Post Match Warriors v Roosters - [Round 3, 2025]

Warriors vs Roosters

Warriors

14 - 6

MATCH COMPLETE

Go Media Stadium

21 Mar 2025

Roosters

Match Stats

Warriors Roosters
3 Tries 1
1 / 3 Conversions 1 / 1
0/0 Field Goals 0/0
0/0 2P Field Goals 0/0
2 Try Assists 1
Warriors Roosters
52% Possession 48%
6 / 36 Set Completion 11 / 27
57 Time in Opposition Half 43
1662 Metres Gained 1414
0 Dropouts 2
8 Dummy Half Runs 3
25 / 705 Kicks/Kick Metres 24 / 699
0 40/20 1
0 20/40 0
6 Offloads 3
0 1 on 1 Steals 0
3 Line Breaks 4
2 Line Break Assists 4
9 Support Play 10
Warriors Roosters
6 / 36 Set Completion 11 / 27
2 Penalties (Conceded) 4
3 Set Restarts 1
8 Errors 12

Player Stats

# Warriors T Pts TA LB TB OFF Ta MT IT Pos DR K KM M E P
1 C. Nicoll-Klokstad 0 0 2 1 7 0 5 0 0 33 0 0 0m 279m 0 0
2 T. Tuaupiki 0 0 0 0 4 0 8 2 0 13 0 0 0m 84m 0 0
3 A. Leiataua 2 8 0 2 3 1 12 1 0 11 0 0 0m 86m 1 0
4 A. Pompey 0 0 0 0 1 0 9 1 0 20 0 0 0m 128m 2 0
5 R. Tuivasa-Sheck 0 0 0 0 2 0 5 1 0 17 0 0 0m 117m 0 0
6 C. Harris-Tavita 1 4 0 0 1 1 14 1 0 24 1 12 307m 40m 2 0
7 L. Metcalf 0 2 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 32 0 12 384m 8m 2 0
8 J. Fisher-Harris 0 0 0 0 0 1 25 3 0 18 0 0 0m 129m 0 0
9 W. Egan 0 0 0 0 4 0 36 6 0 12 7 0 0m 82m 0 0
10 M. Barnett 0 0 0 0 2 0 30 4 0 15 0 0 0m 123m 0 0
11 K. Capewell 0 0 0 0 1 1 26 1 0 14 0 1 14m 75m 0 0
12 M. Niukore 0 0 0 0 1 0 28 4 0 7 0 0 0m 44m 0 0
13 E. Clark 0 0 0 0 0 1 24 3 0 13 0 0 0m 113m 0 1
14 D. Walker 0 0 0 0 0 0 19 2 0 12 0 0 0m 92m 0 0
15 J. Ford 0 0 0 0 2 0 29 4 0 15 0 0 0m 118m 0 0
16 D. Vaimauga 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 1 0 7 0 0 0m 62m 1 1
17 L. Halasima 0 0 0 0 4 1 10 0 0 7 0 0 0m 82m 0 0
18 J. Laban 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0m 0m 0 0
# Roosters T Pts TA LB TB OFF Ta MT IT Pos DR K KM M E P
1 J. Tedesco 0 0 0 0 6 1 4 0 0 24 1 0 0m 152m 0 0
2 D. Tupou 0 0 0 1 5 0 3 1 0 32 0 3 53m 239m 1 0
3 M. Nawaqanitawase 0 0 0 1 5 1 10 3 0 16 0 1 25m 108m 1 0
4 R. Toia 0 0 0 0 2 0 17 2 0 19 0 1 4m 74m 3 0
5 D. Young 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 26 0 1 20m 125m 2 0
6 S. Smith 0 2 0 0 0 0 13 3 0 26 1 4 105m 40m 2 0
7 C. Townsend 0 0 0 0 0 0 34 1 0 33 0 14 492m 11m 1 0
8 S. Leniu 0 0 0 0 5 0 35 1 0 10 0 0 0m 96m 0 0
9 C. Watson 0 0 1 0 0 0 22 2 0 3 1 0 0m 10m 0 0
10 N. Whyte 1 4 0 1 4 0 29 2 0 14 0 0 0m 124m 1 1
11 A. Crichton 0 0 0 0 3 1 35 5 0 18 0 0 0m 126m 0 0
12 S. Wong 0 0 0 0 0 0 41 2 0 8 0 0 0m 71m 1 0
13 V. Radley 0 0 0 0 1 0 31 10 0 10 0 0 0m 96m 0 1
14 Z. Dockar-Clay 0 0 0 0 0 0 34 0 0 2 0 0 0m 21m 0 1
16 B. Steep 0 0 0 0 2 0 23 0 0 8 0 0 0m 59m 0 0
18 H. Savala 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 6 0 0 0m 31m 0 0
21 M. Makatoa 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 0 0 5 0 0 0m 31m 0 1
22 E. Roberts 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0m 0m 0 0
 

