Why it’s championship or bust for the Warriors

معنی واژه با لمس

1. 0:06Speaker 1: Kia ora, I'm Jane Yee in for Chelsea Daniels and this is The Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. It's do or die for the
2. 0:17Speaker 1: Warriors as they head into this weekend's sudden death match against the Newcastle Knights with the spot in the preliminary final against the Penrith Panthers on the line. Last weekend,
3. 0:27Speaker 1: the Whas seemed in control against the Dolphins before three late tries saw the visitors take the win, denying the Whas a direct path through to the next round. Now, they have to do it the hard way. And while
4. 0:37Speaker 1: they may have the hometown advantage, you'd be hard-pressed to say they have the home ground advantage. Today, on the front page, we're joined by New Zealand Herald sports reporters Nathan Lim and Christopher Reeve to look at what went
5. 0:48Speaker 1: wrong last weekend and what needs to happen at Eden Park on Sunday to keep our grand final dreams alive.
6. 0:56Speaker 1: Before we start getting to up the whas, I want to talk about the elephant in the room.
7. 1:01Speaker 2: You know what I'm going to say, don't you?
8. 1:04Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
9. 1:04Speaker 3: I have a feeling, but go on.
10. 1:06Speaker 1: You're not like 100% a Warriors fan, are you?
11. 1:10Speaker 4: No, I'm not. I've always supported the Parramatta Eels.
12. 1:13Speaker 3: Traitor. But they're not in the playoffs, so you've got to jump on a bandwagon at some point, and why not the Warriors?
13. 1:19Speaker 1: So if the Warriors lose this weekend, does that mean that you're going to then jump onto another bandwagon?
14. 1:23Speaker 2: You're going to be all about the Panthers?
15. 1:25Speaker 4: That's a good question. We'll wait and see.
16. 1:26Speaker 5: Hopefully they don't lose this weekend. I think it says a lot about his character, to be honest. Maybe the Dolphins.
17. 1:30Speaker 4: The Dolphins.
18. 1:33Speaker 2: We can make this just a one-on-one interview, if you like.
19. 1:36Speaker 4: Yeah, I think we just pretend he's not here. Yeah, I mean, that's fine by me.
20. 1:39Speaker 1: Let's talk about last weekend, what went wrong, because it felt pretty good for the first.
21. 1:43Speaker 2: 60 odd minutes, right?
22. 1:45Speaker 5: Well, that's the thing is that the Warriors actually executed a pretty good game plan for about 55 minutes and then fatigue really set in and there were some really
23. 1:54Speaker 5: poor missed tackle attempts, which effectively undid almost an hour of hard work. There's been a lot of scrutiny on the Warriors' edge defense over the last sort of month,
24. 2:04Speaker 5: couple of months. And that's where the Dolphins were particularly strong.
25. 2:08Speaker 5: Jermaine Issa-Arco, Herbie Farnworth. And they ran through the Warriors who just felt bits in that last sort of 25 minutes.
26. 2:15Speaker 5: And the Warriors did have to deal with sin binnings.
27. 2:17Speaker 5: They were playing with 11 players at a time. So discipline sort of became a bit of an Achilles heel during the game. And there was a bit of criticism about the Warriors' approach to take penalty kicks during the
28. 2:28Speaker 5: game instead of pushing for tries, which we've seen them do throughout the season. So potentially they went away from their game a little bit. I actually think it was the right approach in a finals game.
29. 2:37Speaker 4: Interesting.
30. 2:39Speaker 5: When you have an opportunity to go up by eight points, you're down to 11 men. I think taking penalty kicks is not a bad option. And there was no one in the crowd at the time saying... no we should be trying to apply pressure and increase fatigue in the
31. 2:51Speaker 5: Dolphins everyone including me was going no take the two let's take the points yeah the Warriors didn't lose that game because of the penalty kicks they lost the game because they missed tackles in the last 25 yeah I.
32. 2:59Speaker 3: Do wonder if they had the full 13 on the field whether or not they take those penalties kind of late in the half or whether they push for the tries maybe it was just a winding the clock down sort of situation but I would have liked to have
33. 3:10Speaker 3: seen them push for tries. Like you say, they played really well in that first half and I feel like they might have wanted to come away with a few more points and it proved pretty costly in the end when the Dolphins just flew home.
