If you thought that Aotearoa Warriors would provide some level of steadiness in these shifting times, obviously you were wrong and thinking that the Warriors were all the way on the up after defeating the Dragons a week prior, well yeah, definitely wrong. This actually played out perfectly as the drastic up and down nature of the Warriors in re-starting the NRL competition reminded me of the key Warriors realisation I've had in covering the club; stay mellow.

Always stay mellow. Riding the ups and downs will make you insane, especially if you're seeing Warriors headlines in Aotearoa media that only amplify the ups and downs. Last week the Warriors beat up a Dragons team that quite clearly has issues running deep throughout their club. This week the Warriors sans numerous top-17 players faded quickly after a poor start and considering their journey to get to this point, along with a younger team, I was not surprised to see minimal fight back.

Patrick Herbert fluffed a 50/50 bomb that led to Matt Burton's first try in the 11th minute.

Blake Green decided to kick the ball into Burton and the Panthers half then boosted away to score in the 22nd minute.

Herbert again fluffed a bomb, from which Jarome Luai scored from a couple tackles later in the 35th minute.

For a team that has been through all sorts of shenanigans that's a start that ends the game and especially when seven of the Warriors team are new to NRL or new to the Warriors, or both. The leaders in the forward pack have actually been rather solid as Adam Blair's minor resurgence continues (48mins, 10 runs for 91m @ 9.1m/run, 31 tackles @ 86.1% and no penalties conceded!) and Tohu Harris put another 80 minute monster on the board; 23 runs for 224m @ 9.73m/run and 56 tackles @ 90.3%.

Last week, the forward pack all got involved in efficient work (hovering around 10m/run). This week the younger forwards couldn't quite keep it up and Poasa Fa'amausili (6 runs @ 10.66m/run) and King Vuniyayawa (11 runs @ 10.54m/run) were the only forwards to hit that mark. In dealing with players entering the NRL or in their first 30 games, one has to expect certain inconsistencies in performance and right now we have to ride the wave.

This game had both Hayze Perham and Adam Pompey starting, both of whom offered encouraging signs. Perham was marking up against #KiwiNRL veteran Dean Whare and had 15 runs for 147m @ 9.8m/run, 3 tackle busts, 2 dummy half runs for 17m, 1 offload and 19 tackles @ 86.4%. That's fairly good for a young centre trying to suss his role out and considering that Gerard Beale was also decent on the other edge (14 runs for 135m, 1 line break and 20 tackles @ 100%), a rather unexpected centre weren't as bad as the scoreline appeared.

Pompey got through 13 runs for 122m and also had 3 tackle busts. Pompey doesn't look overly exciting and last the panache of Ken Maumalo, but like Perham and the young forwards, these are all rather nice signs coming from the young brigade. In this game though, when things fell against the Warriors, they lacked the mana to maintain a grip on the contest and saw the game drift further and further away.

Other than making those errors to gift Penrith more footy, I noted a couple plays that in a way were reflective of the Warriors' performance. The first, well it's Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and despite having 21 runs for 178m, this wasn't Tuivasa-Sheck operating at his best. I can point to some stat stuff like the average metres per run, falling off the dummy half running cliff or barely breaking any tackles for his quality (2 tackle breaks). The try that Jarome Luai scored though offers a nice gauge of Tuivasa-Sheck being a bit off...

Herbert spilled the bomb, Panthers get the ball back and then have this play the ball. Tuivasa-Sheck is there by the yellow line and while he starts on the right side of the play, he can still boost across to the open side…

No sign of Tuivasa-Sheck though and Luai not only has a big space to kick through, there is no fullback in covering position…

By now, I’d definitely expect Tuivasa-Sheck to at least be in the frame but he must still be near the posts…

Then, we probably have the least favourite Warrior right now in Blake Green. Apart from every kick going straight into the bread-basket of the Panthers' back-three or setting up Burton's try, Green looks as stale as anyone in the NRL. No forced drop-outs either (Warriors only have 3 all season) and we have to ponder the general idea of Green clearly being the lead play-maker in a team that can't score points; Warriors are 16th in total points scored and no matter what happens in Dragons (14th) vs Bulldogs (15th) tonight, the Warriors will still be last.

As if watching Green stumble and fumble through clunky attacking sets wasn't niggly enough, we also saw Green get absolutely torched by Viliame Kikau. This may be why Green is 9th in total missed tackles for the whole NRL...

Those are the classic effort plays that help generate momentum and confidence, neither Tuivasa-Sheck or Green were able to do so in either instance. With a young Warriors outfit battling away, they needed the opposite from their leaders and it wasn't all that surprising to see the Warriors let the game pass them by.

Don't expect the Warriors to throw the footy around either. The Warriors are 15th in offloads (Bulldogs 16th) and this is likely to have impacted the number of errors from the Warriors as they are 14th in total errors (Knights 15th, Dragons 16th). It's clear that the Warriors have changed their style and are eager to control the footy, which is nice and also leads to being 2nd in set completion percentage (82%).

That's a clear picture of Warriors footy right now and that would be super useful if the Warriors could defend. The Warriors are 2nd in missed tackles though. Whether it's points scored or linebreaks (15th), offloads or tackle breaks (12th), the Warriors in 2020 legit struggle to attack and defend. Simple.

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Peace and love.