Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Figuring Things Out In The Middle
If the Aotearoa Warriors Diary tickles your toes, you'll be comfy in the knowledge that we are dealing with a middle of the pack NRL team. Recent results reflect this as the Warriors have two wins and two losses in their last four games, defeating a dipping Dragons outfit and the rising Cowboys while the losses came against the Storm and Sea Eagles. It's not quite as simple as saying the Warriors defeated teams below them and lost to teams above them as Dragons are above Warriors on the ladder and Sea Eagles are tied with the Warriors; the overall vibe though is middle musings.
This presents the Warriors with a sniff of slowly working towards being comfy in the top-eight. Sunday's game vs Parramatta Eels feels like a chance to snag a win over a better team, especially as the Eels are without Dylan Brown and Marata Niukore. Not super-duper key players, yet this does take the Eels down from their settled playing unit that works well together. Then again, the Sea Eagles were without Martin Taupau and Josh Aloiai last weekend and the likes of Taniela Paseka and Sean Keppie monstered the Warriors.
Middle of the pack also means that a few teams are in far worse situations than the Warriors. That includes performances on the field, as well as dramas off the field around those respective clubs and finding comfort in the middle means that we're grateful that our club isn't a shit-show.
The main newsy bits and bobs coming out of the Warriors revolve around Reece Walsh. This may be via mainstream media and the quality of their work, or it may be more thanks to a fascination with Walsh inside the Warriors walls. I'll let you decide that and I've come to view the Walsh funk as representing the wider Warriors mix as a bunch of different combos, players and styles are being used during the mid-season grind.
Worry about Walsh all you want. There are plenty of other wrinkles elsewhere in the Warriors squad that could be more important and/or help set up context around Walsh.
Josh Curran has played four games in a row, 80 minutes in three of those games and 70mins via a sin-bin against the Storm. That's coincided with Eliesa Katoa being out of the team since Curran started that four-game swing and this smells distinctly like coach Nathan Brown figuring out his roster. For those wondering how Katoa went for Redcliffe Dolphins last week...
64mins, 14 runs, 124m @ 8.85m/run, 1 tackle bust, 3 offloads, 21 tackles @ 95.5%.
For those wondering who played for Redcliffe Dolphins last week...
Viliami Vailea started at centre. Sean O'Sullivan in the halves. Jackson Frei starting prop. Katoa starting edge. Pride Petterson-Robati, Tom Ale and Preston Riki off the bench.
Prior to the season starting, I doubt anyone predicting a centre pairing of Adam Pompey and Rocco Berry for multiple games. Both look all good at centre and I'm especially intrigued by Berry who is learning how to best use his skills in the NRL, while being solid defensively. That involves the eye-test with Berry chopping blokes down to the point where commentators highlight his tackling, as well as stats reinforcing this; Berry has is tackling @ 83.33 percent with 35 tackles made and four missed tackles.
Compare Berry to his centre opponents this week where Waqa Blake registered three missed tackles in his only game this year and Tom Opacic is working at a respectable 87.5 percent tackling. Berry compares pretty well and he's played three games of NRL footy. Coach Brown and his staff have to continue to develop this new centre duo along with their combinations.
How does Euan Aitken fit into this garage kava sesh?
I reckon coach Brown is also working through is forward rotations. Leeson Ah Mau played 40+ minutes in the first seven games and Jazz Tevaga dipped below 40mins just once during the same period. Both Ah Mau and Tevaga have played far less minutes in the last two games with Ah Mau playing 30 and 35mins, while Tevaga has played 27 and 29mins.
Ah Mau and Tevaga both offer value on the field (evident in playing every game this season), so what's up? Again, my view is that coach Brown is figuring things out and given that these two played big minutes in the first seven games of this high tempo NRL footy, the Warriors are wisely working through the long season. Maybe that's the low key insight here when pondering Katoa, the sporadic use of Bayley Sirionen, Kane Evans' basic duties as the starting prop etc...
The puzzle is being understood and it doesn't need to be completed right now.
This doesn't line up perfectly, yet the dip in minutes for Ah Mau and Tevaga has come with Wayde Egan taking a dip in minutes over the last three games having played 80mins for five consecutive games. These three played fewer minutes than usual last week vs Manly and while Egan was kinda the victim of forcing Walsh into the team, a wider trend is also evident to complicate the easy Walsh narrative.
Egan's also got three try assists in his last four games, four try assists total.
Damien Cook has two try assists, Josh Hodgson has five and Reed Mahoney has nine.
Egan is in the middle of that selection of dummy halves. The Warriors staff are in the middle of understanding their roster and how all these players fit together. The Warriors as a team are in the middle of the NRL where their 2021 season is equal parts onwards/upwards and ho-hum mediocrity. So, where are you in this crazy world?
Peace and love.