34. 3:22Speaker 2: Do you think they got a bit cocky?
35. 3:24Speaker 1: Felt a bit comfortable about their position when they went into that match?
36. 3:27Speaker 3: I don't know if anyone in the NRL can ever be cocky. It's such a good competition where eight can beat one on any given week. That's what makes the NRL so good. You get into the playoffs... There's no
37. 3:38Speaker 3: guarantee that you're winning, even if you're the top seed.
38. 3:41Speaker 5: Yeah, there's no way arrogance came into it. They'd be complete morons if they went into it feeling cocky against the Dolphins, given the Dolphins have beaten them the last time they played. They played eight games. It had been four each, you know, and no one had been able
39. 3:53Speaker 5: to win two games in a row. So, no, definitely the Warriors knew they were up against it. It just feels like a massive missed opportunity, really, to have locked in that, they could have locked in that home prelim final one game away from the grand final and you
40. 4:04Speaker 5: get to play in front of 50,000 at Eden Park.
41. 4:07Speaker 5: They now have to do it the hard way. They have to do it the long way. So, yeah, a big missed opportunity and... It was sort of like we started this week expecting to be all, you know, happy, looking forward to Warriors have a week-off prelim final. Instead,
42. 4:18Speaker 5: we got to go again. And, yeah, it's just good that the game obviously sold out in 11 minutes. So they'll be a pretty raucous crowd.
43. 4:25Speaker 3: Was it 11 minutes?
44. 4:26Speaker 4: Yeah.
45. 4:26Speaker 1: Jeez.
46. 4:28Speaker 4: It's good effort.
47. 4:29Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, it would have been nice to coast on through, but it is great. We're still in the competition.
48. 4:36Speaker 1: We've still got a chance. So let's leave last weekend behind.
49. 4:39Speaker 1: This weekend is a new weekend.
50. 4:41Speaker 2: What can we expect?
51. 4:43Speaker 3: Yeah well the Knights they did qualify seventh but they are a very good attacking team I think the Warriors forward pack is better than the Knights forward pack but
52. 4:53Speaker 3: out in the back line it's very even if not the Knights might have a bit of an edge there their counter-attack is really good once they get the ball in space they can be pretty hard to stop and we saw that a few weeks ago at Mount Smart
53. 5:05Speaker 3: where you know they really pushed the Warriors and they had 12 men on the field for 60 odd minutes so I think that's a little bit of a concern.
54. 5:13Speaker 1: If we lost our way a little bit defensively last weekend and you're telling me that their attacking line is strong.
55. 5:20Speaker 3: Yep.
56. 5:21Speaker 2: We shouldn't.
57. 5:22Speaker 3: The Knights are very good at attacking.
58. 5:25Speaker 5: So I'm really looking forward to this contest because I think this could be a bloodbath. Four weeks ago, these two sides went head to head. And the amount of niggle, the amount of fights that were breaking out, the Knights
59. 5:37Speaker 5: really targeted 21-year-old debut halfback Jet Cleary in the Warriors lineup.
60. 5:41Speaker 5: And the Warriors got really, his teammates got really defensive of him. And there was a lot of niggle and a lot of chatter between these two teams. So this is a bit of a grudge match. The Warriors scored
61. 5:51Speaker 5: 46 points in that game with a very inexperienced halves combination, but they leaked 32 when the Knights were down to 12 men. The Knights are devastating down the edges, quite
62. 6:02Speaker 5: similar to the Dolphins. They're very good at striking from range.
63. 6:04Speaker 5: They can score tries from 60 metres out. So as we've mentioned, the Warriors forward pack should have the upper hand.
64. 6:11Speaker 5: So the Warriors should look to dominate the middle. The Knights will probably have the advantage on the edges. And it's just going to be who takes advantage of their opportunities the best and who can be the most disciplined.
65. 6:22Speaker 2: So the whole field's going to be alive, basically.
66. 6:24Speaker 3: Yeah, it should be. It should be great. I'm interested to see which teams sort of start slowing down first as well, because that could be another kind of key factor in this one, the fatigue element, once that sets in. Obviously,
67. 6:35Speaker 3: in front of 46,000 people or whatever it is at Eden Park, there's going to be that adrenaline. Once that wears off, who's going to, going to keep that level.
