Wah Wah For The Wahs: The Warriors’ season effectively ended on Friday night with a humiliating loss to the Trent Barrett-coached Parramatta Eels, a shocking disappointment for a club that had the world at its feet just 12 months ago.
They made a preliminary final, added Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Mitch Barnett.
Every game was sold out and they were the toast of New Zealand.
So where did it all go wrong? What happened? What is to blame?
No More Surprises: The Warriors shocked the NRL on their first year under Andrew Webster.
He was innovative in his style, particularly his attack, but once there was video of it he did not adjust quick enough or continue to innovate.
Talent Maxed Out: Players are rarely robots, they cannot continue to get better.
Older players, in particular, who have their best year ever or their best season in a long time are usually good bets to regress from that.
Shaun Johnson, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and Marcelo Montoya were shadows of the players they were last year.
Injuries Hit Hard: Shaun Johnson and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad have missed seven games, Tohu Harris and Kurt Capewell six.
Luke Metcalf has missed most of the season, there has been a decided lack of continuity within the Warriors.
AFB Wearing Thin: The Addin Fonua-Blake saga has hung over the club all season like a fat gut on a tired belt.
The best prop in the game on his day, he pushed for an early release to sign with Cronulla and had a blowup with the club over Magic Round that resulted in a suspension, but most telling has been the huge variation in his workrate where some games he just does not show up.
Tactical Simplicity: The Warriors were quickly shown to be a very predictable team with how they attacked and that became a major problem when their only livewire key position player in Luke Metcalf went down for the season in Round 4.
The team is overly conservative, leading the NRL in possession and set completion but ranking bottom five in tries and bottom four in offloads.
No Fortress: A 4-4-1 record at Mt Smart when the stadium is sold out and the team is off a Top 4 finish is simply not good enough.
Andrew Webster has been given a free pass after his super first year but much of this rests with him and his staff, particularly the playmakers.
He needs to open up the attack, optimise his selections and get his huge forwards playing second phase footy if the Warriors are to be any hope of improvement next year.
Kasey Badger Cannot Be in The Bunker: The combined performance of referee Liam Kennedy and Bunker review official was perhaps the most horrendous of the season, so bad that typically reserved caller Warren Smith could barely contain his disgust or disdain.
Sam Stonestreet was denied a try that should have been awarded.
Badger ran herselves around in circles on another call.
The absolute lowlight though was her deference to an “inconclusive evidence” call on an extremely obvious Davvy Moale error even though the cameras showed everything.
The NRL is a billion-dollar game. It has invested a lot in technology.
Yet the standard of officiating from The Bunker is nothing short of horrific relative to what it should be and that is because “the process” has overrun the game like vermin during the black plague and the officials used are not up to standard.
Vonnie Does Good: There is arguably nobody in the Rugby League media who more overtly loves the game more than Yvonne Sampson and it came across beautifully in her recent two-part documentary on Mal Meninga.
Sampson and her team did a magnificent job interspersing Meninga’s magnificent career with the story of his homeland, showing Mal bring his kids back to the remote island of his ancestry.
It was a beautiful, stunning piece and one that showcased not only Mal but Sampson.
Positivity in league – it is rare and almost never seen on these pages – but Vonnie has it in spades.
Heads-Up Footy: Players who think are worth their weight in gold and while the Bulldogs did not get a point out of Toby Sexton’s sharp decision to kick for touch off a 20-metre restart was the kind of thinking that will serve the Bulldogs well going forward.
Missed Tackle Team of the Year: The leading averaged missed tackles for each position. Minimum six games.
1.Will Kennedy (Cro)
2.Brent Naden (Tig)
3.Brian Kelly (GC)
4.Dane Gagai (New)
5.Paul Alamoti (Pen)
6.Ezra Mam (Bri)
7.Drew Hutchison (Bul)
8.Reagan Campbell-Gillard (Par)
9. Mitch Kenny (Pen)
10.Nathan Brown (Man)
11.Viliame Kikau (Bul)
12.Brendan Piakura (Bri)
13.Bailey Hayward (Bul)
2024 Field Goal Update – 24: No field goals this weekend in a high scoring round.
Fun Fact #1: In 2023, 45% of challenges were successful and that number has maintained in 2024 through the first 20 rounds.
