New Zealand Warriors Winning Notebook After Another Win In Cronulla
New Zealand Warriors bullied Cronulla Sharks in a 40-10 win and the NSW Cup Warriors also had a 22-16 win vs the Sharks' reserve grade outfit Newtown Jets, rolling out a combined 22-4 record this season across the top two grades. The NRL team has won all three games in Cronulla during the two Andys era and they have scored 28+ points in all three wins.
There has been a strange amount of doom and gloom about NZW after Mitchell Barnett suffered a season ending injury. The same doom and gloom that tinged the 2025 NRL season preview vibes as many wondered how NZW would progress after the departures of a bunch of senior players.
NZW have improved since those departures. They won games without James Fisher-Harris, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Jackson Ford this season. They have now won without Barnett and Wayde Egan.
Meanwhile, NZW have the best NSW Cup team and they rectified their only loss of the season which came in Auckland vs Newtown in round six. These aren't small wrinkles, these are grand themes that stretch further back throughout the two Andys era and have made NZW one of, if not the best organisation in the NRL. They also put the spotlight on folks who haven't been tracking NZW closely because many roll out the same opinions that simply aren't true right now
This win in Cronulla was different than the other two that came before it. NZW genuinely dominated the Sharks and bullied them on their turf, picking their bravado apart with physicality and craft. NZW have been on a 'win by any means' wave since their round seven victory over Broncos, but this performance vs Sharks falls into the ’long game’ wins from earlier in the season.
NZW were battling through tough encounters against Sea Eagles, Roosters and Tigers before their hard mahi paid off late in those games. It was a similar story vs Sharks as NZW were in a tough battle for the first half and had a 12-10 lead at the break. Having planted seeds in the first half, NZW came out blazing in the second half and brutally embarrassed their hosts.
There are trendy performances that folks will want to put above the rest as standouts. That goes against the NZW recipe though as everyone played their role and the variety of nifty contributions is the real joy of NZW footy right now. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad was awesome once again and yet Kurt Capewell was awesome in his role without the big stats for example.
Samuel Healey showed his funky dummy half ability as a starter and had far better stats than Te Maire Martin, but NZW blew away Sharks with Martin on the field at hooker. Demitric Vaimauga caught some highlights in another fabulous performance and Leka Halasima has commentators in a frenzy every week, yet Jacob Laban was exceptional in playing the first 50mins as a starting edge forward.
Laban is an intriguing player to spotlight because his physicality in the first half reflected how NZW set the game up. Laban did his job with aggressive energy and helped grind down the Sharks during his time on the field, then NZW reaped the rewards when Laban was off the field.
This flows throughout NZW because there is so much impressive stuff happening beneath the surface. A dominant NSW Cup team is right there and there are youngsters like Eddie Ieremia-Toeava, Kayliss Fatialofa, Toby Crosby, Luke Hanson, Jason Salalilo, Makaia Tafua and Jacob Auloa who are cooking towards NRL debuts.
Tanner Stowers-Smith amplifies this example as he is the latest debutant for NZW during the two Andys era and all he has done in his two NRL games, is his job. Stowers-Smith was solid in his debut and there were phases in which it was clear that he was making his debut as he adjusted to the speed of NRL footy. His stint off the bench vs Sharks sums up everything good happening at Mt Smart...
vs Dolphins: 25mins, 6 runs - 50m @ 8.3m/run, 21 tackles @ 87.5%
vs Sharks: 21mins, 5 runs - 52m @ 10.4m/run, 1 tackle break, 14 tackles @ 100%
Surprised by Vaimauga's pass for the Fisher-Harris try? We literally talked about Vaimauga's passing ability in our podcast after the win vs Rabbitohs.
Halves balance has been another pocket highlighted every week at the Niche Cache. Luke Metcalf and Chanel Harris-Tavita had one linebreak each, as well as two try assists each vs Sharks. Metcalf has been directly involved in 15 tries and Harris-Tavita has had his mits on 17 tries, with their mahi overlapping nicely this season...
Luke Metcalf: 8 tries, 7 try assists
Chanel Harris-Tavita: 5 tries, 12 try assists
Nicoll-Klokstad has had 200+ run metres in three consecutive games which also includes one linebreak in each game and at least five tackle breaks. It is the first time this season in which Nicoll-Klokstad has hit each of these marks in three consecutive games, meanwhile continues to make a compelling case as the best defensive fullback in the NRL.
The only way for us to measure Nicoll-Klokstad's defensive impact (we only use the same stats that everyone can access) is to describe what we see and feel. Nicoll-Klokstad is often in the defensive line, always barking orders and pulling defenders either side of the ruck. NZW have a strong defensive line because of Nicoll-Klokstad and when that line is broken, there is a feeling of comfort knowing that Nicoll-Klokstad will appear out of nowhere to make a tackle.
There is a stat for making tackles. Nicoll-Klokstad has not missed more than two tackles in a game this season and he has missed one tackle in each of the last three games. This rolls out to 89% tackling efficiency which is the highest of his time at Mt Smart and by a decent margin considering his next best is 85.9% in 2023.
Meanwhile Sharks fullback William Kennedy tackles at 78% efficiency. Bulldogs are first in the NRL as of Sunday morning at Connor Tracey tackles at 73.8% efficiency, while Raiders fullback Kaeo Weekes is tackling at 76% efficiency.
One last observation is that NZW have a fluid style of footy and they only staple of coach Andrew Webster's regime is effort and intensity. Winning with a wide range of players is a basic example of this and NZW have still been able to grab wins when players get injured during a game which is most evident in Adam Pompey and Capewell covering multiple positions.
NZW can't play the Egan style with Healey and Martin as the dummy halves. There are limitations on how they shift the footy when Clark isn't on the field and there are minor tweaks needed when Marata Niukore is moving between edge and middle forward. One example of how NZW have a fluid style is their offloading as they have had a range of offloading totals in their wins this season...
Offloads in wins
vs Sea Eagles: 7
vs Roosters: 5
vs Tigers: 11
vs Broncos: 6
vs Knights: 13
vs Cowboys: 3
vs Dragons: 5
vs Dolphins: 4
vs Rabbitohs: 9
vs Sharks: 10
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Peace and love.