68. 6:44Speaker 5: Yeah, the bench rotation is going to be how all the coaches use the interchange is going to be really important.
69. 6:49Speaker 4: If you looked at the Dolphins game, one of the big missed tackles.
70. 6:52Speaker 5: That we're talking about was Jacob Laban late in the piece was stepped by the Dolphins fullback.
71. 6:57Speaker 4: They run in a try. That sort of starts the cascade of points for the Dolphins.
72. 7:00Speaker 5: Jacob Laban copped a lot of heat this week for that, but he never got a rest because Kurt Capewell got soon binned. So they got the forward rotation A little bit wrong, and part of that was because of the sin binnings and how they kind of had to adjust
73. 7:12Speaker 5: to that. But Jacob Laban's, you know, he's played 70-plus minutes and gets stepped, and it looks lazy, but he's carrying so much fatigue because of all the work he's had to do. So the way they keep the forwards
74. 7:24Speaker 5: fresh is going to be really crucial late in the game against the Knights.
75. 7:27Speaker 2: So Andrew Webster, potentially the most important person on the team?
76. 7:30Speaker 4: 100%.
77. 7:31Speaker 5: As he has been for the last three or four years.
78. 7:34Speaker 5: You know, he came on in 2023. and it's completely transformed this club, turned the culture around, and the way he leads, his calmness, the way he speaks to the press, the way he obviously relates to the players. Every player
79. 7:45Speaker 5: that comes out of an Andrew Webster environment touts his name like you wouldn't believe.
80. 7:49Speaker 4: He's so important.
81. 7:50Speaker 5: He's obviously come out of that Penrith system, which has been really, really successful, and he's been able to implement an incredibly strong team culture at this club.
82. 8:05Speaker 4: Oh, look, at the end of the day, we just want to win.
83. 8:07Speaker 3: I don't know how and why and when we're going to get there, but we'll get there. We're determined.
84. 8:12Speaker 4: We're hungry for it. It's our opportunity, and we don't want to miss it.
85. 8:16Speaker 5: This week, and we want to celebrate it with, you know, 50-odd thousand fans at Eden Park, which is going to be an amazing event.
86. 8:26Speaker 1: What are you going to be looking out for? What are the things that you're most excited to see come Sunday?
87. 8:30Speaker 4: I think.
88. 8:32Speaker 5: Probably a massive talking point ahead of the game is the injuries and who's going to be available. So Jackson Ford's been ruled out with an ankle injury, which is unfortunate.
89. 8:41Speaker 5: He's only just come back after a couple of months out.
90. 8:44Speaker 5: But there are big injury clouds hanging over Dallin Watini-Zelezniak, who broke his collarbone four weeks ago. You know, I Googled AI'd how long that should take him to recover because he had surgery, and it reckoned 10 weeks.
91. 8:56Speaker 4: It's been four weeks.
92. 8:57Speaker 1: 10 weeks. But then did you ask AI what if I've got, like, a major match ahead that would see me through into the... preliminary final if we win it, because AI might change his mind.
93. 9:09Speaker 4: Maybe three and a half weeks.
94. 9:11Speaker 5: I didn't do a deep dive. But, yeah, it is incredible that he's been named. And from what I've heard, you know, our colleague Michael Burgess is pretty clued in
95. 9:20Speaker 5: to what's going on around the team. And he said that, you know, he's not totally comfortable, but there.
96. 9:27Speaker 4: Is a chance.
97. 9:28Speaker 5: So I actually think it's unlikely that we will see him.
98. 9:31Speaker 5: The other one is Leka Halasima, who pulled up with a tight hamstring before the Dolphins game was ruled out.
99. 9:35Speaker 5: And the Warriors really missed him. I think what the Warriors missed on attack, the kicking game was a little bit off, but what they missed on attack was someone who could create something out of nothing. Tain Tua Piki, the fullback, was a one-man attack for the Warriors against
100. 9:47Speaker 5: the Dolphins. And Leka Halasima is the guy you give the ball to if you're down by 10 late in the second half and you need someone to create something.
101. 9:54Speaker 5: If they don't have him, who is that player? Because Tain Tua Piki can't do it all himself.
