Warriors’ wins will silence critics

Warriors coach Andrew McFadden knows there is only one way to silence critics who say the team chokes at the end of seasons, and that’s to win.

The Warriors have a reputation for being strong through the State of Origin period, when other teams are weaker, getting into a good position in the ladder, then crumbling over the final third of the season.

Last year the Warriors, who were injury ravaged, lost their final eight games and they’ll come out of this year’s Origin period with four wins in their last five games.

McFadden is fully aware of club’s reputation and says the only way to bring it to an end.

‘‘We can’t change it, that’s the facts that we’ve always traditionally done well in the middle of the season and we’ll find out over the next eight weeks,’’ McFadden said.

‘‘But we’re feeling pretty good about our game at the moment. So there is no reason why we can’t make something of our season.’’

Although he wouldn’t go into details, McFadden said there were reasons why the Warriors have sometimes come up short at the end of the season.

‘‘I’ve got my theories about why we’ve stuttered at the end of the year, but I think this group is different,’’ he said.

‘‘We’re relatively healthy at the moment, we’ve lost Ben Henry, Sione Lousi and obviously Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and staying healthy is an important part of success.’’

Meanwhile, the Warriors haven’t blocked Jeff Robson from playing for the Eels against them in the last game of the season.

The round 26 fixture which could determine whether the Warriors make it into the top eight, or where they fall inside it, so it could be the most important game of the season.

However, Robson, who was released by the Warriors two weeks ago and played for the Eels against the Roosters on Friday night, will be allowed to play in that game.

That is in contrast to the situation with Konrad Hurrell, who left the club and joined the Titans earlier in the season. The Warriors blocked him from appearing against them in round 17.

‘‘This is nothing like that,’’ McFadden said of the two situations.

‘‘Jeff was released on compassionate grounds and we were comfortable with that.

‘‘We didn’t put any restrictions on Jeff, he’s a quality guy and he’s done a really good job for us.

We understand his position and we just let him go essentially.’’

McFadden said there weren’t any concerns at the club that the decision to let Robson go could come back to bite them.

‘‘We’re going to have to win games on their merits,’’ he said.

‘‘With Konrad it was a different situation, we’re still paying a fair bit of his contract.’’

The departure of Hurrell and news that Thomas Leuluai will return to Wigan next year, not seeing out his contract, means there is now space inside the salary cap next year for a big name signing.