No one player should be singled out today, the team just didn't click. Maybe it was the fact that it was our first away match and that it started early. But the main fact was that Melbourne were the much better side and we were lucky not to go down by more.
The Warriors just couldn't get a roll on. Here were some of the contributing factors:-
- Not a huge factor, but Witt was virtually non-existent in the first quarter.
- Poor reads during wing defense on both sides.
- Poor communication by Wiki & McKinnon, 3 or 4 attempts at offloading support plays = 0 successful plays
- Mannering made a few bad calls, there were 3 chances where he should have passed it out wide
The numerous other dropped balls didn't help. The Storm really made us pay. There were also numerous times that we had forward charging full steam on to the ball, only to be used as decoys. Most of those times, it would have worked out better if we passed it to those forwards. Those forwards were actually running at gaps, which is what they should be doing more often.
I don't mind that Witt was pulled, but I hope Cleary is going to be consistent with this. We need our playmakers to be active.
We made a lot of mistakes and we couldn't really get settled into the game. 30-12 looked pretty good on us, we could have been burnt badly. In a losing side, I think the young forwards stepped up. Tuimavave, Rapira and Lauaki are all showing real improvement and more enthusiasm.
I wouldn't really make any changes against Manly. The Warriors have just got to tidy up their plays. Wiki and McKinnon really need to work on their communication. Someone needs to link up with McKinnon, it would be an absolute waste if his support play wasn't utilised.
