Highlighted posts

This post gives me huge hope for the future. What Penrith have done took 6 years. People made a mockery of Phil goulds 5 year plan, now look at them. They’ve got the best junior pathways in the competition, if not ever. The bulldogs are only going well because they’ve benefited from an external pathway program, the panthers. Kikau, Burton, Crichton, and their head coach. The dogs would still be cellar dwellers without the Penrith system.

That top post has seven future starters, all under the age of 22. Whilst some are not quite NRL ready right now, give them a year or 2, and look out. Our nsw cup side are sitting 4th, with all the chopping and changing going on at first grade due to a variety of reasons. Many of these players are jersey flegg eligible yet are playing against men.

We all want instant success, but this is only due to the lack of success we’ve experienced the last decade. We’ve tried to recruit our way to premierships, this has been short lived. Our seasons have yo-yo’d from top 8 to bottom 8, almost every year. The head coach is locked in for the next 5 years+, we have a full developmental system aligned with other major clubs. Our 17s are the reigning champions, and the above players are on the path to future NRL players.

Unfortunately we will need to wait a few more years to see success at the top grade imo, whilst our pathways are set up to provide long term consistency.

The reality is, what we’ve been doing hasn’t been working. we now have the model for success, however we now just need to wait for these future first graders to develop.

This might seem like another ‘just be patient’ post, but when you actually stop and reflect on the organisational changes the club is making, you can start to see the plan they’re deploying & the future is extremely bright for the warriors

Found this an excellent and emotional read. Had a poor game yesterday and easy to forget what he’s done in the game but sad to hear he was booed off at halftime yesterday. You’d never know from his constant smile he’s wearing. Crazy to think the score yesterday was the same as that final all those years ago upon his arrival. Welling up writing this. Sad to see the team looking so disconnected in what are the final games of his playing career

Chin up. Not all doom and gloom. New halves next year plus seems like AW has loosened the reigns on the young guys. Rejig the backline and backrow / bench and I think we can do better than this year.

Tookey 2.0 said:

I'll be sad to see him leave. Hopefully someone does him a bitchin' haka to farewell him. RTS I'm looking at you after that amazing one Jazz did for your Daly M!

I'm sure it won't be a huge issue, but it looks like we'll be losing a few of the boys with that OG Warriors vibe - SJ soon, Jazz and Dallin can't be far behind, I'm hoping that we have a few more of those boys coming through who personify what being a Warrior is all about

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I look back on that Dally M award for best bench player of the year. Such a humble guy - couldn't believe he won it, stood up, sat down, leaned back on to Bully's shoulder in embarrassment before the latter told him that the award was his. I will always have fond memories of his resilience, toughness and wholehearted efforts for the team. Jazz you will be sadly missed. Hopefully, one day, the Warriors will recognize your contribution to the club and offer you a role within the coaching structure as guys like you are difficult to find.

So just some clarity on Roger.
These are his statistics with reference to the entire competition:

Post contact metres: 11th
Tackle breaks: 15th
All runs: 21st
Run metres: 12th

He’s not in the top 50 for negative plays (errors, penalties).

This is a guy who was away from the game for a number of years with 1 pre season under his belt. When valentine holmes returned from the NFL on $1 million dollars, he was a flop. So much so, his guaranteed fullback jersey was taken from him & he was moved to centre. RTS is older, and putting up better numbers CURRENTLY.

I understand Roger is not the strike weapon we may have thought he’d be, but he’s hardly the reason we’re not playing well. I’ve seen approx 30% of games where the halves are passing the ball to Roger in space, this is where he excels. Not in the tight stuff. He’s also the 1st or 2nd player putting their hand up to get us out of trouble & consistently puts up high run metres, post contact metres & has minimal errors.

It’s the job of the halves to put Roger in space. They’ve failed to do this. Our middles have laid the platform, our backs have got us out of trouble, yet our halves continually fail to execute when we need them.

What is the role of halves? Under pressure, nail the right pass, put us in the right places on the field, put other players into space & set up tries with deceptive and well executed set plays.

The microscope is on our halves, not Roger. Let’s be clear about that. Another pre season under webby, and I’d expect to see a more polished RTS (IF the halves execute on THEIR role, and create space for one of the best game breaking centres in the comp).

Small story. I got given tickets to every home game last year and was watching one where Barnett was returning from being out for a while with injury. The whole team was moving up and back as a line, defence was totally connected except for Mitch who was a metre behind the rest of the team which is why I noticed the rest of the teams cohesion.

Our horrific injury toll, SJs decline and AFBs disgruntled nature could be offered up as reasons to why the team struggled but to me, the lack of cohesion in the defensive line was the biggest difference from last year. I'm sure the boys were making the same amount of mistakes and the halves playmaking and kicking was roughly the same but the extra defence meant that they couldn't attack with the same energy.

Fix the defence first.

