Webster stunned after ‘gut-wrenching’ loss
The Warriors players might not have got much sleep on Saturday night, after their heartbreaking 30-26 loss to the Storm in Melbourne, but it’s how they woke up and move on which will be important.
It was an unbelievable finish at AAMI Park, If it happened in a movie people would have walked out of the cinema because it was so ridiculous.
Yet it did actually happen. The Warriors were up by eight points with three minutes to go, then conceded two tries, with the second from Xavier Coates being one of the most spectacular you could imagine, as he leapt over Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to score in the corner.
It occurred with just 15 seconds left on the clock and up until then, it looked as if the Warriors were about to end their streak of 14 consecutive losses to the Storm.
Speaking at his press conference not long after the final whistle, Webster still seemed stunned by what had happened.
“It’s pretty obvious it’s gut-wrenching, It’s one of those ones, it hurts obviously,” Webster said.
“There are parts of me that are so proud, then there are parts where I want the boys to realise if they do that for 80 minutes, we wouldn’t be in that situation at the end of the game.
“So proud to get back into it, they got into our plan. They didn’t overplay or try to overachieve, they did it really tough.
“So super excited about that, then super gutted that we put ourselves in that situation at the beginning of the game.”
The Warriors were as bad in the first half as they were impressive over the second period. Trailing 18-6 at the break, they scored 20 unanswered points to get to the brink of a memorable win, but it wasn’t to be.
Had the Warriors not started so poorly, they wouldn’t have got themselves in such a precarious position at the end of the game.
“I’m disappointed, the boys are disappointed,” Webster said.
“It’s not like I’m a school teacher yelling at them that they’ve got to get this right. It’s more like I’m trying to make them realise if they do it, just how good a footy team they can be.”
The key for the Warriors players will be how they respond to this. They have started the season with crushing losses against the Sharks and Storm and next face a big game against the Raiders in Christchurch on Friday.
“It’s going to test what we’re about as a team, as a club and how much we’re willing to put our energy into winning every day next week and then getting the two points.
“We’re going to Christchurch with a full house, our fans, but it’s on us now to make sure we’ve got our heads up, we attack the week and we can’t sook for long.”
Such was the manner of the end of this game, that even Storm coach Craig Bellamy sympathised with the Warriors and it was hard for him to remember such an incredible finish.
“To come back with five minutes to go and score two tries, especially that last try, it was pretty much out of the box for Xavier to even get over there,” Bellamy said.
“It’s right up there. You feel for the Warriors a bit. I thought we had the best of them for 20-25 minutes, but after that, they dominated the game, they dominated field position. They slowly but surely built up some points and then they were in front.
“To come back from that after we weren’t playing well is a pretty good sign.
That finish was quite unbelievable and to come up with that in the last 10 seconds is unbelievable.”*