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I thought Tuapiki was always dangerous with the ball

Why aren’t we trying him in the halves ??

His ability to find holes by drifting and then straightening up to burst through - that’s what Metcalf needs to learn..

Metcalf will drift looking for a hole then stop suddenly and change direction. It’s such a jaggered clunky motion compared to TT which is always smooth and seamless
My opinion bro is that Metcalf does his stop and change direction after the shape of our attack has fragmented. I also saw last night at a clunky stage of our attack in their red zone he straightened up and took it right to the line before making his pass. Compare that to just shovelling it on to CNK to run it like a prop.

I'm not against Taine in the halves, but at this stage he's needed where he is albeit that he caught Roger's jamming disease.

I believe I've only seen Aminatuai (new young winger) jam in properly this season. And he's not even present in conversations.
 
I'll admit after two handling errors earlier in the game and a few years of the majority of his stuff not coming off. That when CHT put up that bomb I did say "Oh not you".

Can happily say a few seconds later I said to my son "Made me eat my words, I'll keep my mouth shut now".

A good play with him chasing though on his own kick and scoring.
Haha i did exactly the same thing in front of my son!! Haha..I take that back was out of my mouth as soon as he planted the ball!
 
My opinion bro is that Metcalf does his stop and change direction after the shape of our attack has fragmented. I also saw last night at a clunky stage of our attack in their red zone he straightened up and took it right to the line before making his pass. Compare that to just shovelling it on to CNK to run it like a prop.

I'm not against Taine in the halves, but at this stage he's needed where he is albeit that he caught Roger's jamming disease.

I believe I've only seen Aminatuai (new young winger) jam in properly this season. And he's not even present in conversations.

Yeah fair points

I just can’t get over how clunky our halves look when running with the ball. CHT and his fake pass is so cringy it’s almost a comedy sketch. Has he EVER fooled anyone with that pass???😂i guess I’m too used to seeing SJ play.

Anyway we won so I’ll park the criticism until a more appropriate time 😉
 

My uneducated take to me Metcalf is a natural ball runner, up until they put the 7 jersey on him his first instinct was to run......now its looking to set up play outside him. Once he learns to balance that out and realizes one of the best ways he can open up space for his outsides is to run, the attack might flow smoother and open up more oppertunities.

Also he's yet to gain understanding of tempo. Changing tempo can open up defences a lot more than just going full pedal to the floor everytime. TMM plays with great tempo going from fast to slow or slow to fast hence why he puts runners into space often. This however only comes with experience and can take a long time to realize......look how long it took SJ to get it.

Webby and the club are all in on Metcalf so even if the results dont necessarily go our way their going to give him all the time he needs, so injury apart i think he's got the 7 jumper all season.
You know nothing John Snow (see bolded part of your post).

You see this tempo switch across the NRL itself.

There is this paradoxical thing where the game has been artificially sped up, but as halfbacks age and slow down, they become even more impactful in games. A half backs prime in the current game seems to include a late bloom period after their running legs are gone.

In oldschool thinking, experts would talk about how the great ones looked like they had more time and space than the rest of the competition. Your tempo switching discussion helps explain this phenomena/ your comments should unwrap the mystery for people - perhaps they should be forwarded to the 'experts' on the telly at SKY (only partly tongue in cheek, you learn more here in posts than years of SKY game analysis)

To add to what you have said, Metcalf you can see, is also concentrating on his new defensive demands, you would have to give him a tick there, he has been solid - which is a big step up from where his rep was as a running six.

