Reporter David Long on watching league in an empty stadium + Stephen Kearney’s reaction to the loss
Crowd or no crowd, it can be frustrating to watch the Warriors. They lost 20-6 to the Canberra Raiders on the Gold Coast yesterday, which means they’re still looking for their first win of the season.
This was the fourth game played behind closed doors in the NRL and, for the neutrals, it was the least appealing.
But for the long-suffering fans of the Warriors, it didn’t matter that there wasn’t anyone in the stands, it was just as depressing.
Generally, watching a game without any crowd isn’t as bad as it sounds. There are no cheers or crowd emotions to feed off, but if a game is good enough or you can relate to the teams, then this can be overcome. A good game of footy is a good game of footy.
The broadcasters seemed to have made a smart decision to keep the cameras tight on the action, so views of empty seats were kept to a minimum.
There were two cracking games in the NRL on Friday night, when the Panthers came back to beat the Dragons 32-28 and the Broncos also had an entertaining 22-18 win over the Rabbitohs.
This Warriors-Raiders clash wasn’t up to the levels of either of those fixtures with mistakes aplenty, although significantly more from the Warriors.
The Warriors are a club that thrives off the crowd more than any other in the NRL.
Not only do they get the supporters behind them for every game in New Zealand, but there is also a loyal army of expat-Kiwis who go to their games in Australia.
When they play the Storm on Anzac Day in Melbourne each year, the Warriors always have more people cheering them on than the opposition.
With all of the issues the Warriors faced in the past week, it was easy to forget just how poor they were against the Knights in round one, not even coming close to scoring in the 20-0 defeat.
Unfortunately for Warriors fans, this was just as bad, with the only score coming from a penalty try.
But it’s a tough balancing act to know how critical of the team people should be, given these uncertain times everyone’s going through.
However, Raiders coach Ricky Stuart had no sympathy for the Warriors.
Stuart, who last year said ‘‘he didn’t gouge the kid’’ when TV footage showed Hudson Young shoving his fingers into the eyes of the Warriors’ Adam Pompey, again showed he’s a coach who shouldn’t get as much respect as he does, when he made a ludicrous statement in his pre-match interview.
Rather, than acknowledge the adversity the Warriors players have been through, by being suddenly torn away from their families, he belittled their situation and even said he was envious of it.
‘‘They haven’t had much more of a week than anyone else, it’s our job to play football and they’ve got to stay over here,’’ Stuart said.
‘‘You can bunk us up in Kingscliff for six weeks, I don’t mind, I’d love that. It would be a wonderful camp.
‘‘It’s our job to play football and that’s the way it is.’’
Nice one Ricky. Good luck for the rest of the season.