Barnett calls for quick fix
Warriors star Mitch Barnett says his team has lost its way and is in a fight to get back on track before it’s too late.
Languishing in 14th on the NRL ladder, on the back of three straight losses and a draw, the Warriors haven’t won since way back on April 6, when they ran through the Rabbitohs 34-6.
Warriors coach Andrew Webster spoke on Tuesday about his side heading in the right direction, a statement echoed by many of his players, including Barnett, but what the club really needs is competition points.
“We’ve lost our way a little bit through a bit of frustration, that’s probably a good way of putting it,” Barnett said.
“Hopefully we get things back on track sooner rather than later, before it’s too late.”
Wins could be hard to come by in the next fortnight too, with the high flying Roosters on Sunday, before a date with three-time defending champions Penrith.
But right now, Barnett believes his side’s biggest opposition is themselves and that’s not a surprising take given the club’s latest loss, a 14-8 defeat to the Knights on Sunday, was blighted by conceding 10 penalties and making eight errors.
“We need to get ourselves right and get the discipline right as well and then hopefully we can turn it into results.
“We’re just to ill-disciplined at the moment and you just can’t give teams the leg ups that we’ve been giving them,” he said.
Barnett, who will start on the left edge this week due to Kurt Capewell suffering a calf strain in Sunday’s loss to the Knights, feels the team is trying hard but its ill-discipline is effecting its effort. His coach feels like they are over trying.
How to rectify the issues plaguing the team of late is a simple fix in Barnett’s find: “We need to stop giving penalties away and stop dropping the ball.”
He admits the Warriors are also struggling with confidence.
“We just seem to have got frustrated from I think just expecting to win and we just really need to dumb it down and get back to the basics,,” Barnett said.
With injured forwards Marata Niukore and Demitric Sifakula still several weeks away, the loss of Capewell hurts.
In some positive news on the injury front, Jazz Tevaga has been named on the bench for an earlier than expected return from a hamstring injury.