Warriors star in doubt for finale
The Warriors’ bad luck with injury has followed them right up to the final week of the season with Shaun Johnson in doubt for Sunday’s NRL clash against the Wests Tigers in Sydney.
Johnson returned last week against Manly after having five games out with a knee injury, and had an immediate impact as the Warriors put in a muchimproved performance only to fall to an agonising 22-21 defeat in golden point extra time.
While the Kiwis playmaker saw out the entire match, he could be seen limping early on and did not take part in training yesterday.
Stephen Kearney is keen to give Johnson as much time as possible to prove his fitness. But, with promising five-eighth Ata Hingano on the bench and only pride to play for, the coach is taking a cautious approach.
‘‘If he doesn’t feel right then we certainly won’t risk it,’’ Kearney said.
‘‘Last week, he had a wonderful week’s preparation, he felt real comfortable with it. Out there [against Manly] he took a couple of knocks on it, one early which was visible with him limping around but he came right.’’
While it does not excuse another poor finish to a season, the Warriors have been hit by a horror injury toll over the last two months.
It is not just the amount of players who have been unavailable, it is the experience they have behind them. Senior men such as Johnson (143 games), Ryan Hoffman (304), Jacob Lillyman (250) and Bodene Thompson (133) have all spent significant periods of time on the sideline later in the campaign.
As Kearney reflected on his first year in charge of the club, he admitted trying to cover that void has been one of his biggest challenges. It has exposed some players to first grade who have not been ready but Kearney is confident the lessons he is trying to drill into the team are slowly being absorbed.
‘‘I believe they are and it’s just a matter of making sure in the review of the year that they understand the expectation of what it looks like when we come back,’’ he added.
‘‘I’ve enjoyed the idea of making sure we stay on task regardless of the challenging circumstance we’ve found ourselves in and for the most part the guys have done that.
‘‘We’ve haven’t got a win over the last month or so but I know they’ve worked really hard and an indication of that was in the weekend.’’
The Warriors were better against Manly, up until the final seven minutes when they were taught a harsh lesson in closing out a contest.
The team blew a seven-point lead and having come so close to breaking their losing streak, which now stands at eight games, there is a fear they might struggle to get up for the season finale.
Kearney, however, could not fault their attitude in the days following the result.
‘‘At the time it was obviously disappointing but they’ve come back in with a high spirit.
‘‘They did a lot of things right on Sunday and what they didn’t do ultimately cost us the game in the end, so it was about making sure they understood that and they took the lessons from the last five or six minutes.’’