Wasn't that good....

[Manu Vatuvei]

I wasn't real pleased with the performance tonight, but a win's a win. Honestly I thought we looked bereft of ideas attacking near the line, and (strangely) a bit slack on defence- we scrambled well but were a bit soft all over the park. The main difference seemed to be that we hardly dropped the ball at all, whereas Canberra were knocking on and throwing forward passes all over the place.

Thought Feka and Webb were good. Also my mate, who hates Meli, thought Meli was good, so I'll give him a rap (it was my mate- honest.)

Complaint for the week- Fien and Jones are both AWFUL defenders, why do they never get mentioned for it like some other players do?

 

[raider_ktj]

I thought that the Warriors played well, coming from a Raiders supporter perspective. I thought this season the Warriors have not been playing up to their full potential but their most recent games (Roosters, and Raiders) have proved me wrong. Good performance by a lot of your players, the next few weeks should prove interesting.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

tbh I think we played closer to our potential in earlier losses against the Panthers and Roosters, and that really wasn't one of our better efforts this season....just the dropped ball saved us.

 

[Lego_Man]

A very well ground-out victory (at last) against a determined Raiders side. Great effort by the boys. I have a feeling there will have been a few bumps and bruises come out of that one, i hope noone pulls up injured. Stacey is a concern with all that strapping on the leg particularly.

 

[Auckland4ever]

If I was a neutral spectator I probably would have enjoyed that game a lot more.

It was a solid enough performance & I give the Raiders a lot of credit for their defensive effort, but really, we had so much posession in the first half and just didnt do nearly enough with it.
However we did at least get a number of repeat sets from pressure put on them in their in-goal, something I'd like to see more of every week. So much emphasis is put on the bomb as a last tackle option, but it's not paying off for us like it did in years gone by. Maybe we overrate the bomb & underrate the grubber a little.

Just as a little gripe; Hohaias going well, but he's still really borderline with one or two of his passes. If theyre not forward, theyre damn close. Could be very costly down the track.
Jones is an awful defender & Fien's tackling technique leaves a lot to be desired. I'm surprised he hasnt spent any time suspended this season, he's gone high a lot. I guess people dont comment on their defence as much as Meli's(for e.g) because they're involved a hell of a lot more in each match & have sh*tloads more opportunities to redeem themselves. Shouldnt be any excuse really, but it seems to be.

 

[pantherz9103]

If I was a neutral spectator I probably would have enjoyed that game a lot more.

It was a solid enough performance & I give the Raiders a lot of credit for their defensive effort, but really, we had so much posession in the first half and just didnt do nearly enough with it.
However we did at least get a number of repeat sets from pressure put on them in their in-goal, something I'd like to see more of every week. So much emphasis is put on the bomb as a last tackle option, but it's not paying off for us like it did in years gone by. Maybe we overrate the bomb & underrate the grubber a little.

Just as a little gripe; Hohaias going well, but he's still really borderline with one or two of his passes. If theyre not forward, theyre damn close. Could be very costly down the track.
Jones is an awful defender & Fien's tackling technique leaves a lot to be desired. I'm surprised he hasnt spent any time suspended this season, he's gone high a lot. I guess people dont comment on their defence as much as Meli's(for e.g) because they're involved a hell of a lot more in each match & have sh*tloads more opportunities to redeem themselves. Shouldnt be any excuse really, but it seems to be.

Atleast your team is 'playing for eachother'. Unlike the 'Penrith Strangers'

 

[carlnz]

when was the last time you saw the Warriors completion rate of 89%??

 

[ozbash]

i thought that there was something not quite right last night. combos didnt quite seem to click.
i notice webby coming into the line a lot on the early tackles. there seems to be an absolute line up waiting for the $ ball from the first reciever.

i reckon price was on too long, the raiders scored those 2 soft tries when he came on early in the 2nd half, pricey was a bit slow on the defence.
notice also that the raiders clicked and started tackling price around the legs in the 2nd half.
feka looked unfit, tho i spose you get like that sitting on the bench.

faumuina ?,,, f**king awesome !

