Warriors hopeful of playoffs surge

Kearney turns down Jones’ move to Kiwis

They may be on a three-game losing slump and chances of making the playoffs are slim, but confidence is high at the Warriors.

They take on the Sharks at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland tonight, a game they’re outsiders to win, but Warriors centre Blake Ayshford says they took a lot of positives out of last weekend’s 24-12 loss to the Cowboys.

It was a spirited performance, with the scoreline not reflecting the closeness between the two teams, however, it still goes down as another loss for the club.

‘‘We spoke about that performance, but the thing is that after all of that we didn’t come away with the two points,’’ Ayshford said.

‘‘We put ourselves in a position at the end of the game where we put a kick in the corner and it didn’t come off. If it went to hand we probably would have scored and tied the game up, but we didn’t

‘‘The good thing is though that we hung in there right to the end of the game and gave ourselves a chance, which we haven’t been doing. In a lot of the other games we’ve been switching off.

‘‘That’s a positive, so if we fix up our execution and come with that same discipline and defence, we’ll win more games than we lose.’’

But time is running out on the 2017 NRL season and the signs point to this being the sixth straight year where the Warriors have failed to finish in the top eight on the ladder.

‘‘We had an opportunity to cement our spot in that eight and we let it slip in the last couple of games,’’ Ayshford lamented.

‘‘We turned up last weekend and execution let us down and we didn’t get the two points.

‘‘But I know that we all had a crack for each other and Mooks [coach Stephen Kearney] is proud of us for ripping.

‘‘So we’ve got to turn up against the Sharks because fate is still in our hands.

‘‘As long as that’s the case we’ve got to turn up and play with some Kiwis coach David Kidwell’s search for an assistant has taken another setback after Stacey Jones was made unavailable by the Warriors.

Following the departure of Steve Mcnamara to the Catalans Dragons, Kidwell was keen for Warriors assistant and Kiwis great Jones to join his staff for the upcoming World Cup in New Zealand, Australia and Papua New Guinea.

But after discussions with Stephen Kearney, the Warriors coach preferred that Jones focused his energy on preparing for the 2018 NRL campaign.

‘‘I reached out to Stephen first and he has to do what’s best for the Warriors, and I understood that,’’ Kidwell said.

‘‘We’d been talking over a period of time and he came to the conclusion that he needs Stacey for their pre-season so I’ve moved on.’’

The failure to secure Jones comes after highly rated Cowboys coach Paul Green ruled himself out of contention in May.

Experienced Australian coach Brian Smith, who Kidwell played under at Parramatta in 1999 and 2000, has been strongly linked to a role.

But while Kidwell would not confirm those reports, he plans to appoint two assistant coaches as well as a third selector alongside Tawera

pride in ourselves and the jersey.’’

The general consensus is the Warriors need to win five of their six remaining games to make the top eight.

After this weekend’s game against the current NRL Premiers, the Warriors draw does get easier, with games against the Knights, Raiders, Rabbitohs, Sea Eagles and Wests Tigers to follow.

‘‘If we win our last six and give ourselves a chance to get in there, Nikau and Tony Iro within the next fortnight.

‘‘I’ve sat down and gone through a process with a couple of other coaches. I’m just making my mind up on what’s best going to fit for me and the Kiwis,’’ he said.

In the wake of the cocaine scandal at the Anzac Test, Kidwell revealed that all players selected for the tournament will be required to agree to a new code of conduct.

The coach declined to divulge what that included but expects it to be driven by new captain Adam Blair and the rest of the leadership group.

‘‘It’s things that are going to be best for the Kiwis,’’ he said. ‘‘They’re private but they’ll be in place, everyone will sign off on that code of conduct before we go into the first round.’’

One person who should be available for the World Cup is Shaun Johnson after the star Warriors halfback was cleared of a torn ACL two weeks ago.

Much will depend on his progress over the next month or so but with the World Cup not kicking off until October 27, Kidwell is confident he will be ready to go.

‘‘[The Warriors] have certain expectations when he’s going to be back and we won’t be putting him in any danger, that’s for sure, if he’s not ready,’’ Kidwell said.

then it’s a whole new competition,’’ Ayshford said.

‘‘Once you’re in there, it’s almost do or die.

‘‘We’re at this stage now where we’ve got to keep winning these games and if we do, we’ll go into it with a lot of confidence.

‘‘We’ve got a lot of confidence going into the Sharks game, because of last week’s performance.

‘‘If we get two points on Friday night, we’ll keep rolling.’’