Don’t put an asterisk on that win over the Broncos, let it stand as a blueprint for the remainder of the season, writes Scotty Stevenson.
Mitigation is a risky business in the world of professional sport. The Warriors bounced back from an horrific 66-6 shellacking at the hands of the Gold Coast Titans last week to record a professional and convincing 32-16 victory over the Brisbane Broncos this week. To many observers, and not a few of the players involved, this was a win to take with a grain of salt, but one would urge the Warriors to put down the shaker and take the result at face value.
It has been some kind of season for the Auckland team, one in which the fluctuations of performance have neatly mirrored the currents of expectation. When the Warriors are battling, they could rightly claim to be the most scrutinised team in the NRL, such is their one country, one club status. When the Warriors get it right, they must feel keenly the increase in expectation from a casual fanbase that floats around them like a kelp forest on spring tide.
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Players will tell you they don’t read the papers, or the websites, or – more damaging still – the wild West cacophony created by social media, but they do. Shaun Johnson’s own post on Instagram this week proves the point. Should they? Probably not. But it’s hard to avoid the volume when the dial is set to 11 and your mug is on the posters at every rugby league saloon.
It’s a tough business being the single shop window for a sport, but it’s one that any Warriors player must accept they are in when they sign the deal and lace up the boots. That’s why this team should feel it is okay to keep the lights on overnight and let the passers by marvel at the goods. Forget the narrative regarding the Broncos being down on talent, this was a team with its collective back against another wall of its own creation, and they managed to swing their way off it.
This is why that win on Saturday represents something that the club can hold on to for the remainder of the season. When the chips are truly down, this Warriors side has been able to go all in and take the pot. Some of that is circumstance, but this latest bounce back is revelatory in the sense that the true DNA of this team was on full display.
Give the Warriors an overly structured game plan with no freedom to manipulate the moments and you will rob them of what sits at the very heart of their reason for being. Structure is a good thing, a necessary thing, in the NRL, but too much can suck the life out of a group of players who believe in magic as much as they believe in momentum. The way this team has responded to the off-piste orchestration of Te Maire Martin and Chanel Harris-Tavita is living proof of that theory.
Nothing above stands as a critique of Johnson’s legacy, but the energy of the side when under the control of a fully fit play maker is at odds with the lowkey performance put out across the last two weeks. This is a high energy side that needs a controller at the top of his physical range. It is a side that enjoys – thrives – on playing at the line and through it. When it clicks, the Warriors are capable of a brand of footy that few teams would live with and fewer would like to face.
That is why the win on Saturday night should not be asterisked by the absence of opposition players. It should be written up as a lesson in the free-flowing, ambitious and multi-faceted play the team is capable of, regardless of which team they face. It was a reminder of how good the side looks when it believes in those moments of magic.
It was a carved in stone tribute to the flair and finesse of the best sides the club has produced. It was a timely reminder that this club has a code very few players can unlock. Last year it was Johnson who held the keys. This year, Martin has cut himself a set.
Much of the credit for the win on Saturday night can be claimed by a pack that dominated the middle of the park. Mitch Barnett’s absence last week only highlighted by another mammoth effort on Saturday. Addin Fonua-Blake was again a force, as was Dylan Walker. That pack blossoms on confidence and feeds on good field position – both were created by the Warriors’ halves.
It is always tempting after a win like that to invoke the "yeah but" rule of analysis, but that won’t be happening here.
This was a marker from the Aucklanders, and one they can measure themselves against for the rest of the year.
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