Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan: Ok Cool, But...
The Many Faced God
Aotearoa's Warriors weren't too shabby up in Townsville, against a Cowboys team that are still contenders sans Jonathan Thurston. They tried hard and that can never be under-estimated.
Things could be much worse folks, just look at Canberra who were contenders last season and had such expectations this season but are now sitting equal with the Warriors. Or perhaps the Rabbitohs and Bulldogs are a good example? Both are horrible and given their respective history, you could compare their woes to those of the LA Lakers or New York Knicks.
Against the Cowboys, the Warriors tried hard and did a sound job of playing with effort and desire, enthusiasm and aggression. Sure, Jason Taumalolo ran for 189m off 18 carries, but he's run for more metres in nine of the 16 games played this season and the Warriors did as good a job on Taumalolo as they could.
The Warriors were pretty good protecting their try-line even. They conceded four tries and only one came from a poor read as Ken Maumalo didn't push up with Solomone Kata as the Warriors do rather well on either edge under Stephen Kearney, leaving a nice hole for Justin O'Neill to stroll into. The Cowboys scored another try down the Warriors left edge when Kyle Feldt stepped back infield, drew in three defenders and offloaded to Ethan Lowe. You can't do a whole lot of complaining about that as the Warriors scrambled to shut down Feldt's options, forcing him back infield where he worked his magic and fair play to Feldt's skill.
Other than that tries came via a grubber that nut-megged two Warriors and Javid Bowen's try at the end. When the Cowboys beat up the Rabbitohs last week, Taumalolo and Coen Hess scored tries close to the line, effectively falling over the try-line via some uber weak defence. Neither looked like scoring against the Warriors, nor did any other Cowboy when given the ball down the Warriors' end. The Warriors showed up most of the time, got shoulders and numbers into tackles to such an extent that there was a splash of defensive confidence.
Unlike against Penrith where laziness at marker and poor defensive reads plagued the Warriors, they repelled the Cowboys and fought hard to limit to restrict them to 18 points before Bowen scooted away.
There were strong individual performances and Ken Maumalo's safety under the high ball continues to impress me. Maumalo took four straight catches last week and as the Cowboys peppered him, he ate those bombs like some Lil Abners in Papatoetoe.
Ben Matulino and Jacob Lillyman both averaged 10m/carry or better, resembling their representative forward status. Matulino was especially impressive and was back to his best where he's mobile enough to make a swift 7m before the line and put a step in, then he's big enough to take three defenders to bring him down. Bunty Afoa ran with vigour, as did Bodene Thompson and the blatant intent from Kieran Foran to run the footy, combined with how low key effective his side-step is forced the Cowboys to pay attentionevery time he had the footy.
Simon Mannering was strong in slowing Taumalolo down and only missed 2 tackles while making 54. The balance was there from Mannering as he got plenty of touches, scored a try and made 133m off 16 carries, offering his low key impressive attacking impetus
Solomone Kata got out of dummy half and David Fusitua looked dynamic as he carted the ball out of Warriors territory - everyone loves to yarn about Maumalo's carries but Fusitua's 132m from 13 carries is on par with what he's done all season when playing on the wing.
Ata Hingano came on and all he wanted to do was run, impact the game. We also had a decent NRL debut from Tevita Satae who looks like an intriguing prospect and it was a bummer that he only played 10 minutes (50m from 4 carries). Satae is massive and mobile, hence I encourage Warriors fans to stay positive about a forward pack that has James Gavet, Mannering, Tohu Harris, Leivaha Pulu and Satae.
Mason Lino looked comfortable in the halves and he matched Foran's blatant intent to run the footy which was a joy to see. This is different to Shaun Johnson as Foran and Lino run straight, they run at defenders, they 'play direct' and force defenders to make a decision, while Johnson tends to run to the sideline. Lino got a few repeat sets with nice kicks, especially with a low stab through the Cowboys line into the in-goal.
Ok cool, but...
Here's Charlie Gubb's older brother Peter being funny...
Ok cool, but...
Lino slipped crucial kicks deal, gifting the Cowboys 7-tackle sets. Lino and Foran both maintained the Warriors ability of kicking out on the full as well.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck never got the footy in any sort of space and while he got a nice try assist and must surely be a focus of opposition defences, Tuivasa-Sheck is struggling to influence games. I reckon this is because he doesn't get the footy with space and is instead used to run into three/four forwards where he does a great job but there's limited upside to that. The Warriors didn't sign Tuivasa-Sheck to take 19 runs for 136m, they signed Tuivasa-Sheck to take 19 runs for 210m, with try assists, with a threat on the edges as well as through the middle.
The Warriors still don't push up in support of their comrades, making them easy targets. There's a severe lack of ruck speed from the Warriors and some of this stems from a desire to play-the-ball quickly, but it's also very easy to slow things down when one Warrior runs into three defenders. Three defenders who don't need to worry about players in support.
When the Warriors were chasing a try at 18-12 down, they never looked like scoring. That's when Johnson is at his best, but there was no desire to try something different from their routine hit-ups one pass off the ruck. No bodies in motion, no buzz around the footy, no trick-plays, just some meh footy.
I still don't understand why the Warriors don't plow through the ruck area with speed and instead opt to try roll down field with one pass hit-ups. I've blabbered on about this all season, so I'll save the yarn this time but the Warriors have speed that isn't used.
Worst of all is the compounding of errors and penalties. Sam Lisone was the major culprit here and his poor pass to Tuivasa-Sheck followed by a rather dumb penalty came with Lisone backing up his mediocre performance last week. There's great potential for Lisone to be wrecking-ball-ish but he's no John Asiata in terms of ball-playing, he's no Gavet in terms of impact and he's good for a few errors/penalties every game.
Lisone and Ligi Sao were both asked to step up without Gavet but Lisone had 78m from 10 carries and Sao had 97m from 12 carries. They combined to miss 5 tackles while Lillyman, Matulino and Mannering combined to miss just 2 (Mannering's 2/54) and both conceded silly penalties. Satae's 50m from 4 carries in 10 minutes with 8 tackles, no misses, looks a whole lot better than anything Lisone and Sao did.
But yes, compounding errors/penalties. Sao inexplicably stayed in the ruck area too long and gave away a penalty, then the Warriors gave another away on their try-line. This is the complete opposite of 'defending errors' where it's all good if you make an error because you won't let it lead to a try or opportunity. It's kinda all good to give away a penalty in isolation, slow the game down, re-set your defensive line and go again.
None of that is all good when a penalty or error is followed in the next set by a penalty or error. That's just silly and it cost them a game they really needed to win.
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