Ignore the GZ date, didnt know I had to manually set the timezone.

Great win by the wahs over at shark park. Need to get that F/A up so more decent wins please.

Once again, amazed by my Canberra Raiders, down 12-0 at home and come back with 36 unanswered points! Two tries and a conversion to Josh Papaili on his big day. Just fairytale stuff

Last few years, 30 points has been the cutoff for finals top 8. Obviously want more than that, but we'll be just three wins away from that number after this week's bye (and we're halfway through the season). 

JPNZ:

 

Great win by the wahs over at shark park. Need to get that F/A up so more decent wins please.

 

Once again, amazed by my Canberra Raiders, down 12-0 at home and come back with 36 unanswered points! Two tries and a conversion to Josh Papaili on his big day. Just fairytale stuff

 

Wakrak:

 

Last few years, 30 points has been the cutoff for finals top 8. Obviously want more than that, but we'll be just three wins away from that number after this week's bye (and we're halfway through the season). 

 

Yes, Im pretty sure this is our best season so far including our Minor Premiership year, if not its close to it. 

Yep 13 wins is usually an assurance of making the 8. We have seen as low as 10 before, but very rarely is it below 13. So to be 3 wins away from making finals with 11 games to play is very unusual feeling from needing 8 from 11 etc. Looking at our Draw I think as long as we do not lose out confidence we are pretty much there. After the Bye we have Panther and Broncos. I hope we can handle Reynolds and contain Walsh with their very ad lib footy. 

In saying that if we keep playing ad lib ourselves after first earning the right by working up the middle third, it could be a high scoring game. Im loving the intelligent off loads from Vaimauga, Halasima just continues to steam roll the opposition, Jacob Laban is a gun on defense (which is why he is signed to 29), Tanner played like a Pro for only his 2nd NRL match, Sam Healey fitting in for Wade Egan, imo, he played better than Egan. Supposedly the halves said to him if we call for it pass it, if not, do your thing, and boy did he eat up some easy metres around the markers often offside but even on side hes super quick. Not that Id replace Egan of course, but it was a pretty impressive display and to play ahead of Lussick. 

I think being competition leaders in Completions/Control, if we can keep that up and just add a little more ad lib, offload footy, that will open the holes for the likes of Metcalf. Provided its not just throwing the ball aimlessly. And where is also important, a 60/40 speculator is not worth the risk inside our own half etc. But we have the talent, lets see them burn some grass.

But its a bit sad losing gun centre Ali Leiataua, for me he is as good as Latrell Mitchell was at his age. Hopefuly the ankle isnt full season ending like Mitch Barnetts knee. That sucks losing the only sizeable forward in the original pack, we do have some size in NSW cup but I like our Mobile forward pack. Finally we have Rocco Berry due back our next game, he is a big and strong edge back and he competes for the footy like nobody else in the team.

AFB really looked nothing like he was when playing for the Warriors. I hope everything is going ok for the guy. 

Warriors and Raiders trading places 2nd and 3rd it seems alternating rounds with the way Byes work. I think the draw giving Warriors 2 byes within 3 weeks is lame. Spread them out. It does a team no favours to stem their on field chemistry, especially when the Warriors have only just played a complete game of football for a solid win. But a Home game at Mt Smart/GoMedia is a solid way to get the adrenaline back in the team after a bye. The Panthers still have some big time players in their team, and after being soundly beaten by Newcastle, have bounced back with two close wins. They have players across the park that individually could hurt the Warriors, clearly Cleary losing his 5/8th partner to the Rigers (who is now playing 7) has taken a lot for the team to get adjusted too after 3 straight premierships. 

SoO tonight, woot. Go the Blues. Panthers have a number of players in the squad, so will be interesting to see who backs up on Saturday. Luai is back playing with Cleary, not in the Panthers, but with the Blues, I think that was an obvious choice. Panthers have 5-6 players in SoO with a quick count. Halves normally back up, its usually the players who do the most yards and most hit ups that take a rest. This is where the Panthers could use a two byes in 3 weeks, not the Warriors. 

