What do the Warriors do?

[Blair]

I can't recall Johnson being run down when he's been in the clear too many times. It's been touched on here before but his problems don't all seem tactical or mental. He's a bit off with his pace, which was always his best asset.

As for Hurrell, how close is he to being considered another Krisnan Inu? That being a great talent but with an increasngly questionable attitude, which not only holds himself back personally but his team mates as well, particularly the younger players like Kata?

 

[Penrose Warrior]

As for Hurrell, how close is he to being considered another Krisnan Inu? That being a great talent but with an increasngly questionable attitude, which not only holds himself back personally but his team mates as well, particularly the younger players like Kata?

So close I believe it's now called 'doing a Konrad' not an 'Inu'.

He's not even a great talent, per se. He's just a friggin huge guy who can move quickly, and should use those attributes to be a decent player. But with a rugby background, he's defensively undeveloped and isn't prepared to work hard enough to overcome that, or improve his game at all.

Inu was more talented, could do freakish things like pluck the ball out of the air with one hand, beat guys off steps and fends, then obviously be a lazy bastard too. He had the game if he wanted to exhibit it. Konrad still has to work for it, and is showing no signs of wanting to.

 

[ozbash]

Konnie is one of those 'confidence' players Lowie was talking about..

Once he gets his tail up (ie, a decent winger), watch out. He's proven his worth..

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Konnie is one of those 'confidence' players Lowie was talking about..

Once he gets his tail up (ie, a decent winger), watch out. He's proven his worth..

Naaaah....he's not a confidence player. Manu is/was a confidence player. Works hard during the week, if he starts a game with a try he's away. If he starts shelling balls like he did on Saturday, he gets worse.

Konrad will get better when he works hard, or even slightly hard. Confidence doesn't make him a less shit defender. Confidence and work ethic are two very different things.

 

[ozbash]

Confidence and work ethic are two very different things.

that go together,, if one is missing...

 

[Iron Lion]

Konrad Hurrell is the rebirth of David Solomona just with more power. Play him off the bench for a couple of seasons in two 20min bursts. Let him focus on bringing the pain and havoc. Easier on his body and he will learn to read the game better.

 

[Fufu Andronez]

We're playing in a competition where on any given day team X can beat team Y. One thing I think with us is that we have a good core group of players, good back office management (now), good enough and big enough junior nursery and decent enough corporate opportunities for us to be financially safe. BUT something is clearly missing. My money is on Doyle being able to pinpoint the problem and fix us long term. He's only been in the job 6 months odd so it's going to have to be all about patience. He's already got rid of Bell so he's definitely investigating.

I can see probably 2-4 years of similar results before we show progression and can potentially be classed as a top echelon team. And that's the gamble we all take as fans hoping to see some sort of progression and a change in culture leading to a premiership along the lines of Souths and the Roosters. No one can be certain we just hope.

 

[RHYTHM AND STEALTH]

Agree about Thompson - who is the replacement though?

Swap him with Matulino
He would be carnage on the right edge

 

[JJ]

Swap him with Matulino
He would be carnage on the right edge

They tried that last year while he's great there that leaves Lillyman as the Lone Ranger making dents in the middle

 

[hitro]

Anyone else notice Brent Webb commenting before the game a few weeks ago? He said if he was playing he would follow Matulino around all day. Good call

 

[Auckland4ever]

Attack / scoring tries is not our problem. We've scored more points than almost every other side. As it stands, our attack should be good enough to win us the bulk of the games that we play - clearly our biggest issues revolve around high error rates and lapses in defense.

Unfortunately, those issues predate the current coaching staff, the current captain, the current players and even the current name of the club. Wish I had the answer - pay ten billion dollars for St George's defensive coach? It would be worth it if it resulted in us conceding about 10 points a game like they have this season. We'd never lose.

 

[God-King Dean]

What's the media like over there, in regards to team criticism.?

I've always thought that because the Warriors are in a 'one team town', the media would be unwilling to criticise - creating a culture of unaccountability.

That's my theory anyway.

 

[MKEB...]

Thw media are very fickle. In a way, they cant wait to put the boot in when we are losing and are the first on the bandwagon whilst we are winning.

 

[Auckland4ever]

What's the media like over there, in regards to team criticism.?

I've always thought that because the Warriors are in a 'one team town', the media would be unwilling to criticise - creating a culture of unaccountability.

That's my theory anyway.

I do see some criticism in the papers & on TV, but it tends not to be overly harsh. Rather than an unwillingness to criticise, I think there's a kind of apathy as far as the media are concerned around the Warriors in terms of harsh criticism. Kind of like it's to be expected that they're disappointing fans and playing average football for yet another season. If it was the All Blacks, however, you'd have extreme media sycophancy and wrist-slitting all in one go.
You definitely could argue that there is a culture of unaccountability at the Warriors, but I don't know if media sycophancy comes into it that much. They're a one country team, who has a long history of underachievement, in an overseas competition, in a sport that only some of the country really cares about.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

What's the media like over there, in regards to team criticism.?

I've always thought that because the Warriors are in a 'one team town', the media would be unwilling to criticise - creating a culture of unaccountability.

That's my theory anyway.

Dunno about unwilling, just uncaring. When they lose, media outlets drop off. And yep, that creates a culture of unaccountability for sure.

 

[jamaman]

What's the media like over there, in regards to team criticism.?

I've always thought that because the Warriors are in a 'one team town', the media would be unwilling to criticise - creating a culture of unaccountability.

That's my theory anyway.

maybe 'one team town' but still very critical!
more often from rugby journo's who do the same with rugby when they lose!
league to them a poor brother to the top Rugby teams

 

[Auckland4ever]

Anyone know if there's ever been any official report / investigation into reasons why Warriors teams have historically struggled with the same kinds of issues (usually around defense and focus) for so long?

It would be worth interviewing as many ex-players and coaches as possible, not just to get their thoughts and opinions, but also to find out anecdotal stuff - like certain players behaviours/attitudes on and off the field, good and bad coaching examples, management decisions that impacted the team, playing for the Warriors vs playing for an overseas club, the effect of travel, the effect of the media on players & coaches etc. etc. anything that can help to paint as much of an overall picture as possible of the psyche of the club as a whole, over time.

It may be waste of paper, but we're a unique club in the NRL. This is the age of big data - there are metrics collected for every little thing on the field in the name of measuring performance and with the goal of improving - why not put together an extensive archive of qualitative data, to try and understand how our club has operated, in all facets, on a human / social / cultural / psychological level?

 

[Meth]

What should they do? Start winning and the criticism quickly turns to praise until they start losing again. An oversimplification I know, but that's what will happen.

 

[Blair]

...It may be waste of paper, but we're a unique club in the NRL...

It's a good idea, anything to get a comprehenive explanation as to our twenty years of disappointment, or even failure for want of a better term.

Yes, we are unique in a sense, but we are geographically closer to the heart of the NRL, Sydney, than another club that started with us in 1995, and is odds on to have another team from that state play in the NRL again.

Also, another one-state team, Melbourne Storm, have a media far less interested in them as opposed to the NZ media and the Warriors, but the Storm do OK in the comp (a fair bit of salary cap rorting aside!).

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Makes me laugh the likes of Graham Lowe, some commentators, some media etc saying all we need is a bit of confidence and we'll be firing.

Our problems run a lot deeper than that.