The Warriors could have beaten the Melbourne Storm. 

But that would have probably been the worst case scenario for the Warriors, had they pulled a few tricks out of the bag and somehow conjured up a comeback. Winning last night's game would have covered over some serious flaws in a display that can only really be described as embarrassing.

Embarrassing is a bit harsh, but that's how I felt. When the Warriors set up for backline moves, they weren't as swift and clinical as the Storm. When the Warriors eventually got to their last tackle, a bomb to the wing would be the only result. When the Warriors tried to complete a set of six, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't.

When the Warriors worked their way into an exciting area, which took place right from the first whistle, they went for the highlight try and failed. It would have been nice to see some composure, see more than one goal line drop out from the Strom ... one! Instead, bombs were sent skyward which ended up with a plethora of Storm players running blocks, allowing their catcher a pretty safe catch. That really boggled my mind, watching Konrad Hurrell, Solomone Kata, Ryan Hoffman etc get run off the ball. It's pretty obvious that the Storm have the defusing of bombs sorted, so the Warriors just kept pumping it.

The problem was, before Nathan Friend crossed for a delightful try, Shaun Johnson dribbled a perfect kick into the in-goal area, trapping Billy Slater for that one goal line dropout. We saw Johnson do the exact sort of kick that we wanted, needed, yet we only saw it once. Neither he nor Chad Townsend really went close to clinical half play.

I licked my lips when I saw Thomas Leuluai scoot out of dummy half early in the game. He finished with three runs for 25 metres, which is horrible.

Hurrell, who was a late inclusion, rewarded the coaches with four errors that could only be described as horrible.

The Warriors pushed the ball, they looked for offloads, rather stupidly which is understandable as it's worked in the past against the Storm. Yet it felt like Hurrell's errors came from offloads and the Warriors looked like they were trying a bit hard ... who had more offloads? The Melboure Storm had 11 to our 7.

There were many positives, which I only want to list...

• Tui Lolohea is continuing to improve, so light on his feet despite being a bit beefy and his hands are getting better.
• Ben Matulino was once again awesome
• Nathan Friend made an impact, because he ran the ball.
• Sebastine Ikahihifo was solid on his return, bit more size and mobility was nice
• Shaun Johnson showed signs...

It was confusing that Dominique Peyroux was selected ahead of Albert Vete, because Peyroux didn't play. Friend only came on with 20 odd minutes to go as well and it would have been awesome to see Vete and Lisone rip through the Storm's middle, instead we just watched Peyroux do nothing.

There were many positives, but to be honest, there's no reason in really celebrating the positives because last night showed how far off the pace the Warriors are right now. The NRL is a graveyard, the standard is super high and coaches along with their players are throwing funky plays at defenders and using a wider range of plays as well. You've got to have forwards who can break the line and get quick play the balls, but besides Matulino the Warriors don't have someone who can do that consistently. Before last night's game the Eels played the Tigers and you look at Manu Ma'u and Martin Taupau. You admire them, their aggression, their footwork and you can only be jealous. 

The Warriors are still serving up complicated selections. They're still showing a lack of creativity or imagination and can't even execute the simple plays that they conjure up.

It's a sad day today, it's not the worst Warriors side I've seen by any stretch of the imagination and it's a long season, but we need to pray. Pray because it feels like the NRL is on a different page to our Warriors right now.

At least we got to watch this guy in full flight