Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan: Everything Was The Same
Mystery surrounds Aoteaora Warriors and the NRL as the NRL ponders doing the exact opposite to what most other sporting competitions are doing, yet there was absolutely no mystery in the Warriors performance vs Newcastle Knights. The Warriors were rolled up and smoked 0-20 by the Knights, unfortunately literally everything felt exactly the same as last season.
I was hoping for development and improvement, to be honest I was expecting development and improvement. Instead, what the Warriors dished up in Newcastle will hopefully be swept aside by the world's woes and we can forget that the Warriors currently exist in this incarnation. I'm actually quite confused because the last few years have seen me reach a point of malaise with the Warriors at various points of these seasons; there are only so many ways and angles to say that they aren't very good, or exploring why they aren't very good.
When this malaise comes in, I fall back and focus attention on #KiwiNRL matters or other sports all together. Somehow this has happened after the first round of the 2020 season and while I try my best to lean on the optimism, embracing positive vibes, what's a brother suppose to do when round one is exactly the same as the mess that has come before it.
A positive nugget could be that such poo may be a platform to find improvement? Like, start crappy and get that out of the system.
Alternatively, the work of Jamayne Taunoa-Brown, Eliesa Katoa and King Vuniyayawa was interesting...
Jamayne Taunoa-Brown: 39mins, 8 runs for 80m @ 10m/run, 2 tackle busts, 93.5% tackle efficiency.
Eliesa Katoa: 52mins, 17 runs for 144m @ 8.47m/run, 4 tb, 2 offloads, 90.5% te.
King Vuniyayawa: 19mins, 4 runs for 30m @ 7.5m/run, 90% te.
These were the only blokes offering enthusiasm and aggression. Adam Blair definitely wasn't perfect and played his role in the Warriors issues, however Blair's energy is visible. Perhaps that energy is used the wong way and so on, but while everyone else in the Warriors looked to be fresh off a meditation, wiping their eyes at the bright lights of reality, Blair and the youngins provided a splash of genuine enthusiasm for playing professional footy.
If I've dropped to the level of highlighting players operating with enthusiasm for their craft, shit is obviously moving towards the fan. Even within this bubble of the young trio and Blair, there is a niggle as we again endured coach Stephen Kearney feeling cute with his selections and rotations as he shifted Blair between the middle and edge; Katoa primarily played on an edge when he came on and played 52mins straight.
This is a footy team that needs to nail basic footy mechanisms. They need to because they continue to fail at nailing these basic footy mechanisms and when you are in this position, keep things simple, keep the same players together and build those intuitive combinations etc. In other words, the best teams and coaches tend to work their way towards getting cute, they earn the right to be cute and funky with selections/rotations.
Shifting Blair around is not part of that recipe and from what I saw from Katoa, he is capable of playing middle or edge. While the Warriors are trying to find a baseline of acceptable NRL footy, I'd suggest keeping such rotations very simple and leaving Blair and Katoa where ever they are best at.
Katoa was the Warriors best player. A bloke born three days into this millennium, who is at the start of his rugby league journey let alone NRL journey, was the Warriors best player.
The single, most pressing concern is Blake Green.
With Green being a hefty negative, it flows into Chanel Harris-Tavita. Other than a 40/20, neither Green of Harris-Tavita executed classy kicks, either hoofing it down-field and gifting Kalyn Ponga, Edrick Lee and Hymel Hunt easy returns. Harris-Tavita generally looked confused and far from comfortable, while Green, jeepers creepers.
For some reason, Green has fallen off a cliff and this is a continuation of last season. Again, that's the major issue as Green picked up right where he left off from 2019 and when the Warriors were in a position to build some type of pressure, a 20m-restart ensued.
Attacking funk? Neither Green nor Harris-Tavita set up attacking plays with any impetus and having watched the Warriors stumble their way through attacking sets in recent years, this was exactly the same. Against the Knights specifically, I struggled to suss out what their intentions were any where on the field. Who are you trying to target? How are sets being built? Who are the key weapons? Are you going around or through the opponent?
There is a reason why the Warriors scored zero points. Sometimes it's not your day and everything goes against you. Sometimes your attack sucks.
From Reddit:
Onwards.
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Peace and love 27.