 for example. Walker has been great there over the last three games with speed, energy, leadership etc but here we are with Tohu starting at 13 again (assuming the team sheet is correct at game time) Was Tohu just busted, is he past being a 60 minute player, is he too slow now or a combination of things? RTS coming back in to the side at whose expense? Was it just that the team wasn't performing well previously or was he a contributor to things not gelling?

The next few games are going to be very interesting.

 

[Next Year]

We owe Melbourne a flogging.

Actually, more than one. Over the years they have given us several. And it pisses me off. On eight occasions they have put more than 40 points on us. The points differential across all games is in excess of +500 in favour of Melbourne. Naturally, some of the worst results were obviously in the years where our defence was simply a shambles - think 2022 (70-10), 2020 (50-6), 2016 (42-0), 2004 (42-6), Round 20 2000 (56-10). That last one was the same time we first played for the Michael Moore trophy, an away game. Earlier that season in Round 1, the game was in Auckland. The Storm's inaugural Manager, Michael Moore, was tragically killed in the after match festivities down at the Auckland waterfront when he fell off the wharf and found concrete. It was tragic and it was sad. It shook us all.

But we need to stop subliminally apologising for it as though we were to blame as hosts. Its not our fault, and even if it had been - we've done the time. Far better to honour the man by playing some wonderful footy, and putting the Storm to the sword and bringing that trophy back to the Mt Smart cabinets. It's well overdue, and signs in the last three rounds are that we have the capability of doing that. Ironically, that same year (2000) was the same season that Melbourne received their biggest ever hiding in losing to the Dragons 4-50. It's testament to Bellamy's record as a coach that results like that are few and far between. Right now we have the coach and the roster capable of undoing them. Utu in blue and green.

Yep, out of respect we owe Melbourne a bloody flogging and I am really looking forward to Saturday night in the hope that finally, this is it.
Come on boys! Write some new history. Outsmart, outplay, outlast!

 

[Makasene]

I suggest that Walker will start with Tohu on the bench. Why would AW change that tactic which worked so well against the Cowboys?

And also they are now playing differently.

Walker as link man

Tohu came on primarily as a hit up merchant.

Absolutely need that to continue

 

[Tookey 2.0]

It begs the question

How effective is a step (SJ, RTS) as opposed to just running straight and hard (CNK, TMM, CHT)?

 

[Tookey 2.0]

Id rather the one that lands 5-10m out but also we contest. At best we score or regain possession, at worst the opposition are having to work the ball off their line. Win win

As u say tho TMM's kicking was solid enough, quite liked the variety of his short kicking game. Was noticeable (imo) on his longer kicks opposition wingers had set themselves in that usual 5-10m out from their line suddenly struggling to get to the ball as they were only making it to that 15-20m mark, think we managed a couple of turnovers like that......dont think that was from design, just not having quite the same distance. Worked out for us in those instances tho lol

While that uncontested bomb may have been a bit boring and repetitive, I saw it as a thing of beauty.

You could see the forwards of the opposite team struggle to get back on side before tackle 3 or 4, and with them camped in their 20 meters it means more backwards and forwards for the bigger guys, tiring them out so they are less effective and more fatigued.

When it's done well, it's awesome to watch how the opposition is getting broken down piece by piece.

I also think that we can attack some of the kicks too, as long as we're not doing something that may result in a penalty or knocking the ball dead and giving them a 7 tackle set.

I also think this is a strategy that we pick and choose who we utilise it against. The Storm imo are great to utilise this against as they generally are a well disciplined side, they often won't throw the dodgy offload that results in a huge line break where they score (although funnily enough that's what they did last time). Let them work it out from their 5 min again and again to tire them out.
Make Nas have to turn around from our 40m line and he has to run all the way back to his goal line to get a head of steam up on the 3rd or 4th tackle.

I'm really really looking forward to tomorrow!