Damo said:

He was on pretty decent money for what he was putting out (for us). I'd say he was like Ice Papali'i where he needed the change in environment to truly thrive. Under Webby he may have been a bit more successful

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Substitute "change of enviroment" for coach. Brown was an idiot. An attacking wide running backrower with size, speed and footwork who was playing big minutes when he first came to grade and scoring tries running off (of all people) Kodi regulary.....Brown shifts him to the opposite side and reduces his time to basically a 10 minute stint it seemed.....nuts.

Choice between Brown and Bellamy (when he comes calling).....i know which one im taking.....but yeah i think he wouldve prospered under Webby's (last years) structure as well.

Hurts to watch Storm games now,

Mr. Brownstone said:

The ideal scenario would be a committed AFB plus the talented youth getting more opportunities. Don’t get me wrong, I rate JFH as one of the best possible replacements that we could have come up with, however in a team seriously lacking attacking options, I believe AFB is easily a more valuable on-field asset for us than what JFH will prove to be.

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I disagree. I’m hugely onboard with those saying what JFH will bring off the field is as valuable as on it. I am of the belief that AFB is the best prop in the game at present and because of that I have concerns about how his behaviour might rub off on players like Sifakula or Halasima who are sharing the field witnessing this behaviour. Last night after a Metcalf dropped ball he slammed the ball down in disgust while the rest of the team went over to pick him up. I can understand AFB’s frustration but that’s not a leader in my eyes. Barnett has been putting up consistent numbers like AFB but isn’t like a prima donna. I was of the opinion before that he’s going to leave a massive void but in watching Ale taking his opportunity and Sifakula almost a clone with his late footwork, I’m really optimistic of what JFH’s guidance can have. We’ve still got Maiu’u who isn’t progressing as fast, but certainly progressing and TSS also just behind

Thought Lussick had a great game last night. The team flowed from the fast ball he was delivering. Occasional dart to keep the markers honest showing eyes up footy.

One of the few players that have grown this year as a player.

I have woken up after last night's game feeling pure disappointment in the team, and have very little hope for the next couple of seasons. I might be in the wrong thread too, but I need to get it out so y'all gon' to wear it.
To me this year will go down as an epic failure, especially considering the heights this same team reached just last year. 2024 has been one of the least enjoyable seasons I have grinded my way through since becoming an avid supporter in the late 90s. We have got progressively worse since August last year when we were locked in the top 8, were clearly losing form but still managing to scrape by bottom teams like the Tigers game in Hamilton. It was fun. There was energy. There was hope that we could finally build ourselves into a powerhouse that consistently pushed for the title. As this year has gone on I’ve slipped back into expecting our team to perform below expectation, and have not been surprised to see us lose far more than we have won. We have absolutely earned our current spot at the bottom of the ladder. The whole country seems to be behind the team, club looks in great order, history made with every game sold out, but the team has dished up nothing but shit week after week. Absolute disappointment, the kind that loses fans and makes it harder for the club going forward.
I will remember 2024 for the incredible low points of the humiliating losses including those to the Dragons, Titans and Eels. There has been very little to celebrate compared to the 2023 highlights reel of Dalliin’s flying tries or games like the Townsville romp or Sharks comeback. It has been a joyless, soul sucking year which has hurt so much more because of the hope of the year prior.
We have absolutely squandered the platform that our forwards have provided us for most of the games this year. I truly cannot see how we are going to replace AFB’s metres, and predict our forwards getting bullied next year even with JFH replacing him. Guys like Capewell and Niukore who have clearly struggled with the pace of the game won’t magically be any quicker or more agile in 2025 either. Webby doesn’t seem to be brave enough to give quality minutes to the young bulls, so I’m expecting their progress to be stunted by safety-first team selections. $2 says we get the same team list next week (depending on suspensions) even with the season now officially done. Wouldn’t blame Halasima, Sifakula, Maiu’u et al. for looking for more opportunities at other clubs.
Most worrying to me is how far so many of the backs have fallen so much since last year, and these guys are now a year older…and slower…for 2025. I’ll admit that I haven’t watched every game of NSW Cup this year, but am still yet to see much in the next gen of backs to be excited besides Tuaupiki. Where are our Saabs? Fiddows? I honestly don’t see our current backs improving enough next year to get us off the bottom of the ladder. We are slow, bumbling, injury prone, poorly coached, often outgunned, getting older, and I don’t see too much promise coming through to replace it.
Our attack is one dimensional, and clearly not working. Since teams have learned to shut down our 2023 right side sweep plays to DWZ, we have offered nothing. It’s not helping that important players like Charnze aren't able to pull those off like last year either. In the red zone, we throw the short pass to the lead runner over and over again, or we go side to side, but look totally directionless. Scorelines this year are proof our attack isn’t working. We have no little set moves like Storm or Eagles used to beat us this year, or no speed or individual brilliance to even fall back on when the crash and bash inevitably doesn’t work. Webby’s bomb to the corner and trap the opposition strategy is boring as shit and doesn’t work if Johnson or Berry aren’t there or if you give away cheap penalties…which we very often do. I wouldn’t be heartbroken if they clear out the attacking plans and coaches from this year.
This team has totally lost their resilience in defence. Even in the game last night, it was so predictable that the Eagles would score in their first attacking raid after their 40/20 extinguished our hot start. Absolutely unsurprising (and demoralising) that it was Saab strolling past our outside backs like he does every game he plays against us, but we haven’t worked out how to stop him yet. This team has had very few changes and has another year under Wdbby’s defensive system, but are going backwards really fast. Seems unimaginable that almost the same team that got repeatedly opened up last night with their season on the line, defended themselves to one game short of last year’s Grand Final. Our defence is unrecognisable from then.
How do we not have a goal kicker or someone who can kick field goals? Do we not train for those? With the amount of games we have lost this year by 6 points or under, you’d think there would be a huge focus on getting those right, but have seen CHT, Johnson and Metcalfe all spray sitters in just the last couple of games. What are the team actually practising during the week?!?!
I could continue writing, but feel like this is the definition of pissing in the wind. I'll be in the stands again next week with my Craig Bellamy game face on, hoping (like an idiot) that one year the Warriors will pull it all together. I just can’t see that coming any time soon after another bitterly disappointing year served by the team in 2024.