 

[AliN]

Well I enjoyed it and will probably be more critical once I see the replay on the tele.
Awesome atmosphere, something Ericsson has missed.. a Saturday night game.

I'm sure Stace was injured, his defence at times outstanding, other times pathetic.
Hohaia had a big impact once he came on but yeah a couple of his passes from dummy half had me cringing.

Two soft tries could've killed us if the Raiders were right on their game and capitalised on that. Bloody Croker carved us up, not bad for an old fulla. And Adamson was as I expected, a danger.

But really I didn't think we looked like losing the game at any stage. We had the weight of possession, maybe could've done more with it, and we had the ball security

Roll on next week!!

 

[JJ]

hmmm - ball control was outstanding, they dominated possession and field poosition- yet were still under a lot of pressure...

Something's missing in attack, and hopefully they can find it without losingt the discipline they showed.

I have now concluded that Betham is the worst regular first grader in the comp - he really offers nothing (is Louis Anderson back soon?)

Scaring thingt is, despite making about 150 extra tackles, Smith almost engineered a win for Canberra - better tyeams will put the Warriors away if they don't score more points with that amount of possession (my worry is that their mentality might mean dropped balls and bad passes etc in trying to score more). they look a year or two away from competing for mine (given they find a decent halves pairing)

 

[MKEB...]

You guys are right , Price looked short of a gallop. But Ithink he did provide a cool head and a bit of the leadership that the warriors were missing... On attackthey weremissing ideas, although the raiders were using a rooster like up and at 'em defense...(albeit inside the 10 all night) which you have to admit has been a problem for the warriors attack for some years.Not many penalties and a semi flowing game of league ..How many times was toopi beatenall hands downby howell and graham rushing up out of the defensive line?

 

[mahanga]

"Price looked short of a gallop.But I think he provided a cool head and a bit more of leadership that the Warrior's were missing??????..."

Bloody joking!!!!.....Where have you been hiding?

 

[THE MINGSTER]

when was the last time you saw the Warriors completion rate of 89%??

93% actually according to nrl.com

 

[Iafeta]

Ball control was scintillating.

IMO, I think Canberra was just as desperate as us, you could tell from the early dropped pill - that wasn't there go going from sideline to sideline, but they panicked due to desperation. But that desperation served them well on defence. Time after time someone would make a cover defending tackle on our lads.

I thought Ruben Wiki was terrific, Sione Faumuina is world class, Lance Hohaia again dominated out of dummy half, and Webby again went well. It was good to see them keep their composure. Last year they would have folded for sure at 18-16, but they kept to the game plan.

I sense something special ala 2003 style coming up. Yes, I know we didn't put them away, but lets not take away credit from Canberra's scramble defence. They were busted many a time and many a time were half an inch away from being put well and truly away. If that was a less hungry team, the Warriors would have got to 40.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

I'd rather 70% ball control and a bit more inspiration on attack.

 

[Iafeta]

Maybe, I'd rather grind out a win, be solid in every aspect, then be having to play catch up football because they're getting tries off turnover ball. They could always have potentially slipped up a gear if need be.

 

[ozbash]

and the ref ?

i thought he was pretty good both ways. makes a change.

 

[EJS]

From where I sat, that "6 to go" was an apalling call - the raider guy threw it forward and instead of a knock on they got their second try of the second half - no help from the Touchie on the eastern side...

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Same, and I couldn't believe it wasn't a penalty when Byrne almost got dragged back into the in-goal.

 

[JJ]

Maybe, I'd rather grind out a win, be solid in every aspect, then be having to play catch up football because they're getting tries off turnover ball. They could always have potentially slipped up a gear if need be.

problem is that with bugger-all ball, Smith still managed to keep canberra in the game.

You described their ball control as "scintillating" :lol: no, they were very conservative - which is fine. But, they need to make better decisions about when to take a chance, something Anderson had them doing pretty well, it seems now that it's all or nothing - either never try anything, or try something on every play.