@antipodean said in NRL 2018:
Put your mortgage on the Tigers.
Put your drug stash on the Knights. Came back to beat the Raiders 30-28.
Warriors make a few changes for their clash against the Raiders in Canberra. Papali'i is out for at least six weeks with a knee injury so Pulu moves into the second row while Agnatius Paasi is on the bench. Sammy Cook drops from the bench and is replaced by Jazzy Tevaga.
VODAFONE WARRIORS
1 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (c)
2 David Fusitu’a
3 Peta Hiku
4 Solomone Kata
5 Ken Maumalo
6 Blake Green
7 Shaun Johnson
8 James Gavet
9 Issac Luke
10 Adam Blair
11 Leivaha Pulu
12 Tohu Harris
13 Ligi Sao
Interchange
14 Jazz Tevaga
15 Agnatius Paasi
16 Sam Lisone
17 Bunty Afoa
18 Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad
20 Anthony Gelling
21 Chris Satae
22 Mason Lino
I know he butchered a try, but how good is Bunty running this season? Almost 120m's a game off the bench so far this season. Very impressive for a guy who is on the small side for playing up the middle.
I looked at the stats for last season and he didn't carry for 100m's even once last year(highest was 86m's). Not sure what he did, but his leg drive is something else this year.
@no-quarter said in NRL 2018:
Our goalline defense was fricken awesome. Swawming them and putting in the hits when required. That was the biggest positive for me.
RTS is pure class, he would carve up in either code.
Fun game and great to see a good crowd again at Mt Smart. SJ forming a good combo with Green already bodes well.
Agree on RTS, but gee he looked slow on that massive run up the middle after about 20 minutes, about 3 titans chasers all ran him down.
To be fair to RTS, he did lose a bit of speed when he beat the last defender. The fullback also slightly clipped him on that run too.
They won a league game with nothing more than penalties and a field goal. That's astounding
what a fucken snooze fest that game was. I fell asleep half way through the 2nd half. Should have watched the other game.
Warriors up to their old tricks, giving away penalty after penalty after penalty, resulting in a visit to the naughty chair to Adam Blair.
Down 12-0 early.
Now is where we will see what the Warriors 2018 vintage is made of. Do they have enough in the top 2 inches to work their way out of the hole they’ve created?
As I type, Warriors score in their first visit to the Raiders end of the field.
Our right side attack with Hiku Harris and Fusitua is deadly. We score a try while Blair is on the naughty step
Warriors down by 7 with 8 to go.
They’ve had opportunities to close the gap but they are lacking composure.
Remarkable.
I still think that if you get a PK in front when down by 7 with 5mins to go you take the 2 every time.
Unreal.
8 to go I didn’t think they’d do it.
This side is not like Warriors of old, they’ve got some good old fashioned ticker this lot.
She’s not over till she’s over!
I saw some dumb stuff from us, some bullshit calls from the ref but mostly I saw a composed, but messy, 80 min performance where they waited for the openings. The ability to finish things off is what is going to make or break us against better attacking teams. We should have put 30 plus on GC and to be honest I think we were better than a 1 point win today. just keep dropping crucial opportunities.
Well played Harris, Luke, Afoa and in patches Hiku, Green and obviously Johnson towards the end.
Fuck yeah! In spite of some dumb stuff and some rough calls. Can see some mean combos emerging too - harris/hiku/fusitua with SJ down the right is money time.
I didn't see any of the game but the Raiders seem to find ways to lose late.
Oh to be in the Raiders' dressing room after the spray from Stuart.
Anyone who gets the displeasure of having to get your games through foxtel, how horrible is this chick that heads up the Saturday footy? she's so plastic and does not seem to know the demographic or actually have any knowledge of RL that wasn't pre-written for her. all good if she knows her shit but she talks up the wrong match ups. it's like having a TMZ reporter deciding to cover sports. Why can't we just have a panel of experts and just leave it at that?
and to be clear this is not a sexist thing if she knew her shit I'd be fine with her.
Oh that's beautiful. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving coach...fuck you, Stuart, You're a blight on the game.
@paekakboyz said in NRL 2018:
Also - loved the 'let's not get carried away' call by SJ in the Finch interview. Good lad
Im sure its alot more enjoyable then 'yous got your way'..
Warriors charge down the home straight to pip a Green Machine at the finish line.
Never doubted them.
3 and 0 bros: In my preview of the Warriors I wrote that this season would be defined in the first few games. What can be defined now is the Warriors are atop the NRL standings. There is a lot to work on, especially discipline, but they have the fitness, the right attitude and just too many strike weapons for most NRL teams to contain.
But stay away from P: Blake Green said it in his interview with ABC Grandstand (great commentary btw) that the Warriors didn't deserve to win that game because of the large amount of penalties they gave away. It didn't help that Adam Blair got sinbinned inside the first ten minutes, although his exit from the field was entertaining:
The Warriors will be watched carefully by the refs now so need to make a slight change to their defensive style (as I said before, play smart but not dirty).
The real MVP: Harris > Hiku > Fusitua is the best edge attack in the game but the MVP has to go to Shaun Johnson who decided to become Jonny Wilkinson for the last 90 seconds of that match.
What about the other guys?: The Green Machine are feeling a little low. Listening to Sam Williams after the game on ABC Grandstand (I couldn't watch the game but ABC Grandstand was great today with their call) you could tell he wanted to start bawling his little eyes out. The Raiders have no clue how they lost today, or last week, or the week before. Well, they're a massive team who are not fit and the opposition have realised that you just need to have the little guys run around them all day.
But don't blame the refs: A Ricky Stuart press conference is great to watch whenever he loses. He spent five minutes bagging the refs but assured everyone he wasn't bagging the refs, it's just they didn't know what they were doing.
Snuff out that penalty count and well be legit dangerous. Hopefully they realise we don't need to do the dumb stuff to stay in the game - figured they might take a bit to shake last year's bad habits
Just saw that. I HATE Manly so good news.
Damn, that's un Warriors like composure to win at the death (as opposed to helter skelter tries) - season of GLORY!!!!
I was bloody impressed they went the length of the field twice to reach drop goal range. Fitness trainer should be highest paid dude at the club!!
@paekakboyz said in NRL 2018:
I was bloody impressed they went the length of the field twice to reach drop goal range. Fitness trainer should be highest paid dude at the club!!
Exactly what I was thinking. We are super conditioned at the moment, the raiders were gassed and we looked strong right to the end. Luke looking like the player we thought we bought. When he irons out the stupid penalties Blair can be a menace. The young warriors forwards stood up; Bunty and Lisone were immense. Blake Green is the guy pulling the strings letting Shaun be Shaun. It was a total performance, anytime Kata is quietly doing his thing error free I'm happy. Who knows where this will lead but the Warriors have my attention again. Simon Mannering must be dying to get back in
