Mannering urges Warriors to keep minds on job
Veteran in plea for calm before playing 300th game as club builds to the playoffs
Milestone man Simon Mannering wants the Warriors to put aside the emotion surrounding his 300th match and stay focused on building their performance in tonight’s NRL clash against Canberra.
With the Warriors’ spot in the playoffs already secured, a win over the Raiders at Mt Smart Stadium could put them in contention for a home playoff.
Mannering wants the Warriors to go into the finals with all guns blazing and says Canberra will provide an ideal preparation.
“We’ve got a lot to play for with it being possibly our last home game,” said Mannering.
“You want to go into September playing some really good football against quality opposition and that’s what we’re going to get with Canberra.
“They’re a really good side. Whenever you come up against the Raiders you know what you’re going to get. It’s not just their forwards that are big and strong, it’s the same with their outside backs.
“It’s going to be cool and a really good way to finish the round robin and go into the finals with a tough challenge.”
The 32-year-old back rower believes the Warriors’ better performances throughout the season, including impressive home and away wins over St George Illawarra in Wollongong and their comprehensive victory in Brisbane, have been built on the team having a clear focus on executing their gameplan and individual roles.
The times they have let themselves down, such as the disappointing defeats against the Panthers, Titans and Bulldogs, saw them drift away from their strengths of defending in numbers and playing direct, before looking to chance their hand on attack.
Mannering hopes his teammates forget about the fanfare and hype surrounding his big night and concentrate on producing a consistent performance to give them momentum.
“As much as it is cool we need to get the focus on the team and whenever we’ve had a really clear focus on what we need to do it’s always worked well for us,” he said. “We’ll just focus on what we can do in the game and within our own game of what we can do better.”
Veteran forward Adam Blair said the side needed to be wary of playing with too much emotion and needed to follow the example Mannering set by keeping things simple.
“We could play with a lot of emotion and our performance could go the other way if we get caught up in it,” said Blair. “Or we could respect that it is a big game for [Mannering] and play the way he would want you to play.
“The way that he’s carried himself throughout his career with doing the little things really well is what we’re trying to build this team on.
“Our focus will be on embracing Simon’s 300th because that’s a massive milestone but at the same time having a clear focus on those little things we want that Simon carried throughout his career.”
Coach Stephen Kearney was unhappy with their lapses in concentration and structure in the back end of both halves of last week’s win over Penrith and wants them to lift in those areas against the Raiders.
“There were periods of the game against Penrith where they gained the upper hand,” said Kearney.
“We’ve got to manage that a little more effectively. We did some pretty good things on attack but during that same period where we lost the momentum we fell out of shape a bit on attack and lost a little bit of composure. Those are areas where we’re going to be put under pressure.”