Kearney looks for weekly improvement
Cronulla hammered another nail into the Warriors coffin with the home side’s finals hopes exhausted following last night’s NRL defeat at Mt Smart.
The Warriors’ fourth- straight loss leaves them with little more than pride to play for, as the inconceivable prospect of them winning their remaining five matches is unlikely to be enough to see them scrape inside the top eight.
Cronulla dominated the first half with tries from centre Kurt Capewell and five- eighth Fa’amanu Brown, while the Warriors crossed through centre Solomone Kata to trail 12- 6 at halftime.
A 49th- minute Bodene Thompson try gave the Warriors hope but tries to wing Sosaia Feki and former Warriors back rower Jayson Bukuya sealed the win for the visitors. It’s time to draw the curtains on the Warriors season. Coach Stephen Kearney admitted as much after last night’s loss to the Sharks.
“The light is getting dimmer and dimmer — there is no doubt about that,” said Kearney, when asked about their top eight possibilities. ” But for me, it’s never been about that, it’s been about improving from week to week. That’s the most
“Mixed. There was some really good stuff there,” was coach Stephen Kearney’s assessment.
“Our physicality, particularly with our defence, was really good at times, but we just let ourselves down with our execution, which has been the story of the last month, where we worked ourselves back into a position against them and then we just lost our way. That’s the really frustrating part.”
The match saw players from both important part. The individual making sure we improve ourselves every time we take to the training paddock. We have five games left [ and] that’s my focus for them.”
At this stage, it would be a bonus if the Warriors could win one or two more games this year. It’s starting to feel like 2015 all over again, when the Warriors lost Shaun Johnson and their season went into freefall.
Compounding last night’s loss was a suspected torn pectoral teams wearing dark green tape on their playing kit and strapping to show their support for the Rugby League Players’ Association’s ongoing pay dispute with the NRL.
That silent protest proved the Warriors’ biggest statement of the night, as they failed to build on the committed effort shown in their lastround loss to North Queensland.
“Too many of us were on different pages out there,” said Tuivasa- Sheck. muscle suffered by Bodene Thompson which could end the back rower’s season.
There is also concern over the fate of prop Sam Lisone, placed on report for lifting his knee, after an attempted tackle by Sharks fiveeighth Fa’amanu Brown. It looked like Brown, who was heavily concussed, got his body and head position horribly wrong as he lined up Lisone, and that was Kearney’s interpretation after the match. “You could see Mason wanted to go one way and Foz [ Kieran Foran] wanted to go one way and it was hard for all of us as a spine in particular to connect. It’s something we’ve got to keep building, especially when we get put under pressure.” Warriors 12 ( Solomone Kata, Bodene Thompson tries; Issac Luke 2 cons, pen) Sharks 26 ( Kurt Capewell, Fa’amanu Brown, Sosaia Feki, Jayson Bukuya tries; Holmes 4 cons, pen).