Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan: Surely Not Worthwhile
In their first two NRL games of 2020, Aotearoa Warriors have not scored an actual try and have not made a single line break. Despite my summer optimism that improvement and development could be a heavy focus for the Warriors, the Warriors rolled out a round one performance that might as well have come in 2019 and round two vs Canberra Raiders saw a repeat of round one ... thus a repeat of all the woes of recent years.
This is strange, so strange. The Warriors struggling isn't all that strange, yet the idea that we are literally seeing the same issues from last year in these first two games is strange. Then, sprinkle on top of this that, well, the Warriors kinda lied about playing a more expansive, free-flowing style of footy because they blatantly have not done anything close to that.
Ah, this all comes in the context of this kerfuffle that the world currently resides in. The Warriors are earning sympathy points and everyone appreciates what the Warriors are doing for the greater good of the NRL. This leads me to two ideas that I reckon need to be kept at the forefront, during this time...
First, extract the Warriors from the wider kerfuffle and digest the footy that the Warriors have played in the first two games and it's not good. Had these two performances been abnormally mediocre, in a time of stress, then it would be easier to point to the wider context as to a possible reason for sub-par Warriors performances. Instead, the Warriors have simply continued down the same path as 2019; the performances on the field have been consistently mediocre regardless of wider context.
Second, is the idea that at what point does this become kinda pointless. If the players and staff have chosen to put themselves through this situation of being based in Australia and battling on, while also losing games by a concerning margin, surely thoughts of 'is this all worthwhile' will seep into the players heads.
Had the Warriors been playing good footy, heck even exciting footy and offering a competitive game, then it would be all good. The Warriors are putting themselves through all of this to lose games? That's rough.
As someone who tries my best to steer clear of the dramatic, I need to make this abundantly clear: this 2020 Warriors team is not good.
Two games, no linebreaks, no tries other than a penalty try.
There is a distinct lack of fizz or energy, everything looks slow and stagnant. While other teams execute creative plays and have their funky players around the footy at all times, the Warriors are a piece of plain bread. There doesn't appear to be any plan at work, whether that be playing hard and flat through the middle, or spreading the footy and to be honest, the only plan I'm scoping is plod along and hope for the best.
We kinda know that the Warriors aren't a good defensive team, although that could be covered over by supreme attacking funk. There are two more games to play in this round, so keep that in mind with these attacking stats that paint a picture of a Warriors team that is offering very little with the footy. To go with those no linebreaks and tries, the Warriors are 15th in average offloads per game, 13th in average post contact metres per game and low key notable is the Warriors ranked 15th in kick return metres.
There is a direct comparison between what the Warriors are put through when dealing with kicks and trying to get out of their own end vs what the Warriors put their opponent through in those situations. In both losses to Knights and Raiders, the Warriors give their opponent uncontested kicks nearly every kick which leads to further problems as sets develop. When the Knights or Raiders kick to the Warriors, the Warriors are swiftly under the pump via a contested kick or being jammed in their own 10m zone.
Again, this is a team that is not good. Straight up and if I'm getting bad vibes from what the Warriors are doing with the footy, it's inevitable that their defence is going to the same. The Warriors are 2nd in total missed tackles and 3rd in total penalties conceded, which is simply not a good recipe.
In a weird way, the most concerning issue after two games is that the Warriors' best player right now is 20-year-old Eliesa Katoa. In his first two games of NRL footy, Katoa has showed twice as much oomph as any other Warriors forward and while I've loved watching Katoa in action, I have not enjoyed the fact that Katoa had the most runs of Warriors forwards in both games thus far. Katoa's awesome, so this is possible but the Warriors are literally relying far too much of a 20--year-old.
Here are Katoa's stats in the first two games...
Vs Knights: 52mins, 17 runs for 144m, 50pcm, 4 tb, 2 offloads, 90.5% tackle efficiency.
Vs Raiders: 65mins, 17 runs for 157m, 60pcm, 4tb, 1 offload, 87.1% te.
With or without ol' mate rona, the Warriors just aren't very good right now.
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Peace and love 27.