Tohu’s_Knees said:

What has actually gone wrong with this team in the space of a year.
They come out with a hiss and a roar but you just know it’s all a bluff. Worse yet the opposition know it.

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1. We were too old and too slow a year ago and got spanked by a younger faster Broncos. So we went and got older and slower.

2. With this team we created a max wattage performance that we simply could not sustain for more than 20 minutes. Then we'd blow a head gasket and get over run.

3. We managed AFB so well he's gone. We failed to get Marata to be a intimidating enforcer. We failed to get the balance of our talented, eager youth right with our aging koro cohort.

4. We stopped adapting and tried to force our model onto opposition defences but the book has long been out on our model which has been superseded.

5. We brought Roger back and still have no idea where to put him.

6. We are not the 2023 darlings anymore. That is the Bulldogs place now.

7. Get up those sand dunes

There are just so many issues with AFB leaving at the end of the year. He’s a gun, attitude seemingly a bit meh sometimes. But you really can’t fault his output over the last couple of seasons.

I’ve stated in previous posts, JFH is not like AFB. Not at all. There’s certainly a case that JFH is a better player over all. But there’s definitely a case that JFH benefits from a superior system.

When people suggest “he’ll sort out the dressing room”. What does that actually mean? Really?
JFH’s stats are certainly good, Ivan Cleary heavily fluctuates his minutes though. Anywhere between 45-70 mins.
AFB barely ever goes below 60 minutes. Webby almost runs him ragged. And they’re losing, no wonder he’s pissed.

Will Webby consistently use JFH like that?
How does this affect the bench?
Do we have to go back to a proper 4 prop rotation?
Can we consistently rely on the young guys?
So many questions…….

Of all the players in the NRL, JFH is certainly a good replacement for AFB. I guess after the RTS and Capewell (who’s actually playing ok now) signings. I guess my confidence has taken a hit that maybe he might not be the “right” signing.

None the less, I am still extremely happy we’ve signed JFH.

Our season was over before this game. People need to stop bagging SJ.

He's retiring. Just enjoying seeing him on the field. Yous won't get to soon. The Gary Freeman/Stacey Jones of his era. He's brought YOUS so much joy over the years.

DCE showed tonight what an elite halfback looks like, despite being 2 years older than SJ. Having someone like him with immense footy IQ who can drive you around the park is so valuable.

snake77 said:

The main thing we have going for us is our go forward. Like most weeks we get up the park fine especially at the start of the game.

The problem though our attack doesn't work. Then the opposition can get down field and can score on their first opportunity.

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Our best forward leaves next year and before you start with the JFH thing they are not like for like.

AFB has been absolutely incredible this year. Without him who knows where we be.

Not the bath i expected tbh.

They had a dig......execution was just well off.

Sledge said:

I don’t think he is a great coach at all. Inexperienced and just finding his feet, let the next 2 years judge him. To quickly have we offered a coach a long term gig after one ok season, S. Kearney anyone?

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Yeah Nathan Brown was way better... And we have great coaches knocking down our door wanting to coach the club? Seriously...
Any club would extend a rookie coach who got them Top 4 and won Dally M coach of the year.
Do we realistically recruit JFH without him also?

How many coaches have we had that have got better results? Daniel Anderson and Cleary.

Give the guy a year or two and let the development systems bed in. It's a journey.

Webster is a coach players want to play for. We've never had that, we just need to be patient. It's been a tough year with injuries + AFB, teams have targeted us a lot better while we have tried to do what worked last season, without the polish and a Dally M SJ. It just hasn't clicked, and Webster and the coaching staff know that.

The amount of games we have lost by fuck all is crazy high, we aren't far away but have clearly forgotten how to win. But talk about getting rid of the coach is laughable really.. I'm worried more about our lack of a spine leader than coaching for 2025. If no one in our halves can kick like we have seen the past 6 weeks, we'll struggle again.

Lock up Tobias Crosby!!

The IG post is a little off, but AFB put in yesterday. His carries helped us to get into good field goal range.