Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan: Chasing Consistency
Aotearoa Warriors are enjoying a lovely pocket of games early in the season, defeating Tigers and Broncos before this Friday night fixture against North Queensland Cowboys. Warriors host Cowboys at Redcliffe and while none of these are easy games for Warriors, they are games against fellow ho-hum NRL teams. If Warriors win most of these kind of games they will once again settle on the fringes of finals footy and given all the niggle working against Warriors, chasing finals footy is fantastic.
Whether Warriors can win most of these games is the issue. Tigers stink at footy but remember that Michael Maguire leads a low key awesome Aotearoa Kiwis group. Broncos also stink and they combine bad culture vibes with bad footy. Cowboys feel like the best of these three teams and this presents an intriguing challenge for Warriors, especially if they are without Addin Fonua-Blake.
Fonua-Blake churned out exceptional mahi against Broncos, winning the battle against Payne Haas while the Warriors forward pack won their battle against the Broncos forwards. Cowboys have the South Auckland Rhino Jason Taumalolo and a decent crop of young forwards, providing another forward pack match up that will likely decide the contest.
With Fonua-Blake in the forward pack, there is comfort in knowing that each set one bloke will efficiently devour metres and something positive will come after his play-the-ball. Take Fonua-Blake out of the pack and that comfort diminishes. Other blokes can elevate their mahi against Cowboys in Fonua-Blake's absence, or they collectively hold parity with a Cowboys pack that is fairly similar to Warriors.
Four games down, four halves combinations used. This should be the first time this season where a halves combo has played consecutive games with Shaun Johnson and Chanel Harris-Tavita named again. Along with Reece Walsh and Wayde Egan, the spine needs as many minutes together as possible.
Johnson has a try assist in each of the two games he's played. Johnson is averaging 484.85 kicking metres per game and that's the highest of his career, one of two seasons averaging 400+. Johnson is also averaging 40m running per game and that's the lowest of his career.
Harris-Tavita has a forced drop out in three consecutive games. Harris-Tavita's 141.33 kicking metres per game is the lowest of his four seasons, while his 73m running is the highest of his four seasons.
Harris-Tavita and Johnson have combined for 3 try assists and 6 forced droppies this season. Johnson's kicking metres are up, while Harris-Tavita's are down. Johnson's running metres are down, while Harris-Tavita's are up. That smells like a brewing combination.
Walsh had a try assist, a linebreak and 9 tackle busts vs Broncos. That's the first game this season in which Walsh has ticked all three boxes and he is casually stacking up games with 150+ running metres.
What happens to Warriors kick return metres without Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Ken Maumalo and David Fusitu'a?
2020: 12th - 169.2 KRM/game.
2021: 13th - 157.4 KRM/game.
2022: 4th - 184 KRM/game.
Tuivasa-Sheck hasn't racked up many rugby union games and is battling injury. Maumalo is now battling the dark arts with Tigers. Fusitu'a moved to Leeds and has had knee surgery, while Leeds are 1-6 and need a new coach.
Warriors are 2nd for missed tackles and Cowboys churn out the fewest offloads in the NRL. I'm curious how Warriors defend Cowboys as they have done the job against Tigers and Broncos, but Cowboys have powerful forwards as well as solid play-makers sharing the footy to lively outside backs. The lack of Cowboys razzle dazzle could help Warriors simplify their defence and ease the burden on Warriors backs trying to cover their opponents.
Junior Warriors Mahi
No Warriors juniors played for Redcliffe U18 and U21 last weekend. This week Jacob Laban (U18) and Zyon Maiu'u (U21) are the only Warriors juniors named. Reserve grade features Junior Ratuva, Viliami Vailea and Kina Kepu named while Rocco Berry and Taniela Otukolo could slide back to Redcliffe after the NRL game.
Back in Aotearoa, Warriors have named a Junior Warriors squad to wiggle across the North Island. All the Junior Warriors are from Auckland because they stem from the Under 18 Dean Bell Cup that was recently played, while there is also an Under 16 squad named via Auckland Rugby League and the Under 16 Shaun Johnson Shield. At the same time, we have NZRL Under 20s footy happening and various Warriors juniors are involved there - big ups South Island for defeating Counties Manukau last week.
One lad wasn't selected in the Junior Warriors squad and I'm curious where Xavier Tito-Harris pops up next. Tito-Harris does appear to be in the Warriors system and was noted as 'not available for selection' in the Junior Warriors announced, so he may slide over to Redcliffe soon.
Remember that Aotearoa rugby league is sizzling right now. Whether Warriors, Kiwi-NRL, wahine or grassroots, celebrate the footy.
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Peace and love.