Three Funky Pockets For New Zealand Warriors In NRL & NRLW
New Zealand Warriors have an NRL game vs Gold Coast Titans on Saturday and an NRLW game vs Cronulla Sharks on Sunday as both teams try to stay steady in the finals mix. Here are three funky pockets for each team to set up the weekend's footy...
NZ Warriors vs Titans
Being 5th
NZW have lost their last three games vs Titans and their last game on the Gold Coast was a 6-66 defeat, which is balanced by an away win in 2023. There is lots of top-four chat around the NRL and while NZW are currently fourth on the ladder, for sanity's sake it is probably best to view NZW as the fifth best team in the NRL.
The loss to Titans at Mt Smart a few weeks ago is a factor and another loss to the worst team in the NRL would diminish the buzz even further. The good news is that NZW have only lost two games to teams outside the top-six and they came in the recent run of three consecutive defeats with a narrow loss vs Dolphins part of their eight losses.
The rest of NZW losses have come against the best teams in the NRL. They have lost both games vs Raiders as well as losses against Storm, Panthers, Broncos and Bulldogs. Complicating matters further is how Titans have lost three games in a row since their win over NZW and Dolphins have lost both games since their win vs NZW, which makes those losses look even worse for NZW.
Games against the worst teams shouldn't be this important, but for NZW they are crucial in gathering points as well as confidence.
Defence
NZW have the fifth best defence based on points conceded. They don't score many points but if defence wins championships then folks should be proud of the type of footy NZW play, especially considering the stereotypes of NZW for the past 20 years. NZW are one of five teams who have conceded less than 450 points this season and they have all played 21 games...
Bulldogs: 366
Storm: 375
Panthers: 401
Raiders: 418
Warriors: 425
NZW are fifth on that list but they are only a few points off Raiders who are the best team in the NRL. While there is a perception that NZW have terrible defence on their right edge, it has only seen opposition teams score 30+ points in four games this season. This seems like the biggest storyline of the last few months and aside from the loss vs Bulldogs, NZW have concededed more than 20 points in just one of the last five games; the loss vs Titans.
Are NZW an excellent defensive team? No. Is their defence better than most NRL teams? Yes.
Most importantly, the right edge stuff can't be pinned down to any individual. Luke Metcalf played in three of the four games in which NZW conceded 30+ points for example and Rocco Berry played in two of the four games. The selection of Berry at right centre is super funky because there is no evidence to suggest that he is a defensive wizard and he is once again selected for NRL footy after not playing any NSW Cup to build up towards NRL.
In the clip of some Berry defence this season, there is a wide variety of players involved in the right edge. Berry is joined by Metcalf, Taine Tuaupiki and Leka Halasima on the right edge against Cowboys for example, then the Rabbitohs game is the same with Dallin Watene-Zelezniak on the wing instead of Tuaupiki. Against Tigers it was Berry, Watene-Zelezniak, Tanah Boyd and Marata Niukore. Berry didn't play vs Titans with Kurt Capewell at centre alongside Watene-Zelezniak, Boyd and Niukore.
No individual is at fault and no individual has saved the right edge. Berry's defensive stats and the eye-test of watching him slip off tackles or make goofy reads mean that he should not be viewed as a saviour. What is clear is that coach Andrew Webster views Berry as a starting centre and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad as the best fullback at Mt Smart.
This came a few hours after our podcast chat on Tuesday in which I celebrated Tuaupiki's fullback mahi and the centre combo of Nicoll-Klokstad/Adam Pompey. They form my favourite NZW team but this is all about coach Webster's favourite team and his perspective is clear with 'automatic starter when healthy' status of Berry and Nicoll-Klokstad playing fullback when the outside back depth is solid.
Eddie Ieremia-Toeava
Most NZW youngsters have vanished in the shadow of Leka Halasima but the way Eddie Ieremia-Toeava has quietly shown his class in two NRL games can't be overlooked. His 24 minutes on debut vs Dolphins were through the middle and then he played 32mins at left edge vs Dragons, coming on for Halasima.
Ieremia-Toeava only had three receipts in that time and a couple runs as NZW spent most of that last quarter vs Dragons plowing down the middle and right edge. He made 17 tackles though and his efforts without the footy helped NZW grind Dragons down as well as limiting their opportunities on that side of the field.
Coach Webster gets pretty weird with his selections and late changes so who knows how the team will line up, but Ieremia-Toeava should be locked in for game time off the bench. Halasima can cover edge forward so I'm curious about Ieremia-Toeava's role and game time - most likely 25-30mns through the middle.
This dude is 20-years-old and he played 80 minutes in 12 of his 14 NSW Cup games this year with 70+ minutes in all of them. He has already played 43 games of reserve grade and Ieremia-Toeava has been a crucial player in an excellent NSW Cup team, but like Tanner Stowers-Smith, these young forwards lack the highlights of Halasima and instead shine with their consistent fundamentals.
Add in Demitric Vaimauga who is starting in the middle and the new deal for Kayliss Fatialofa who is another 20-year-old forward churning through 80mins in NSW Cup, for an exciting week for the young forwards at Mt Smart.
NZ Warriors vs Sharks
Match up
Sharks: 5th | 4-3 | 152 points for | 98 points against
Warriors: 6th | 3-4 | 112 points for | 118 points against
Selection quirks
Kaiyah Atai and Shakira Baker started the season as the two edge forwards, now they are named as the centres vs Sharks. Maarire Puketapu keeps her spot at edge forward and Makalya Eli is named as the other edge forward where she offers sneaky skills that could be useful with Emmanita Paki named at halfback.
Paki has played centre, fullback and is now at halfback. She is only 22-years-old and has already shown her value to NZW, joined in the halves by Patricia Maliepo who returns from injury. Maliepo is also 22-years-old and she will do most, if not all of the kicking for the halves while Laishon Albert-Jones is a decent kicker, Eli may flash that ability and Lydia Turua-Quedley can kick from dummy half.
Ashlee Matapo is named on the bench which gives NZW triple-whammy of bench oomph with Harata Butler and Ivana Lauitiiti thriving in this role. Butler didn't have 100+ metres in her four games as a starting prop and has blown out to 130+ metres in her three games coming off the bench, while Lauitiiti is averaging 115m/game in her three games coming off the bench.
Dummy half running
Despite playing with 11 players in the loss vs Raiders, NZW still six different dummy half runners and a total of 16 dummy half runs. Raiders had one dummy half runner and three scoots in total which reinforces an foundation block of NZW footy.
NZW are still first for dummy half running in NRLW with 140 and Sharks are second on 88. NZW average 20 dummy half runs per game and Sharks average 12.5. Two of the busiest dummy half runners in Maliepo and Apii Nicholls are back in the team, so there should be plenty of activity around the ruck and this compliments the powerful forward pack.
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Peace and love.