‘Shortcuts’ hurt Warriors

Warriors coach Stephen Kearney admitted his side was guilty of taking "shortcuts" in the upset loss to the Bulldogs as they blew a chance to book their place in the finals.

Trailing by 10 points midway through the second half, the Warriors fought back to level the scores with six minutes to go before a stunning field goal by Bulldogs birthday boy Lachlan Lewis sealed a 27-26 victory.

The Warriors were strong favourites to beat the 13th-placed Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium, which would have guaranteed the club a first finals appearance since 2011 with two games left in the regular season.

The Warriors actually outscored them five tries to four but lacked the intensity of the previous wins over the Dragons and Knights.

The Bulldogs’ three first-half tries were fairly soft while the Warriors looked disjointed in attack throughout.

And the result may have come at a cost with five-eighth Blake Green (calf) and centre Gerard Beale (hamstring) picking up injuries to leave them in doubt for Friday’s home clash against the Panthers.

Halfback Shaun Johnson also hurt an ankle in the second half but went on to finish the match.

"Their early tries, that wasn’t us," Kearney said. "There was a couple of shortcuts that I saw which weren’t in our game over the last couple of weeks.

It was a hugely disappointing display from the Warriors given what was at stake. While their finals destiny remains in their hands, needing to win one of the last two matches to qualify, the result has jeopardised their hopes of earning a home playoff by finishing fifth or sixth.

But the coach was in no mood to think about the playoffs.

"I’m not really focused on that," Kearney said. "I’m focused on making sure we improve areas of our game that we didn’t do so well in today. I know if we get our best game of footy out there then we give ourselves a chance against anyone. But we didn’t do that today."

Surprisingly, the Warriors ran for almost 400m more than the Bulldogs but the way the opposition worked through the middle of the field is cause for concern.

The Bulldogs controlled the speed of the ruck and forced the Warriors sideways in attack far too often.

Johnson finished with two try assists and had a busy day running the ball but was left to rue a kick that went straight to Bulldogs fullback Will Hopoate in the lead up to Lewis’ field goal.

That got the Bulldogs on the front foot although, coming from almost 40m out, it needed a special strike by the rookie playmaker.