Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Hosting Sharks & Jets
Two teams with nifty attacking shape come up against each other on Sunday afternoon in Auckland with NZ Warriors hosting Cronulla Sharks. This expands out to a two-game banger as Warriors take on Sharks reserve grade outfit Newtown Jets in NSW Cup which comes after Warriors had two wins over Eels last weekend. Warriors scored 30+ points in both wins vs Eels and Sharks present an intriguing checkpoint for Warriors in both grades.
Warriors and Sharks love to shift the footy from sideline to sideline, combining hole-running with decoys to attack space. There may be a slight advantage for Warriors in the middle of the field where their passing not only manipulates the defence, it also creates points. According to Stats Insider, Sharks have scored just 15% of their tries through the middle and Warriors have scored 30% of their tries up the guts.
This was on display against Eels as Wayde Egan had 2 linebreak assists, while Tohu Harris and Dylan Walker had a linebreak assist each. Freddy Lussick only played 19 minutes off the bench and he also had a linebreak assist. Warriors had no issues scoring out wide as their attacking shape created space for the wingers and there were linebreak assists for Rocco Berry, Adam Pompey and Marcelo Montoya. Warriors balance that with the craft of their middle mahi and Sharks don't quite have that threat.
Stopping the attacking flow of Sharks starts with the ruck. Sharks can only execute their plays and long shifts from quick play-the-balls. This is aligned with how Sharks struggle to win games against elite NRL teams as they don't dominate the middle, thus clogging their attack which works wonders against weaker teams. Not only do Warriors pose a funky passing threat through the middle, they may have a more robust forward pack that dominates tackles and dictates how Sharks attack.
A clear indicator of Warriors ruck-speed is Egan. Other hookers may be faster than Egan, they may have better kicking mahi and they may be more powerful. Egan does everything really well though and because he doesn't have x-factor speed, Egan's running depends on tempo through the middle. 5 runs - 55m @ 11m/run against Eels tells that yarn nicely and if Egan is scooting against Sharks, you know Warriors are on top of the Sharks.
Egan is also averaging a career-high 53m/game. That is partly thanks to Egan's development and also thanks to Warriors having a better forward pack than their opposition in many games this season.
Bunty Afoa has been a consistent presence in this forward pack. While Afoa is averaging a career-low 61m/game this season, he has played his role perfectly as a starting prop who runs hard and rips in. Afoa misses this game vs Sharks and the bloke who replaces him around the 20-minute mark Dylan Walker, may also be unavailable.
Afoa shines in his role and clarity of roles may be a sneaky important thing coach Andrew Webster has brought in this season. Now Mitchell Barnett is named at starting prop and while Afoa has played 40+ minutes just twice this season, Barnett played 49mins in round tahi, followed by 50+ minutes in all six games. Some of that has come at edge forward to bolster Barnett's minutes but he has a 72min game as starting prop and two games coming off the bench with 50 and 56mins.
Barnett has only played in two losses this season with five wins, while averaging a career-high 133m/game. While Afoa's role and rotation with Walker, plus having Barnett on the bench, is the ideal situation for Warriors, a middle trio of Barnett, Addin Fonua-Blake and Tohu Harris is pretty damn enticing.
Watch out for a possible promotion for Kalani Going if Walker is unavailable. Going has a similar skillset as Walker and would benefit from this role-clarity, instead of promoting the hard running Zyon Maiu'u. Same thing for Shaun Johnson as Warriors have a halfback in Ronald Volkman ready to step in.
Sharks shape will challenge the defensive reads of Pompey and Berry as Warriors centres. This is amplified by the challenge of tackling Jesse Ramien and Siosifa Talakai, although Warriors defending these wide channels will be a team effort. How the Warriors wingers work with their centres will be crucial and this is all about centre/winger moving together, as if they were attached by a rope.
Newtown Jets are a really good NSW Cup team who are a spot ahead of Warriors on the ladder. Jets have a 10-1-6 record while Warriors have a 10-1-7 record having played an extra game. A similar team is named to last week, although some experienced forwards may be late inclusions. Otherwise the notes from the Eels debrief and Variety Show podcast apply here as Warriors have ample young talent for folks to learn about, then enjoy their development.
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Peace and love.