Warriors’ hopes centre on middle of the park
There are many areas of their game the Warriors need to fix up before playing the Dragons on Sunday night in Sydney.
Defence and finishing off sets are two of them, but winning the battle in the middle will be crucial if the Warriors are to win their second game of the season.
It was a part of the game where the Warriors were particularly disappointing in their 24-12 loss to the Bulldogs last weekend and backrower Bunty Afoa knows there needs to be an improvement.
‘‘That was one of our main keys, but we had no go forward,’’ Afoa said.
‘‘That was poor form us middles, our main job is to get those go forwards and give a quick play of the ball for Issac [Luke] or Shaun [Johnson].
‘‘This week we’ve been really focussing on the middle and doing our main job, quick plays of the ball and running hard.’’
The second round defeat to the Storm at Mt Smart Stadium wasn’t entirely unexpected, but the loss to the Bulldogs was more of a surprise, especially in the last 14 minutes, when they played some abysmal footy, conceding two tries in that period and offering nothing on attack.
‘‘We were all pretty down after that loss,’’ Afoa admitted.
‘‘We trained well but we had a poor performance over the last 20 minutes and we can’t have that.
‘‘Everyone was upset, but we’ve got to move onto the next job, we’ve got to worry about the Dragons now.’’
While results wise it hasn’t been a great start to the season, for Afoa personally it’s been an exceptional campaign, as the 20-year-old has been able to establish himself as an bonafide NRL player.
He played in four games for the Warriors last year, but is featuring in the team every week this season.
‘‘I’ve found it really good, this is what I’ve trained for,’’ he said.
‘‘Ever since I was growing up, this is what I’ve wanted to do. I’m excited to play alongside legends of the game and some role models.
‘‘I’m pretty excited on where the season goes, because I have a lot of faith in us. We put in a lot of hard work over the preseason.’’
Given that the Warriors aren’t over resourced with back rowers this season, Stephen Kearney has plenty of confidence in Afoa to be the guy on the bench, backing up Simon Mannering, Ryan Hoffman and Bodene Thompson.
‘‘Bodene has taken me under his wing and he’s guided me through the ways of running through the right holes,’’ Afoa said. ‘‘Stephen has had faith in me that I can do this role on the edges. I prefer myself to be in the middle, that’s where I want to be, but he something in me that I can do a job on the edges.
‘‘If I can do that well, I’m happy to be out there.’’