There is no better summary of where the Warriors are at in 2017 than these two videos below. Ignore what the videos are about for a second and ponder that these two videos exist on Youtube, that the perfect reflection of where the current Warriors comes in the form of a few short Youtube videos via a Youtube channel that offers plenty of rugby league content. 

(If you look hard enough, you can find everything you need to follow the NRL - including full game replays - on Youtube or the interwebs. Remember that next time you're about to complain about Aotearoa's pay-TV jokers because if you're resourceful enough, there's no need for you to pay to watch anything on telly).

In the past, this would have come through a newspaper or the silly six o'clock news. These days people all around the world can feel our pain or just giggle at the wayward Warriors, some plonker in Ghana can tell his mates how two of the Warriors' marquee players, produced such terrible moments:

Rather mind-boggling right? Mind-boggling but not all that surprising when you put those horrible moments of execution, or lack of execution in the context of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck's individual performance and Shaun Johnson's individual performance. 

Ol' mate in Ghana won't know how or why Johnson's kicking game was so bad, but he'll know that it was extremely bad. I tend not to get on the Johnson-hating wagon for a few reasons (he's never really had consistent halves partner who can organise, nor has he played behind a dominant forward pack), however when Johnson is put in the shade by Josh McCrone, I gotta keep it all the way real. 

Everything about Johnson's kicking game was shit. 

He did the best he could with his long kicks as he never enjoyed nice field position, so was often booting the ball as far and long as possible. That and a lack of Johnson's celebrated running game against the Dragons are understandable because the forwards were equally as poor as Johnson's short kicking game - Johnson can't run the footy if the team ain't moving forward - yet those short kicks resembled a cheeky footy sesh with your homies ... after a cheeky sesh.

The preview to this game had me intrigued about the Warriors attack and I didn't even get to that point so I can't offer any analysis when there's nothing to analyze. The Anzac Test did see Johnson get put in the shade by Cooper Cronk and Jonathan Thurston which happens to most; I'm just wondering if that has completely shattered any confidence or ability of Johnson ... and Tuivasa-Sheck ... and Foran.

Ol' mate in Ghana won't know why I dubbed Tuivasa-Sheck Mr 200m, or that Tuivasa-Sheck broke the record for most metres in a season, or that Tuivasa-Sheck was the 2015 Dally M Fullback of the Year, but he'll note that Tuivasa-Sheck is operating no where near that level right now.

Tuivasa-Sheck ran over 200m in six games (excl. round 2 vs Storm when he played 27 minutes) up until the round 9 clash against his former club. In his last three games, Tuivasa-Sheck hasn't past 159m which is a product of Tuivasa-Sheck's weird slump and that mediocre grunt up front. When you also consider that Tuivasa-Sheck averages 1.2 errors and 1.8 missed tackles a game this season - basically meaning that he will make an error and miss a couple tackles every game - we've currently got a Tuivasa-Sheck who has been tainted by Warriors crappyness.

What makes this so funny, is that this certainly doesn't stop with Tuivasa-Sheck and Johnson. 
After the loss to Penrith I didn't want to over-react and there's still plenty of time left in the season to make required improvements. We should also be hopeful that being somewhat close to rock-bottom will likely (possibly) see the Warriors take drastic action and suss things out, so if you've got it in you, stay hopeful and laugh it off. 

After that loss to Penrith, this reason stinks though. Instead of bouncing back, the Warriors were worse. They got torched in 40 minutes of footy by a reckless Penrith team, compare that to being completely absent for 80 mintes in Hamilton; where they advertising their brand to a slightly different market. 

No stats are needed for this debrief, y'all know they sucked.

I'm also interested by this Simon Mannering narrative. Mannering is a machine and has ben fabulous on attack and defence this season, I'm just weary about how influential Mannering can be. Sure, he makes a lot of tackles and has to be the best wrestler in the team but can Mannering really single-handily tighten up the middle of the field? 

'The Warriors are missing Mannering's 50 tackles'

Can't anyone else make lots of tackles? 

Is it even good that one player makes so many tackles?

Why can't other blokes wrestle or dominate tackles?

Mannering oozes mana and he's the spiritual leader of the club, but he ain't helping Tuivasa-Sheck throw a normal pass and he sure ain't helping Johnson kick the ball at a Josh McCrone level. The absence of Mannering is an excuse.

That excuse can be used by fans, when it's used by players or people around the club though, then we've got a problem. It's a problem because Mannering shouldn't be so influential; he's not Jonathan Thurston, he's not Cameron Smith. There shouldn't be such a drop off when Mannering isn't playing and his work ethic, his desire should be replaced as best as possible. The problem is that Mannering's strengths should be the strengths of other blokes as well.

So where are we at with this team? 

Let's create a little scale so we can all be clear on this journey: Level 1 is no dramas, standard up and downs in a bloody tough competition, while level 5 is a point where I stop giving the Warriors publicity. I'm a fan, I will ride through all these standard Warriors waves and if they reach level 5 this season, I'll start from scratch next season - after ignoring them for the rest of this season.
Right now, the Warriors are at level 2.

We have been here before and seen the Warriors turn a corner, so there's no need get too crazy just now. That there is still much of this season to go is the saving grace and until crappy footy is consistently delivered by coach Stephen Kearney, I'm happy to give him the benefit of the doubt. We've seen fairly average loss to Penrith and a super average loss to the Dragons; enough to use words like shitty or crappy and rasie the level of concern to level 2.

Maybe level 2.4.

Let's see where this club goes from level 2.4 after round 11. 

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