Yeah well, take ya wave back to dingo ville.

In the aftermath of the Warriors loss to Penrith, I heard how many folk thought to themselves that if there was any team in the NRL who could lose that game in the second half, it was our dearest Aotearoa Warriors.

This is why the reaction to that loss kinda bamboozled me. We've all seen the Warriors fade to that extent before, yet everyone has their knickers in a twist as if Warriors doomsday has arrived.

'Warriors doomsday' feels as though it's come around before, doesn't it? Penrith smoked the Warriors a few years back, Melbourne smacked up the Warriors last year and here we again; Warriors doomsday tends to come around most years, just as it does for other NRL clubs not named Melbourne Storm or Brisbane Broncos.

It really doesn't matter how many points the Warriors gave up in the second half, in fact, that kinda just lends itself to me telling y'all to chill out. Just as we've all seen the Warriors serve up unthinkable collapses, we've seen many other NRL games get completely flipped at half-time. This is nothing new and isn't restricted to the NRL as it happens in rugby union, basketball, shit, we've even seen it a gang of times in cricket.

What we saw in Penrith was an example of how beautiful sport can be and yeah, unfortunately the Warriors were on the receiving end.

Ponder how many times the Warriors have pulled off a miracle come back. Shit happens and if there was a team who could come out guns a-blazing in the second half, it's Penrith.

Let's view this from a Penrith Panthers fan perspective...

Your team was viewed as Premiership contenders based on their sublime attacking talent.

There's skill and a reckless attacking nature there that had everyone around the NRL excited about their ceiling, but in the opening stanza of the season they weren't overly good because when you're putting all your eggs in that funky attacking basket with young guns, you give up some defensive nous. Your Panthers have under-performed, then they have a home game in front of their fans and deliver a reasonably shit first half of footy.

Two things could happen after that first half: your team folds or they come out and play like their season is on the line.

At home, out in Sydney's west, Penrith came out and played like their season was on the line. They threw 16 offloads, played with vigour through the middle and shifted the footy to their edges early in the set. When Penrith gained momentum in that second half, there are about 12 teams who would have been unable to stop that wave and the Warriors are obviously not one of the four teams who could have stopped Penrith.

The Warriors didn't help themselves and I'll keep it real as to how they helped Penrith spark that wave, it's just the reaction to this loss that has oozing empathy. This was just a crazy comeback from Penrith, there is no need for heads to roll, this is not the worst loss in Warriors history, this isn't catastrophic. I feel into a zone where I didn't expect Penrith to play to their potential, I underestimated how desperate they would be to get their season on track and regardless of how crappy Penrith have been this season; they earned those high expectations before this season via some super exciting footy and while I've highlighted improvements the Warriors have made to start the season, I've also made note of how long this process will take.
In the big scheme of 2017, this is just a loss and I suspect we'll see the Warriors twist this loss into a positive. An example of what they don't want to do and we keep rollin' through the season.

The second half wave started with two identical penalties that got Penrith down the Warriors end. Penrith's forwards ramped it up a gear in the second half when the sniffed blood in the water, however they didn't need to do anything to start the wave; Ryan Hoffman and Ligi Sao left their foot in the ruck area and gifted them field position.

While the Warriors were scrambling for a breath of air, Gavet then decided to play-the-ball as if he'd hit the bong a moment before. You can't explain that, it was weird (and rather silly), just like Sao and Hoffman dangling their foot in the ruck, doing nothing but asking the ref to blow a penalty.

The first try saw Bryce Cartwright hit Isaah Yeo with a short ball. The Warriors were out-numbered and Bodene Thompson was scrambling which when combined with a bad read by Shaun Johnson, allowed Yeo to storm through. Johnson's poor read isn't so horrible as the Warriors had their numbers stripped by a Panthers attack down their right and Johnson had to pay attention to Matt Moylan swoopin' out the back.

The second try came via a bomb. Penrith touched it back and Cartwright delivered a cute chip for Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to score. Somewhat unlucky and it's probably a good time to note that Cartwright has been fairly average this season, yet in the Panthers wave, Cartwright showcased why he's keeping Te Maire Martin out of the Panthers team.

The third try was peak-Panthers. On the 2nd tackle, coming out of their own end, they shifted to Yeo and for whatever reason Johnson was defending at centre. If Blake Ayshford was defending at centre (instead of inside Johnson), I doubt Yeo would have palmed Ayshford off. Yeo made Johnson his bunny all game and Yeo's lanky fend kept Johnson graspin'.

Of course, that sparks drama about Johnson's defence; the same defence that everyone was licking their lips about when Johnson was putting a few big shots on each game. A few games ago, everyone loved Johnson's defence and now he's back to being a terrible defensive Princess. That encapsulates that insanity of kiwi media, bandwagon fans and tu meke fans.

The fourth try saw Ryan Hoffman made an horrible defensive decision, I can't even begin to explain wtf he was doing. Hoffman rushed up to tackle Caspar, opening a gap for Moylan.

'Alright, Caspar is there somewhere, I can see him! Wait, I can't see him 'cos he's Caspar'

Things get so much worse for Hoffman as he then let Watene-Zelezniak run past him to set up Tyrone Peachey's try. Bodene Thompson was involved in this tackle as well but Hoffman was pretty much solely responsible for two tries with an excessively bad read - way worse than Johnson's - and an attempted tackle that resembled the effort of a bloke who is phoning it in, not playing for a new contract.

The Warriors looked gassed during that wave, which is not that surprising. They chased Penrith and their offloads, they made 46 more tackles, only had 44 percent of the footy and conceded five penalties while Penrith only conceded two. Penrith's wave simply blew the Warriors away, it's happened in sport many times before and it's gonna happen again.

Penrith themselves have also done this before and they'll do it again.

Where does the absence of Simon Mannering come into the equation? Mannering wouldn't have stopped any offloads, he wouldn't have helped Johnson tackle Yeo, he wouldn't have stopped Gavet give away two dumb penalties, he wouldn't have told Hoffman not to go and try tackle Caspar.

Mannering has mana, we know that and the mana could have helped the Warriors deal with Penrith's wave of footy funk. I doubt it though - he might have helped slow Penrith through the middle.

Mannering wouldn't have helped the Warriors forwards average over 10m per-carry. No Warriors forward averaged 10m/c, not Jacob Lillyman who had 18 carries for 159m and all the Warriors forwards played well below the level they have been operating at this season while five Penrith forwards averaged over 10m/c.

Hence we keep moving forward. The Warriors hadn't been trending downwards leading up to this game and had instead been making steady improvements, so why y'all so angry? This game was a dip below the overall level we've seen this season, this performance was not we expect from the Warriors based on what they have done this season. This was a shit performance in a season that has largely featured reasonably solid performances. Instead of rallying behind the Warriors and supporting them as they take a minor deviation from the path they have been going down in 2017, kiwis love to get dramatic.

Is it the Warriors that let you down to the point where all logic, common sense and general fandom is swept aside by anger and frustration?

Or are you just a negative ol' geezer?