Shark bites create big wounds
There’s one sorry Warriors statistic which sums up the starkest challenge Nathan Brown has yet faced in his coaching career.
The Warriors – already among the worst attacking teams in the NRL – failed to make a line break for almost an hour against the 12-man Sharks in Sunday’s abject 29-10 defeat.
It’s one thing shipping 13 tries to a top outfit like the Storm in a 70-point Anzac Day shelling, but it’s another kettle of kahawai entirely failing to test the gutted Sharks when holding a one-man whip-hand for 64 minutes.
A good team wouldn’t have let the hoof off the Sharks’ gills after Will Kennedy got sent off for his coathanger tackle on Reece Walsh.
The Sharks were down to 11 players for 10 minutes in the second spell when centre Jesse Ramien was sinbinned for a high tackle which looked every bit as a bad as Kennedy’s red-card offence.
Two Walsh darts led to tries in the first five minutes following Kennedy’s early shower, but thereafter the Warriors couldn’t crack Cronulla’s defensive line.
Thus, the Sharks became the first NRL team since 2008 to win after having a player sent off in the first half. Yes, their defence was impressive, but this was more a case of Warriors letting the Sharkies off the hook after failing to get another nibble, let alone a bite.
In the words of TV commentator, Andrew Voss, the Warriors were ‘‘absolutely pantsing’’ it. Australian great Laurie Daley reckoned the Warriors were so bad they wouldn’t havewon even if Ramien had been sent off and the Sharks left with 11 men.
Will Evans, This Warriors Life (TWF) website editor and author of a book on the club’s first 25 seasons – used words such as ‘‘blundering, insipid’’ and ‘‘spineless in more ways than one’’ to slate a ‘‘performance brimming with incompetence’’.
The Warriors should have been busting to get out of the blocks from play-the-balls to test an undermanned defence, yet their ruck clearance speed (3.88sec) was slower than the Sharks’ 3.39sec.
Fox Sports Lab results show that the Warriors are bottom of the NRL this season for total running metres (10,662m across nine rounds), tackle busts (178), and offloads (53). They’re also secondlast in line breaks (26) and 11th out of 16 for most tries (24).
Brown blamed his team’s defence for losing to the Sharks. Yet, his pop-gun attack should be keeping him, assistant-coach Stacey Jones and senior half Shaun Johnson awake at night as they scratch their collective craniums for quick-fixes.
The Warriors need a selection shake-up. Too many of the Warriors’ younger players look like trainee swimmers chucked into the deep end. No wonder they became Shark bait.
The Warriors needed to recruit an experienced centre to fill a void when Peta Hiku left for the Cowboys. Instead, Brownwas left with Vailima Vailea, 19, Rocco Berry, 20, and 23-year-olds Adam
Pompey and Jesse Arthars, all promising but still feeling their way at this level.
Maybe Brown now needs to change the mix and move Euan Aitken – a steady hand since his switch to the second row – a centre’s role again for a while.
Or, as a stop-gap, shift Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, who’s had limited centre experience (eight games), inside from the wing. The younger centres could then learn their trades from the flanks.
To be fair to coach Brown, the Warriors have had to contend with some untimely injuries (but don’t all professional sporting sides?)
Captain Tohu Harris and backrower/loose forward Josh Curran’s absence has been sorely felt. The Warriors have also been missing, at various times, WateneZelezniak, Chanel Harris-Tavita, Ben Murdoch-Masila and Johnson. It could be argued Johnson was missing on Sunday even though he donned the No 7 jumper. Will Evans at TWL gave Johnson the lowest ranking – 3 out of 10 – for an ‘‘axe-worthy’ display.
Pack injuries have led Brown to persist with project player Eliesa Katoa, who is yet to fulfil the immense potential he showed in 2020, his rookie NRL year. But is he helping Katoa, and the team, to continue playing a young bloke so desperately searching for confidence and form.
Brown’s next selection – for Saturday’s clash with South Sydney – will be telling. Does he fire a shot across the bows and make a few changes or does he trust last week’s side to atone?
He chose the fatherly arm around the shoulder approach after the Storm shellacking – dropping only wing Ed Kosi for giving up the chase. His faith was rewarded with a one-point win over the Raiders, this might be the time to kick the teapot. If the Warriors trot out the same starting lineup it won’t be somuch a sign of faith as a signal that Brown has no faith in his alternatives.
We’re only nine games in so the top-eight is not beyond the 10thranked Warriors’ reach.
But it’s worrying when the shortlist of blokes putting in maximum effort every week is led by Aitken and Matt Lodge, both looking for pastures brown at Australian clubs next season.
Many of their mates must now put in week-to-week to ensure they remain on the Warriors’ payroll.
So, too, must Brown. He’s faced challenges before at the Dragons and Knights, but turning this Warriors year-class into a topeight team looms as his biggest test yet.