Good luck to our one Warrior playing, Kurt Capewell 2nd row. I hope he can back up :-). NSW just have too much experience and big name players, Id be surprised to see Qld win, especially after DCE is out.

Anyway enjoy, kick of off 10:05pm (game is in Perth)
 

What a SoO game that was. The bucketing rain really played into Qld's hands, but they also had to have good hands to be throwing the ball around like that in the wet after Luai put on the first try for NSW. And then the second half NSW nearly pulled off the greatest game in Origin history with 4 unanswered tries. I thought the reffing was on Qld side a little first half, 9-0 penalty count is pretty rare, at this level of player professionalism. It was going to take a lot on Qld's side to win either way and they made their luck.

But it just shows the importance of Goal kicking, this is how the Warriors are going to lose a tight one it feels.

NSW scored 5 tries to 4 and still lost, because Val Holmes kicked 4/4 and a Penalty vs NSW scoring more tries, Zac Lomax who normally is a high quality goal kicker 2/5 Conversions and 0/1 Two point drop goal attempt. NSW should have at least drawn that game if not won it. Two of the kicks were out wide and one hit the Goal Post.

Decider will be in Sydney, where NSW who most would agree are the better squad, have home ground advantage, just hope it doesnt rain hahaha. 

I gotta say I was pretty pissed with the ref last weekend, first the Hip-Drop tackle which was getting send offs start of season, just gets a casual on report, meanwhile DWZ has busted his ankle and clearly in distress, the opposition target his edge and score an easy try with a player missing in defense. No blowing the whistle to check on the welfare of the player post hip drop. So Warriors lose a key player and until rd 22. So then the player who actioned the hip drop then lets loose a swinging arm collecting our player flush across the nose, losing the player temporary to HIA. So the ref just blows penalty and another "on report". Its absolutely absurd you can get away with two physical fouls and not get minimum 10 in the bin when a hip drop is suppose to be a send off. Then said Player scores a Try for the opposition to cap it off. That is just not how a player should be allowed to act.

After that whinge, the Warriors just didnt come out with enough intensity. Its pretty clear the Panthers have come from the back to be 3 wins behind the top 4. I think they are shrugging off the loss of some players to this dynasty and trying to get back in the hunt for yet another prem.

Canberra on a bye, a win today would see Warriors draw equal on Wins. Storm despite only having 9 wins are ahead of Warriors as they have had one less bye. But that wont matter if Warriors win.

However the Broncos have not had their super stars go into camp yet, at least not on named ins and outs. With the Warriors losing key players, but some coming back it will be interesting to see how the young forwards for the Warriors handle the high pace. It is a wicked looking forward back for the Warriors. But its the halves and outside backs that largely put the points on. How is Kosi going to handle filling in for DWZ, hes certainly got a lot of lower body strength to finish tries, but Im just concerned will he contest the high ball. However we know Rocco Berry likes to be in everything and he backs up a lot of plays. He plays centre which will be a strong side with RTS playing outside him. 

Its not a game I can see either way. The Warriors are very strong on defense, Capewell is back and the young bench forward are both comepetent defenders but the likes of Halasima and Vaimauga are extremely strong all round and hard to put on the ground, we need guys like Metcalf backing them up, Vaimauga will offload if he sees someone. On the flip side, its very hard to contain a team who are strong on their edges, have a boy wonder and possibly the best half in the game (along with being a top goal kicker) and agruably the best Prop in the game. I say shut down Walsh and Reynolds, and man up on Hass, that will go a long way towards removing their edge offense from the game. 

Another Kosi stinker, though to be fair, the team in general was a bit meh today. 

Warriors going to have to dig deep in the upcoming weeks, Metcalf gone long term and CNK possibly as well. I really wanna see RTS back at fullback, but they don't seem to have the outside back depth to cover?

