Kearney proud of players
Warriors coach Stephen Kearney couldn’t have been prouder of his team after their sensational 18-0 win over the Dragons.
The win was unexpected, given how poorly the Warriors played before the NRL season was suspended, and also the tough circumstances the players have had to endure, being away from their families.
“I was pretty pleased for the boys. Really proud of the way they’ve gone about the last couple of months and they’ve endured a great deal,” Kearney said in his post-match press conference.
“It didn’t stop today, Peta (Hiku) came off after half an hour and we had to put [back-up hooker] Karl Lawton out in the centres.
“But with the way the boys have responded over the last couple of months has been that they’ve just got on with the job.
“That’s what I was most pleased about, they worked really hard prior to the game today, worked really hard during the game, and got some reward for it.”
No-one outside the Warriors were giving them much of a chance against the Dragons, even though they had also lost their first two games.
But it was clear that the Warriors played with more passion and they also played smart football.
For the NRL ladder, this victory is just worth two points, but with everything the club has gone through, this win counts for a lot more and gives a great indication of what the culture in the club is like now. ‘‘It means a great deal,’’ Kearney said. ‘‘Not only to the
group, but the families back home and we’ve got a footy club that’s still operating.
‘‘All of our footy staff back home, our administration, all of our fans, I know there would have been a lot of them watching, and it’s really pleasing to be able to put on a performance that they can be proud of.’’
The Warriors broke an NRL-era record by completing their first 44 sets, with the streak finally coming to an end when Jack Murchie spilled the ball.
‘‘I knew we hadn’t made an error, but until the end I didn’t really take much notice,’’ Kearney said.
‘‘I think watching the footy over the last couple of days, the takeaway from it was that the team that had possession was able to build some pressure on the opposition.
‘‘Coupled on that, if you had six [sets] again, it magnifies that. It just worked out for us today and that’s probably putting it simply, but the boys worked hard for it and I’m really pleased for them.
Meanwhile, Dragons coach Paul McGregor, who is coming under increasing pressure, admitted the Warriors were the better team and expressed his disappointment with his own players.
McGregor is three losses into a two-year deal, but said he is not feeling the heat, despite finishing second-last in 2019 and failing to strike a blow this season.
‘‘At times today they looked like strangers out there,’’ McGregor said.
‘‘We didn’t do anything at speed and a couple of the tries they scored needed to be defended and they weren’t.
‘‘Your defence is all about your attitude and they ran hard, controlled the ball well, and we were on the back foot.
‘‘When we were generating something and earned the right to play a bit of footy, we weren’t in the right position either. So most of the afternoon we were coming out of yardage and when we had some field position, we turned over possession twice, so we didn’t play with any composure there as well.’’
While this was an impressive win for the Warriors, they won’t be playing teams as bad as the Dragons every week.
‘‘The reality of this competition is that we go to Campbelltown next week and we play against another very good footy team in the [Penrith] Panthers,’’ Kearney said.
‘‘So we’ve got to make sure we back this up.’’