At a glance

boardroom, front office or coaching team, someone’s going to pay this price for this season and there will be blood on the floor somewhere. Kearney can only do so much with the players he’s got, and it was telling on Saturday night as to which players were still fighting in the second half when they game was gone, which ones were making continual errors and which ones looked like they had given up. There’s not going to be a massive overhaul of the squad next season and while the club may talk about being able to bring three players in, those players aren’t going to be Kalyn Ponga, Jason Taumalolo and Sam Burgess.

But long-suffering Warriors’ fans will hope for new faces who can provide more punch up the middle and also have some X-factor about them.

There are some talented prospects who have been brought into the club by recruitment manager Peter Sharks 42 (Josh Morris 2, Bronson Xerri, Josh Dugan, Briton Nikora, Braden Hamlin-Uele, Ronaldo Mulitalo tries; Shaun Johnson 7 goals) Warriors 16 (Patrick Herbert, Isaiah Papali’i, David Fusitu’a tries; Issac Luke, Patrick Herbert goals). HT: 24-10.

O’Sullivan and general manager of football Brian Smith, but it’s going to take time for them to be at NRL level. This might not be a quick fix and there could be more pain ahead, but it will be telling how the players respond over the next couple of weeks.

Kearney said in his post match press conference on Saturday: ‘‘The message to the boys is ‘how do we want to finish off the year’?’’

It could be said that with top eight hopes gone, there’s nothing to play for on Friday night at Mt Smart Stadium.

Wrong, there’s everything to play for – earning some respect back and giving the fans something to cheer.