We also have to bare in mind that he has a new long kicking game, and we need to appreciate that it doesn't come about readily nor easily, what we are seeing is months of practice and taking that from beta testing to the real thing without the confidence of hours on the odometer. He is also goal kicking.

So yeah, no shit we are all in on Metcalf and the coaches think he is our long term halfback.
 
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Nah, we still have Raiders beef.
Yeah, the boys have it sitting nicely in the back there. I reckon Ricky had round 1 And 12 marked out as Soon as the draw was released last year, haha!

We're also looking towards round 12, Ricky, at the "House Of PAIN!!!" Ehm' Go Media STADIUM!!!

Off topic, please, how does one start a Thread?
 
2 out of 3 ain't bad
So pleased to get the win last night. I felt that being able to win a tight one without all of our players being comfortable in their roles was a good sign of things to come. Our pack is formidable and our defence from the backs was on point. The right edge looks so much more capable defending without DWZ in the line. My biggest worry is the halves and the lack of creativity but as has been said give them time.

We were fortunate last night that their centres struggled to get good ball to the wings. They were facing some stiff defence but there were at least half a dozen knock ons or bad passes that would have put their wingers away if they'd stuck. And that would have changed the game.

One thing that bugged me last night ( and all last season) was kicking to wingers on the 5th tackle. Why do we do it so much? Why kick an easily catchable ball to 18 foot tall specialist wingers that practice catching every day?
I get that it's a territory thing and strategy and we can't score off every set but it's like we rumble it up for 5 tackles and then give the ball back for the opposition to try to do better. No 40/20 attempts. No grubbers to make them pick up a rolling ball. No set 5th tackle plays. We don't even try to drag a winger into a 5th tackle then kick to his wing. Just a straight forward kick to a set winger. Anyone got some sound theory around why we do it?

But well pleased with the win. And pleased I bit the bullet and resigned with Sky Sport after last weeks performance. I'm confident we can do the Tigers next week and if we can 2 points from that game and 2 from the bye and we're well set u the season really starts.
My theory - it’s early season game plan.
If you believe you’re entering a season with above average fitness, boxing them in the square (10x10m box in either corner) and keeping there there on the first, leaves them only 5 more tackles to invest in coming out of their red zone against a compressed defensive line.

From there the opposition are forced to kick early or spread it to counter. This increases a risk of error or fatigues a Team early in their own red zone, impact only compounds when done well repetitively.

I think it’s smart strategy in the beginning of a season and a game plan a team can revert to during the season if a game is getting away on you at any stage.

There would be other intended benefits such as taking their wingers out in those early tackles until we’ve had time compress where they would have limited impact on T3-5 for eg.

I like it for us right now. Low risk = less errors, limited errors to maximise impact of that game plan and we’ll run them down at the back end as we’ve seen the last couple of weeks.

Try and execute a more expansive attacking style of footy and you’ll get what we got in Vegas.

I’ve got every confidence in what our coaching staff are doing - most especially the noticeably longer stints the young bucks are getting off the bench each week, we’ve finally learned to introduce young talent properly.
 
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What a difference 2-3 weeks makes. It was the apocalypse in here after Vegas, but I always like the quote “you’re never as bad as you think you are, and you’re never as good as you think you are”. It could be aptly applied to this side. Yes Vegas was shithouse but mightn’t have been as bad as many initially assessed. And these wins have been great for confidence but let’s maybe keep expectations in check.

Couple of thoughts from my view at Bay 29, although much has already been said.

- A great grinding contest. To come out on top in a grind like that is a testament to the trust in Webby imo.
- There are some hardy workers in that side, CNK, Clark, Mitch…fantastic.
- Said it last week too, the way JFH holds the middle D together is epic. The guys a f’n bully.
- It’s been mentioned plenty already that Leka was fantastic and as much as I’d like to see him more purely because he is fantastic to watch, I still think the way his minutes managed (along with the other young bucks) is the right way to go long term. It’s super exciting seeing these guys come through and develop.
- Rog will be a loss but surely Berry comes in and Pompey moves out?
- The next two away will be tough but think we can come away with points.

Enjoy and bask in another post win week
 
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