What can we take from Warriors’ Anzac Day debacle?
In the wake of the Warriors’ catastrophic 70-10 defeat in Melbourne on Monday night, there is really only one question that needs to be asked.
What does it mean?
The club record loss, with 13 tries conceded, is either evidence of an impending malaise at the Auckland club, with something clearly wrong at the core of the squad.
Or it is a horrific one-off event, on a night when nothing went right, against one of the best attacking teams in premiership history.
That can only be assessed in the coming weeks and months, but the AAMI Park massacre was a seismic shock, especially after all the confidence and belief emanating from the camp over the last month.
As well as being the Warriors’ worst defeat, exceeding the 62-6 thrashing at Penrith in 2013, there were other unwanted marks, according to Kiwi league historian Will Evans.
Only four teams in the modern era have conceded more points, while only one club (Cronulla in 2003, versus Parramatta) have shipped more tries (14) in the past 44 years.
And the 54 points after halftime is believed to be the worst second-half concession since the 1930’s.
But believe it or not, it wasn’t all bad.
Given the opposition, the first half was probably the Warriors best 40 minutes of the season as they matched the Storm in the grind, defended superbly and scored two impressive tries.
Everything changed in the 48th minute.
Not only did the Storm jag a try from a Nelson Asofa-solomona bomb (just the third kick of his NRL career), but wing Dallin Watene-zelezniak was knocked out in a sickening collision, before being stretchered off.
Reece Walsh then sent the ensuing kick-off dead, for the second successive week, and 65 seconds later Storm wing Nick Meaney was over in the corner.
From there the white flag went up, with a staggering eight tries conceded in the last 28 minutes.
Few Warriors emerged with credit, though the likes of Euan Aitken, Wayde Egan, Jazz Tevaga and Matt Lodge never stopped trying.
The Storm are a brutally efficient machine, and the new rules have made it much more difficult to arrest momentum, but some of the effort was inexcusable.
It was an out of character performance, given the grit and defensive desperation in recent weeks, and Warriors head coach Nathan Brown will be hopeful the team can bounce back on Saturday against the Canberra Raiders.
But the coach will also need to face the mirror.
Even with the injuries, the bench equation was again puzzling, with second rower Eliesa Katoa’s power and size definitely needed against the Storm.
And what is missing from the environment and the preparation that allows individual and collective meltdowns of such a scale?
Only time will offer answers but the scale of the mountain in 2022 just got a whole lot greater.