Fun Fact #2: Two referees have had over 7% of their try rulings overturned by the Bunker: Peter Gough (9.16%) and Chris Butler (7.48%).
Fun Fact #3: Officials who have an above 45% success rate when challenged: Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski (59.09%), Peter Gough (55.36%), Wyatt Raymond (55.26%), Kasey Badger (53.57%), Adam Gee (51.43%), Chris Butler (47.83%).
A huge thanks to League Scene Pod for sending these stats through!
Willie M Team of the Week: This week’s team of calamities, catastrophes and car crashes:
1.Will Kennedy (Cro)
2.Dallin Watene-Zelezniak (NZ)
3.Solomona Faataape (Tig)
4.Moala Graham-Taufa (NZ)
5.Corey Oates (Bri)
6.Chanel Harris-Tavita (NZ)
7.Dion Teaupa (Sou)
8.Orryn Keeley (Dol)
9.Billy Walters (Bri)
10.David Klemmer (Tig)
11.Felise Kaufusi (Dol)
12.Brendan Piaura (Bri)
13.Isaiah Papalii (Tig)
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14.Tallyn Da Silva (Tig)
15.Jack Hetherington (New)
16.Tesi Niu (Dol)
17.Tom Ale (NZ)
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Coach: Kevin Walters (Bri)
Betting Market of the Week: If the NRL were to stage its own Games-style 100m sprint, the odds of the winner:
$1.80: Alofiana Khan-Pereira
$2.10: Jason Saab
$7.00: Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow
$21.00: Ronaldo Mulitalo
$26.00: Dominic Young
$41.00: Josh Addo-Carr
$51.00: Tyrell Sloan
$61.00: Jye Gray
Rumour Mill: There is a strong rumour suggesting Brian To’o has asked the Panthers for a release in order to join the Tigers after becoming disillusioned with the deal he signed last year when in Origin camp.
Unwanted Raider Corey Horsburgh has been linked with a move to the Dragons but he is far more likely to end up at the Bulldogs.
Brisbane are expected to take a crack at trying to lure Mitchell Moses north.
The Coaching Crosshairs: There is a lot of water to go under the bridge but there is plenty of jostling going on for favour at the Broncos with the club expected to move on from Kevin Walters.
The club will not have any strong views yet and will do what they always do when they have a coach opening – ask Craig Bellamy – but when he knocks them back they are going to need to identify a coach capable of returning the Broncos to glory.
Their four non-Bennett hirings – Henjak, Griffin, Seibold and Walters – had a combined one season of NRL coaching under their belt so the smart money is that they will look for a coach with experience.
After being bullied into Walters by the club’s former players, it is unlikely they will take a lash at a prominent former player.
Billy Slater will likely come top of the list after his Origin coaching but expect Michael Maguire and Justin Holbrook to be the leading candidates.
Moronic Coaching Decision of the Week: Kevin Walters has done an amazing job over the last two weeks of proving himself the most tactically inept coach in the premiership.
A week after his left side was brutally exposed by Canterbury and facing a must-win game against an astutely-coached Titans team, one would have thought Walters would have made some tactical adjustments to ensure simple spreads didn’t completely skittle the Broncos.
He did not. Corey Oates and Brendan Piakura replaced Selwyn Cobbo and Kobe Hetherington, joining Deine Mariner playing out of position in the centres.
Walters may have friends in the media deflecting for his inadequacies and attempting to take the heat out of any coach sacking moves but any club boss with two eyes would know that after the last fortnight, the Broncos have no chance under Walters.
Watch It: This week we return to one of the biggest travesties in Rugby League history when Western Suburbs robbed Canterbury in the last fifth-place playoff.
Wests had taken a whole host of Bulldogs players in the two seasons prior, picking off much of the 1988 Grand Final winning side to help Warren Ryan resurrect the Magpies.
The Bulldogs had started to emerge with Chris Anderson in his second year in charge.
It was a see-sawing affair with the boot of Jason Taylor – and the premature whistle of Bill Harrigan that ended the game mid-play with Welsh star Jonathan Davies away – the difference.
Highlights include player jobs being listed after a try, Graham Hughes’ commentary and Simon Gillies picking up Graeme Wynn. Watch it all here.