It’s all over now Warriors fall short again

Coach’s job on knife-edge as Warriors fall short of NRL finals for fifth straight season

The Warriors have fallen short of the NRL finals for a fifth straight season following a disastrous loss to Wests Tigers at Mt Smart Stadium yesterday.

The Warriors have only themselves to blame after failing to cling on to a finals lifeline extended to them by Penrith’s one-point win over Gold Coast on Saturday night, before letting slip a 24-18 lead inside the last quarter as the Tigers ran in three unanswered tries to snatch victory and keep their own finals hopes alive.

The home side were entitled to feel hard done by with two controversial obstruction calls from the video bunker denying them a firsthalf try to Solomone Kata and what looked like being the match-winning four-pointer to halfback Shaun Johnson with 15 minutes remaining.

But ultimately the Warriors were the architects of their own demise.

As it has been all season, their inability to maintain focus and concentration on both attack and defence hurt them, and they repeatedly made unforced errors.

Devastated Warriors coach Andrew McFadden was unhappy at the two no-try decisions but lamented his side’s failure to hold on to the ball or make the right decisions at key stages of the game.

“We had more than enough opportunities but just weren’t tidy enough with our own game,” said McFadden.

“It shows a lack of awareness from the match officials. [But] I’m certainly not going to put the loss down to that.

“Both those tries, if you play them in live motion, they’re just not obstructions. I don’t want to harp on that. That’s not the reason.”

Warriors back-rower Bodene Thompson opened the scoring after seven minutes but further tries went begging when veteran wing Manu Vatuvei lost possession while flying down the left flank and Kata was caught unaware when a desperate Kevin Naiqama punched the ball out of his grasp just short of the line.

The Tigers responded to post back-to-back tries to front-row pair Sauaso Sue and captain Aaron 36 24