As hard as Aotearoa Warriors tried, as much as their attitude and effort was at the level required of Finals footy, the execution was not in the loss to Penrith Panthers. It was the Panthers who played the near-perfect game and cranked up their level of footy to match the occasion, while the Warriors were given a reality check about going this deep into an NRL season.

There is every reason to be bummed out about that. Aside from a 15 minute period, it was torture watching the Warriors stumble their way through attacking sets, constantly getting rushed by an eager Panthers defence who adjusted to the more chilled out refereeing of the Finals and generally looking stunned - possum in the headlights type of stuff. I'd happily have a few more of those hefty regular season losses, if it meant that their first Finals game would have the Warriors playing at the peak of their powers.

I'll get into more general reviews of the season, more specific reviews as well, throughout the week. At the moment, this result and the way the 2018 season has finished, simply feels right; this was the first Finals excursion since 2011 and the Warriors will play a lot more Finals footy in the coming years.

It sucks for Simon Mannering. However, let me put my Warriors spiritual guru undies on and make it clear that in a logical step by step progression, finishing 13th last season and then 8th this season, tasting Finals footy is exactly where the Warriors should be. The Warriors will be better for this experience, everyone involved at the club will learn and next year we take another step up the ladder.

Had the Warriors been blown away by the Panthers, in one of those 2018 losses, it would be a different story. Because all the things we haven't associated with the Warriors, were evident in their play against the Panthers (attitude, effort, desire etc), we cop it and keep rollin'. 

The best way to sum up the absence of any level of execution were the short droppies. I love the idea, I love the desire to be different and I see no negatives to the short droppies, especially in Finals footy after the team has executed them well during the regular season. 

Shaun Johnson's droppies in this game though, most were too long and one was too short. Instead of landing the ball 12m out and giving the chasers a chance of competing, these droppies went 18m out and weren't contestable. There is literally no point in trying a short droppie if it's not contestable. 

This is not a hate on Shaun Johnson session, merely an example of the poor execution from everyone in the team. Throughout the team, there was a dip in skill and when we consider that dip in skill execution, along with the loss of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Penrith completing at 87 percent; you ain't winning.

Shaun Johnson is the low hanging fruit. You can suss out a lazy, un-educated or just a general Negative Ned by how quickly they fall back on blaming Johnson. 

Blake Green wasn't much better. Both got put in the shade by the sublime kicking of James Maloney and Nathan Cleary who routinely found green pastures. Both Green and Johnson failed to adapt to playing sans Tuivasa-Sheck and adapt to the aggressive Panthers defence that shut down the shifting of the Warriors. 

Neither Green nor Johnson can do much when they can't get into Panthers territory for any length of time. James Gavet, Agnatius Paasi, Tohu Harris and Isaiah Papali'i all averaged over 10m/run, yet they all had less than 10 runs. The blokes with the most runs were Simon Mannering (15runs/87m) and Jazz Tevaga (16runs/102m), which is well below 10m/run. 

You want the guys with the most runs, to be the most effective right? David Fusitu'a, Solomone Kata and Ken Maumalo were also below 10m/run, with the key dose of oomph offered by the outside backs shut down by the Panthers. 

Mannering and Tevaga, were gassed from all that defence though. Because those short droppies weren't executed, because the Warriors couldn't get into Panthers territory, because the outside backs couldn't win the early tackles. It's all related and the Warriors as a team, did not play at a level required to win a Finals game.

Team. Group. 17 blokes. A group who will be better and that's the measure of Mannering's greatness.

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Peace and love 27.