The biggest downfall IMO for the game vs the Broncos was the outside backs (apart from RTS) not doing enough work running it up and the forward pack was getting monstered. So many times the wahs were kicking from their own 30m line and that just allows the broncos great position.

My Raiders kept winning close on Friday and now sit a top the ladder. Good to see

JPNZ:

 

Warriors going to have to dig deep in the upcoming weeks, Metcalf gone long term and CNK possibly as well.

 

My Raiders kept winning close on Friday and now sit a top the ladder. Good to see

 

Yeh Raiders deserve the spot at this point in time, I hope for you they havnt peaked too early, but without injuries they look the goods to me. 

The Warriors just seem cursed with inuries, its not as bad as last year or the year before, last year was absurd. But we learnt and they took young guys into NSW cup and trained them hard to produce the best. But tonight losing Rocco Berry was heart breaking, hes such a big time athlete, he deserves a break, its not like they are the same injury either like with Metcalf.

Tuaupiki is just too good to leave out of the side, so FB is his native position and what an inspirational game he had tonight. Warriors cementing 4th, still have 1st within range if they keep winning.

To be honest, Ive been hammering on and on about Tannah Boyd should be our 7, which meant dropping Metcalf and ahead of TMM. So of course Ive had some flack about it, until today :-). I love making big calls others cant see and they come right. Whilst I don't want to see Metcalf injured, hes just not finishing a season.

Boyd looked like he has been the 7 for a decade, with the familiarity with the backline. He converted being the stand out player in NSW Cup to being the stand out player tonight. He was the key to 4/6 tries. The way he can produce long pin point passes to the edge before drawing 2-3 players cannot be under estimated. Then defense, its not often you get halves who go looking for tackles. CHT can fold guys 3x his size, but Boyd is just always on the hunt for the tackle, that cannot be underestimated either, having two halves you can rely on in defense, it means you dont need to worry so much about assigning defensive forwards next to them for cover.

Then there is the Goal Kicking, 85% vs 62% is over 100 points to the 'For' column in the For and Against. It wins games. Adam Reynolds is a great example, his goal kicking, which is also circa 85%, has won sooooo many games.

Leka was brilliant, as was Clark and Vaimauga, they are all reliable weapons. What I like about Vaimauga is the consistency in offloading, hes not messed one up this season either. Clark is so consistent on defense. Leka is insanely quick off the mark for a human of his size, for a forward he makes it looks like he enjoys producing solo effort tries. 

So despite the injuries, I think with Boyd in their now, the Warriors have a serious chance at a Prem this year. Finals is always a bit of luck thing on the day, but if they can go in with 2 of the best halves in the comp, a quality 9, an excellent FB with CNK rejoining, I think they look better now than they did with 10/13 which they then lost 2 in a row, todays good size win makes it 11/15. Two more wins and thats finals, but they will want to make sure they wrap top 4 up, which statistically makes winning the Comp a lot easier. 

7 rounds to go. Warriors should be able to hold onto the top 4, it would be a disaster if they don't from here. Probably the Broncos & Panthers to be the challanges to that. 3 games I'd be focused on as a warriors supporter.

R22 v Dolphins at home (Phins will be hungry to stay in the 8 and 2nd best attacking team in the comp)

R23 v Bulldogs away (goes without saying)

R27 v Manly away (another team that could be playing for the 8 in the last round, always play well at 4 pines)

Its quite a boring week when your team has a bye, looking forward to this weekend!

Good win by the Warriors. I like the look of the team with Tan-wah Boyd directing the play and I feel like it's something we have missed this season. His kicking in general is definitely a step up as well. Definitely a win that was needed against an unpredictably dangerous Tigers team. 

LEKA!!!!

What a game, and what a finish! Really shouldn't have been that close with the Warriors dominating the first 20 minutes or so with only a six pointer to show for it. If it weren't for the Knights wayward goal kicking, the Wahs would've lost that one. Leka though....what a talent!