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    Well, that was a heart-breaking game—and one that will have a real impact on our Top 4 and Top 8 aspirations. But despite the result, I thought it was a heck of a performance from a side so low on troops due to injuries. The effort was absolutely there across the board, and you’ve got to give them credit where it’s due. It’s just a shame that the “W” didn’t fall our way this time.

    As someone else pointed out, sometimes those last-gasp wins go your way, and sometimes they don’t. Tonight was one of those nights that just didn’t, sadly.

    There were still positives:
    • Great to see another debut with Eddie. He didn’t look out of place at all—some big, strong carries, and another young forward who hopefully grows through the system to bolster that promising pack.
    • Capewell was outstanding again—defensively excellent, with some great cover tackles. He seemed to miss fewer than usual tonight too, which stood out.
    • Erin Clarke was strong up the middle, as always. But you could feel how much we missed big names like Fisher-Harris and Demi out there.
    • I thought Charnze was very quiet at centre, and it should probably put the “Charnze to centre, Taine to fullback” discussion to rest. As much as I like Taine, Charnze brings physicality and size that really matters on yardage carries and contesting kicks—he just looked wasted out wide but possibly carrying a niggle?
    • Sam Healey had a good stint and I would’ve liked to see more of him, though I get that he’s still young and needed a breather. Freddy also added some solid impact when he came on.
    • RTS = Weapon. In some great form.

    Defensively, I thought we held up reasonably well but that last play was terrible.

    One moment that stood out—when Dal tried to kick through and regather, only for the ball to go into touch instead of diving on it. I noticed Erin giving him an absolute spray. Hard to know if that’s deeper frustration or just in-the-moment passion, which we’ve seen from Erin before.

    As for Ashley Klein—he wasn’t the reason we lost, but he definitely wasn’t great. In the final 10 minutes, there were some moments where the Dolphins could’ve easily been pinged—especially for slowing the ruck and repeatedly pushing the offside line. They seemed to be consistently getting a jump on us.

    Whether to take the 2 or not. Hindsight is a beautiful thing. If they had slotted it and gone 4 up only knock the ball on the next set and the Dolphins score there would be cries about it being a stupid decision. I was glad they backed themselves but their execution let them down.


    Lastly, for those out there thinking the sky is falling or that we played too much dumb footy to deserve the win—I’d encourage a bit of perspective. That was a team missing not just regulars, but stars, and they went toe-to-toe with a side capable of putting 40 or 50 on anyone. They showed heart, grit, and fight.

    Yes, it hurts. But we move forward knowing there’s still a lot to like about the direction we’re heading in.
     
    Really do not understand all the Ford bashing. It's as if people cannot get over his past discipline issues, which have become less and less common. That error he had tonight was absolute bs from Klein. Other than that, he was a beast for us in the middle again.

    Jacko has really stood up this year. He is quite literally the only reason why our middle hasn't collapsed in a heap with the loss of Barney. He's also stood up in both games where we didn't have either Barney and JFH (Raiders game and tonight). 200+m in that Raiders game and 150m again tonight.

    What more do you want him to do? He was not the reason that we lost tonight. He is just a convenient scapegoat for way too many people after every loss we have.
     
    Mad game, never seen so many last tackle surrenders in their 10 not even trying to put the nail in the coffin. Webby thinks so far outside the box he must be levitating above it, gotta hand it to him though they nearly pulled it off. Not sure about Tanah, he played the percentage gameplan pretty well, TMM looked more creative than Chanel. Dallin came up with a genius defensive read for that intercept, I swear he's an idiot savant.
     
    We lost.

    Once you get over the butt hurt there is a lot to like out of that game.

    So Healy can't pass the ball properly consistently. That answers why he isn't picked every week that the horde cry out his name.

    I thought he played well though, not hating on him.

    Boyd and TMM did really well to use ball movement to counter our lack of Prop forward platform. Top game from both.

    Said in game day Boyd needs to tweak his tackling, the heart is there, he doesn't stick, going in too hard and hap hazard, needs to calm down and switch that up for better should arm wrap timing.

    Taine was really good.

    Pompey was outstanding.

    But the best of the bunch was Ford who took up the challenge and played a lone battle in the middle aided by Clarks usual direct game.

    The Dolphins should have murdered us.

    When we came out for the second half and played them to a stand still, had em clueless for most of that half, I was so proud.

    We got burned at the end, no biggie. Shit happens.

