Warriors place their season on the block
Group of games starting with match against Dogs crucial to hopes
The Warriors hope to overcome the Canterbury Bulldogs at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland tonight in the first stage of an important three-week block that could prove crucial to their NRL finals hopes.
Coming off last week’s bye round after their last-start 34-12 away win over the Gold Coast, the Warriors are 11th on the premiership ladder, just two points outside the top eight.
Centre Blake Ayshford says the Warriors must bank six more competition points by clinching results over the 12th-placed Bulldogs and fifth-ranked Sea Eagles in next week’s long-haul away clash in Perth, before enjoying their second bye in round 18 and a guaranteed two points.
“If we win these next two [going] into the bye this little block will be very important to us,” said Ayshford.
“I know I’m happy we’ve got the bye after Perth because that’s a long trip but we’ll focus on these next two games really hard and try to make a climb up the ladder.”
The 157-game veteran needs no reminding of the fact the Warriors have faded out of finals contention in each of the last five seasons but is at a loss to explain the worrying trend.
He laments another poor start to their campaign in which they managed just six wins from 14 games and says it’s imperative they capitalise on their next two assignments to help them make up some lost ground.
“We haven’t started too crash hot again,” he said. “We’ve won enough games to stay in touch but you look at games where you should have won that possibly might cost us in the end.
“So these next two are the important ones to get back on track — that’s six points with the bye — so these next three weeks will be really important to the season.”
The Bulldogs will have New South Wales State of Origin forward pair Josh Jackson and David Klemmer backing up from Wednesday night’s game two 16-18 defeat to Queensland but will be without wing Brett Morris who was ruled out yesterday after suffering a knee injury in the ANZ Stadium clash in Sydney.
The visitors are desperate to back up their gritty round 14 16-2 win over the Dragons after losing their previous four matches and will rate their chances against the Warriors after claiming a 24-12 win in their round three match in Dunedin.
Coach Stephen Kearney said: “The Bulldogs have always been a tough football club and they’re a team full of tough individuals.”