‘Warriors must stay focused’
The Warriors’ 36-28 loss to the Panthers on Saturday night was as bad as it can get, but Stephen Kearney says they’ve got to keep plugging away.
No question that Warriors fans have done it hard over the years, but never in the club’s history had they blown a 22-point lead before.
It was painful to watch for anyone who follows the club, but with another game coming on Friday, against the Dragons in Hamilton, all Kearney can do is take the lessons from it, flush the dunny and move on as Steve Hansen would say.
‘‘They got the momentum in the second half and we just couldn’t stop them. That’s the simple way of looking at it,’’ Kearney reflected yesterday.
That second-half capitulation wasn’t just bad for the fans to watch, it must have been tough for the players to be a part of and and no doubt there will be some who are now low in confidence.
‘‘I’m sure that there will be some [like that],’’ Kearney said.
‘‘But it’s a matter of addressing what we need to address. That’s the challenge of the NRL, making sure you pick yourself up and get on with it. That’s what we’ll do.’’
What was concerning was that there didn’t seem to be anyone on the field capable of stopping the rot when the Panthers got that momentum in the second half.
It’s not just the responsibility of captain Roger Tuivasa-sheck to bring some composure to the team, all the players have to do it.
‘‘Everyone needs to be a part of that,’’ Kearney said.
‘‘The possession in the second half was heavily favoured towards Penrith.
‘‘The disappointing part of it for me was that we’d made some real progress over the past month, but in that second half we couldn’t find a way to wrestle back a bit of possession or the game back in our favour, that’s the work on part for us.’’
Kearney declined to comment about a few Warriors fans burning their jerseys in the aftermath of the loss, he also wouldn’t go into detail about what he said to the players after the game, but did reveal he told them that they need to stay focussed on what the team are trying to achieve.
‘‘What happens in a changing room after a game is pretty sacred. But we were disappointed of course,’’ he said.
‘‘I had to remind the boys that we’ve taken some really positive strides over the last month, but we really let ourselves down in the second half.
‘‘But that doesn’t stop me on the process and journey of what we’re trying to do at this football club.’’
What made Saturday night’s game all the more bizarre was that the Warriors played so well in the first half. Kieran Foran was brilliant, the forwards went well and winger Charnze Nicollklokstad was able to score his first two tries at NRL level.
‘‘I didn’t think it was the best 40 minutes we’d played all year, it’s different for different reasons and I thought the last 40 minutes against the Roosters was pretty good performance,’’ reflected Kearney.
‘‘But we were pretty composed in the first 40 minutes, we were close to 90 per cent with our completions.
‘‘They had a man sent to the sin bin and we kept our composure with that. But the disappointing part is the way we fell away in the second half.’’
One small piece of good news is that Solomone Kata, who limped from the field in the seance half doesn’t appear to have a serious injury.