Wet and wild Warriors slip sliding away
LAST Sunday the Warriors lost to the Storm, yesterday they lost in one.
They went down 10-6 to the Knights in Newcastle, as hopes of playing finals football this year continue to slip away.
The defeat was the Warriors’ fifth in their last six games as they carry on to drifting down the NRL ladder.
Last Sunday’s Storm loss was a humbling defeat, but it was a game they were never expected to win.
However, this fixture against the Knights plus the next two against the Dragons and Sharks will define their season.
These are the teams the Warriors need to beat if they want to play finals footy, as they’re all sides fighting for one of the lower places in the top eight. But this game was reminiscent of earlier ones in the season for the Warriors, where there was a lack of inventiveness when they got into the opposition’s red zone.
The blame for that can’t all lie with Sean O’Sullivan, who has come into the halves for the injured Chanel Harris-Tavita, but collectively there weren’t enough decisive passes or line breaks. Too often they were relying on Reece Walsh to do something incredible for them.
The game was played in terrible conditions, with wind and rain ripping across McDonald Jones Stadium and early on Walsh made a handling error because of that, unable to hold onto a pass.
But there were plenty of mistakes from both teams early on and Walsh made amends with a stunning run in the 15th minute, catching a ball in the air, spinning out of the first tackle, then running 70 metres, before being caught by Jayden Brailey.
However, in the 27th minute the Warriors were able to capitalise on a Kurt Mann dropped ball, with Euan Aitken picking it up and racing 90 metres to score.
Five minutes later, Eliesa Katoa wasn’t able to contain Lachlan Fitzgibbon, running at him close to the line, with the Knights second-rower twisting out of Katoa’s grip then scoring.
Fitzgibbon didn’t stay on the field much longer after that try, sinbinned for making contact with Kodi Nikorima’s head, even though the Warriors five-eighth was barely off the ground and there wasn’t much else Fitzgibbon could do.
The Knights had the wind behind them for the second half and they used it to put as many bombs in Walsh’s direction as they could, with Roger TuivasaSheck picking up one from an offside position after the fullback knocked it on. That allowed Jake
Clifford to level the scores at 6-6 in the 52nd minute.
When Walsh struggled to take another kick from Clifford with 12 minutes to go, putting a foot in touch, it gave the Knights a great attacking opportunity, but there
was some superb, resilient defending from the Warriors to keep them out.
Walsh tried a couple of field goals six minutes from time, with the first charged down and the second wide to the left.
But soon after the Knights were down the other end, with numbers on their left edge and Brodie Jones scored by the corner flag. The Warriors never got close to scoring after that blow.