Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan: The Return Of Kieran Fo ... Nah, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck!
Frothing.
While you're having a bitch and a moan about the 'same old' Aotearoa Warriors, it's probably a good time to remind yourselves of something. Don't worry, I'll save you the reminder that the Warriors' two losses this season have come mostly without Roger Tuivasa-Sheck as y'all will know by now how I feel about Tuivasa-Sheck's influence on how the Warriors play footy.
Our Warriors are one of 10 teams who are 1-2. Two of the teams with better records than the Warriors have already played as of Friday afternoon; Roosters beat the Bunnies on Thursday night. So most of the NRL has the same record as the Warriors including four favoured teams in the Sharks, Raiders, Broncos and Panthers.
The counter to that is how the Warriors have played, especially with the footy. Here I go again repeating myself; Ata Hingano is 19-years-old, your expectations of Shaun Johnson are redonkulous, Tuimoala Lolohea is 22-years-old and is at best a back up fullback. Chuck in a new coach who is yet to unleash any sort of creativity in attack - understandable as he's got to lay some foundations - and the Warriors should probably be sitting at 1-2.
I love repeating myself, however this week things could be a little different with Kieran Foran named in the squad. This highlighted how silly much of our local media are as they didn't quite get the memo of the NRL switching up how teams name their squads for this season and I even saw some joker poke fun at the good old 'extended bench'. The Warriors are like every other NRL team in that they have to name 21 players on Tuesday before cutting that down closer to kick-off. There's no responsibility on the Warriors' behalf to name a player or not name a player based on their chances of actually playing, they just had to name 21 blokes and it's after round three so obviously they'd name Foran in that group of 21.
We simply don't know if Foran will play or not right now (Friday arvo). The only note I want to make regarding Foran is what will happen to Hingano if/when Foran slots back into the halves. Stunting the development of Hingano in the NRL and even possibly losing him to another club were risks in signing Foran, out-weighed by Foran's ceiling with the Warriors and if Foran is playing, I'd love to see Hingano come off the bench as a funky utility.
The Warriors simply need to keep Hingano involved and he's shown that he can be a rugged defender (despite understandably making a few errors). Hingano has a wide range of skills that would be perfectly suited to coming on around half-time and there appears to be little value in having Erin Clark on the bench.
Don't get caught up in the Foran hype and overlook the fact that Tuivasa-Sheck has been cleared to return for the Warriors. The skipper is the single-most influential Warriors player and I refuse to judge the Warriors until I have seen them with Tuivasa-Sheck adding his 200m, try assists, organisation and his standard assault around the ruck (with Luke) for multiple weeks.
During his brief playing time so far, we have already seen Tuivasa-Sheck's ability as a play-maker and I expect this to help Johnson play with a bit more freedom. With Lolohea at fullback, opposing teams can focus their pressure on Hingano and Johnson which has rubbed Hingano out of the last two games. Johnson's got the footwork to deal with pressure but the prospect of paying respect to Johnson and Tuivasa-Sheck's running/play-making ability will be a huge test for the Dragons defence.
Paul Vaughan leads the Dragons squad in running metres this season and this points to the greater challenge facing the Warriors this week as they try to limit what is a low key impressive forward pack. Vaughan's big enough, however it's the intensity that he runs with and Russell Packer has been solid so far this season. Vaughan and Jack de Belin are bigger than the Warriors forward and de Belin leads the Dragons in offloads. Tariq Sims and Leeson Ah Mau will add some nimble footwork off the bench, rounding off a forward pack that consists of guys who all offer something slightly different in terms of their physical stature or strengths through the middle.
Compare that to the Warriors' middle forwards who run in a straight line, with no support, no footwork and a very annoying twist of their hips that stops them getting a quick play-the-ball. The Dragons have a size advantage, but perhaps most notably they have a skill advantage as well and just as it was interesting to see how the Warriors stood up (or got dominated by David Klemmer) against the Doggies' pack, it'll be very interesting to see how they go against a pack that most people would think shouldn't dominate them, but definitely could.
Simon Mannering's a legend, however unless he makes a point of getting some offloads out or showing off his slick passing game that we've seen on occassion, he could be put in the shade by de Belin. Mannering's narrative could reflect the Warriors' as I think it's plausible that coach Stephen Kearney has restricted Mannering's involvement to running and tackling, allowing some dust to settle before allowing Mannering to add some much needed spice to the Warriors ball-movement.
The battle between Tuivasa-Sheck and Josh Dugan will be mouth-watering; two of the best running fullbacks in the game.
Bodene Thompson and Ryan Hoffman have probably been among the Warriors' best and their assignment against Tyson Frizell and Joel Thompson is just as intriguing.
I don't expect a sublime performance from the Warriors that will get all the band-wagoners back onboard, although I do expect to see some signs of how this team will play moving forward. The Dragons are pretty good, but if Tuivasa-Sheck and Luke are able to speed the game up through the middle then we could see limitations to the Dragons that haven't quite been evident up to this point.
Regardless of whether Foran plays or not, the speed and skill of the Warriors through the middle decides this game. That's not a fall-back on the 'it starts up front' line because it's not the big-boppers who will drive that. Because we haven't been graced with Tuivasa-Sheck's presence a whole lot, we just haven't seen the Tuivasa-Sheck/Johnson/Luke combination in action. Nor have we see David Fusitua and Solomone Kata work with Tuivasa-Sheck.
We haven't even seen the Warriors try to throw the footy around and it's extremely difficult to see the Warriors grind their way to a win against this Dragons team over the ditch.