    Well done Warriors.
     
    some of you should just take the night off to cool off. Nothing constructive is going to be said when you are emotional. When you are pissed off, it's natural to look for someone to blame. As usual, it's Ford and DWZ who are copping the brunt of it again despite the fact both had amazing games.

    The better team lost tonight. Just like the better team lost in Newcastle 2 weeks ago. We've been winning games like that all year, including against the Dolphins earlier in the year. What goes around unfortunately comes around. These things happen in professional sport. Just ask dragons fans who have had to put up with losses like that all year.

    We just need to put that loss in the rear view mirror and move on.
     
    Happy to eat humble pie over Tanah Boyd, he played a great game. TMM always threatening and was great as well. We were the better team with so many outs but dolphins did to us what we did to knights. Thought a lot of players really put their hand up despite the loss. Jackson Ford had his best game, needs to remember to stay on his feet playing the ball but don’t think anyone had a bad game
     
    Loved how we used the ball more. Some exciting play by us. Thought the effort was outstanding for the most part. Considering it's a red hot dolphins side and we were missing so many players it was a heartening performance. Did pretty well considering we didn't really have any real go forward dominance for the majority of the game.

    Up by two why aren't we taking the two and getting the ball back with the penalty next to the posts?

    RTS MOM
    Capewell and Clark not far behind.
     
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    And on a positive note:

    Clarke - great game. Mr reliable giving 100% every run. Battering ram!

    RTS - similar to the good old days. Playing with confidence.

    Leka - x-factor. Starting to expect a try a week now!

    Healey - explosive but my highlight was the footy IQ. Passed wider when needed to unsettle the fast defence. Excellent game.

    Capewell - plays better in the second row.

    EIT - great debut. Did nothing wrong. Welcome to the big league!

    CNK - injured or attitude? Lots of opportunity to get involved but pretty non existent.

    Webster - changed up the team positively. Allowed offloads. For a conservative coach, he made some big moves.
     
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    I’m still completely pissed off with how our club is treating its loyal Auckland-based members, the ones who’ve been there through the worst seasons, kept turning up, kept renewing, and kept believing. We now have only:

    Just 9 home games

    No ANZAC Day game

    And absolutely nothing meaningful in return for years of loyalty.

    The club seems to have forgotten the people who carried them through the hard years: the loyal, long-term members.

    Those who year after year, rain or shine, win or lose. The ones who kept renewing their memberships when we were struggling.

    I still remember the last game of the 2016 season at Mt Smart.

    We were up against Parramatta. It was wet, cold, Sunday evening and the season was already a write-off.

    But we were there the loyal ones.
    Just about 7,000 of us, soaked in the stands, still turning up when the club had nothing to give back but disappointment.

    We didn’t show up because the team was winning.

    We showed up because the club meant something to us.

    I’ve spoken to members who’ve been with the club for over 20 years and they’re gutted.

    It feels like the club has chosen hype over heart and those who’ve earned the right to be heard are being completely ignored

    Its now all about the corporates, and the bandwagon members who only showed up when the wins started coming.

    The Warriors need to wake up. The foundation of this club isn’t built on shiny sponsors or fair-weather fans it’s built on loyalty, sweat, and decades of belief.

    Come on Cameron George look after your loyal members.
     
    Theking267 said:
    Khan-Pereira is about the worst option the Warriors could get. He has a high error rate and doesn’t do any work out of the back field. Hence why he’s been dropped by Hasler even with his try scoring record and he doesn’t fit the Warriors system. I much rather have Sami he fits a lot better the Warriors system
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    I have a friend who works for Dynasty, he said they had some of the Titans in for a photo shoot and that AKP was the biggest f***head, he was publicly blowing up their marketing manager because they were running late,
    generally carrying on like he owned the place, some of the other players were rolling eyes and said he would be spoken to later about it.

    I'm sure if he is like that then Erin and Tanah would give the club the heads up.
     
    sup42 said:
    I get the argument but it is the same false economy that saw us release Fusitua and Vailea.
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    False economy?

    Webby's had 3 years with this team, and to date, has taken them to top 4 twice, regardless of where injuries have us at the end of this year.

    Obvs he's inherited many players who he sees as not suiting his style of play, so ones the likes of TMM, Bunty, Ale, Niukore and a few others move on, I think we're going to see some magic

    I'm particularly looking forward to the next two years when the youth brigade - Demi, Ali, Leka, Healey, TSS, Laban, Gannon, Linnene, Jett, and Fatialofa are all getting good game time.

    I think with all that promising youth coming through, and likely on cheaper contracts, we only need to recruit two or three top players to really give the competition a shake up in 2027 or so.
     
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