Warriors vow to keep on fighting

IT’S been the week from hell for the Warriors, but the besieged NRL club’s players are doing their very best to avoid “dragging their bottom lip on the ground” ahead of today’s clash with Canberra.

Criticism of the Aucklandbased side has been rife after last weekend’s 26-10 loss to last-placed Newcastle, the limpest defeat of an already flaky 2017 campaign.

In what must stir a serious case of deja vu for long-suffering Warriors fans, the club has failed to live up to its potential this season, losing 13 games despite one of the most starstudded rosters in the NRL.

And with their finals hopes long gone, the chances of a similarly listless display against the Raiders seem high.

Especially given coach Stephen Kearney’s suggestion some players didn’t try against the Knights.

Nevertheless, returning Warriors second-rower Ryan Hoffman insisted his side would try to make their home fans proud and arrest a fivematch losing streak.

They currently sit 12th on the ladder but a loss against the Raiders could send them as low as 14th and into potential wooden-spoon territory.

“I don’t want to think, is this a terrible moment? Should we be feeling down in the dumps? No. We’ve got to try and be positive,” Hoffman said.

Even Raiders skipper Jarrod Croker, newly re-signed to the club until 2020, admitted the Warriors appear to take more heat than other clubs — even those lower on the ladder, such as the Titans and Tigers.

Fresh off a crucial 30-12 triumph over Cronulla, Croker’s Raiders must win all four of their remaining games — starting with the Warriors and then the Panthers, Knights and Storm — to sneak into the top eight.

■ WARRIORS playmaker Kieran Foran has been ruled out of today’s clash due to a shoulder complaint.

Foran’s omission has forced coach Stephen Kearney to bank on youth, with Ata Hingano and Mason Lino to line up in the halves and Nathaniel Roac–he selected at hooker.