Diary Of A Warriors Fan - Wait, We've Seen This Before
When the Warriors lost to the Melbourne Storm a few weeks ago, I felt like a win would have covered over a few issues. If the Warriors managed to hold on against the North Queensland Cowboys this week, it would have covered over many issues.
Luckily, I mean unfortunately, I mean thankfully, they got what they deserved against the Cowboys.
14 errors to the Cowboys 6.
33 missed tackles to the Cowboys 23.
67% completion rate to 84% completion rate from the Cowboys.
And it's not something new.
There will be folk who will provide context, which is nice of them and something I've done before. The Cowboys are the hottest team in the NRL, Jake Granville's the hottest hooker in the NRL, they've got the best halfback and a forward pack of beasts from a movie set ... and the Warriors were in the game up until the last few minutes. But they lost and they lost because they made a bad mistake in the last few minutes.
I ask Warriors fans across our beautiful planet to demand more. Maybe if we demand more then the Warriors will answer our prayers, instead of accepting this horrible standard of mediocrity.
Imagine if we only made 5 errors a game. If we were known for rugged defence and clinical attack. Imagine...
Now, the Warriors weren't horrible. Which is why this is incredibly frustrating. Ben Matulino and Jacob Lillyman were good against a rugged forward pack, as were their replacements off the bench in Sam Lisone and Albert Vete. Bodene Thompson was pretty good, but I'm still not over the moon about him playing 80 minutes out on the right edge; he and Konrad Hurrell combined for seven missed tackles.
It seems that our forward pack are trucking along nicely.
But the fact that we played alright and found a way to let the Cowboys into the game is what makes you want to repeatedly slap yourself.
I hate to harp on about it but while Thomas Leuluai looks good with his dummies and range of passes, that didn't go forward, he didn't run the football. Nathan Friend played 26 minutes and ran the ball once, which is once more than Leuluai but Jake Graville ran seven times and scored three tries.
Rory Kostjaysn ran the ball once and made one more metre than Leuluai did. Granville plus Kostjaysn = eight runs and 69 metres. Leuluai plus Friend = one run, 11 metres.
Also, what's the point in having Dom Peyroux on the bench? If he's going to play 11 minutes, you might as well just get a huge bloke of the street and tell him "bro, just got out there and rip in for 11 minutes". I don't care about injury cover, think positively and either bring Bodene Thompson off (WHO RAN FOUR TIMES, FOUR BLOODY TIMES) off or just bring another aggressive prop off the bench.
This shit is confusing.
There was one question that sums up this game for me; would you rather have a team full of Jonathan Wrights or a team full of Konrad Hurrells? Obviously a balance would be ideal, but at the moment it feels like the word solid can't really be used to describe too many of our Warriors.
We all want the Warriors to win the NRL. To do so, something has to change because while they aren't getting swept off the park, they are finding ways to be defeated. We've seen it before, but we generally find an excuse or two, or we celebrate the fact that we came close. Let's get this straight, the Warriors won't win anything if they continue to play how they've been playing over the past few weeks.
We must demand more. Hence, this game was crap.