102. 9:59Speaker 3: I feel like there could be a little bit of a mental edge if Lekker does play because you remember that game against the Knights last year where the Warriors stole it at the death because he's run 40 meters
103. 10:09Speaker 3: beat half their team to score a try hopefully he's back and that kind of plays on the mind a little.
104. 10:14Speaker 2: Bit They're a tenacious team, the Warriors.
105. 10:16Speaker 1: I feel like they've always been a tenacious team. They've always been able to turn it around. Well, not always, but there have been occasions where they've been able to turn it around when you just thought, absolutely no way.
106. 10:27Speaker 2: They're going to play the full 80, right?
107. 10:30Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so.
108. 10:31Speaker 3: I think that the whole tenure under Andrew Webster, minus maybe one year, tenacity has kind of been their MO.
109. 10:38Speaker 3: They've stayed in games for 80 minutes, like you say, and In the past, that hasn't been something that the Warriors have done. But we've seen that more over the last few years, that they've really been a team who
110. 10:49Speaker 3: can go start to finish, come out firing and finish firing.
111. 10:53Speaker 3: Even a few weeks ago, you see them kind of 78 minutes, they're up by heaps. They're still putting huge shots on guys to really close out the game emphatically.
112. 11:02Speaker 3: And that's what you want to see in a final, right?
113. 11:04Speaker 5: Yeah, resilience is sort of the buzzword that started from 2023.
114. 11:07Speaker 5: The history of the Warriors, especially through the 2010s, is that mentally they didn't have it. They just weren't, they weren't clued in to go a full 80 minutes. They'd go up by 22 points and they'd blow it. You know,
115. 11:19Speaker 5: they'd switch off for periods in that game. And the hallmark of Webster's teams has been that they will defend their own line to the last. I think over the last couple of months, we've had this phase with the
116. 11:29Speaker 5: Warriors where around about the 60 minute mark, they'll switch off for about 10 minutes and sides will come back into the game and then we'll have a very nervy last 10 minutes.
117. 11:38Speaker 4: Will the Warriors hold on?
118. 11:39Speaker 5: And for the most part, they've been able to hold on They couldn't hold on against the Dolphins. We saw the same thing happen in an NRL finals match against the kind of quality opposition that they're going to be
119. 11:50Speaker 5: faced with every week. You cannot afford to have that 10, 15, 20-minute period where you button off. And they got punished for it last week. So that's a big thing, I guess, that fans will be looking for is when it gets
120. 12:01Speaker 5: to about that hour mark, how do the Warriors hold up?
121. 12:04Speaker 5: Has the fatigue set in? Can they keep their standards high for that full 80?
122. 12:09Speaker 1: And there are going to be plenty of fans at Eden Park come Sunday, sold out in 11 minutes.
123. 12:13Speaker 2: But it's not a league stadium, is it?
124. 12:17Speaker 3: I mean, it's good for visiting teams. I think the Warriors have won, what, one of six at Eden Park so far. So it's not a great record, but I think you just put that behind you. You come into
125. 12:28Speaker 3: a game like this, it's one game, you win, you go on, you lose, that's the end of your season.
126. 12:33Speaker 3: And I think you just have to look at it as a standalone game. I'm sure they're looking at it as they're playing at any, Any old stadium, I don't think you think too much about what you're playing. You just go out and play the game.
127. 12:44Speaker 2: It's in your heart with your home ground, though.
128. 12:47Speaker 4: Oh, 100%.
129. 12:48Speaker 5: I think, you know, you can bring up that stat one and six, but the last time I played Eden Park was, what, 2016, 2018? It was a while ago.
130. 12:55Speaker 5: It was a long time ago. Completely different team, completely different franchise, really. So take that with a grain of salt.
131. 13:02Speaker 5: I think the big difference between Eden Park and Mount Smart is how close the fans are to the game.
132. 13:08Speaker 5: If you go to a rugby test at Eden Park, you are 30 metres away from the players on the field when you're sitting there watching the game. You're a long way away. When you go to Mount Smart, you
133. 13:17Speaker 5: sit in the front row, seven, eight metres to the winger.
134. 13:21Speaker 5: So you're close. The players can hear the crowd. And I don't know if you've been to a Warriors game, but it can get bloody hostile. There is a reason the southern stand, the south stand at Mount Smart, has
135. 13:32Speaker 5: a reputation for getting a bit feral, right? But that's great.
136. 13:37Speaker 5: I think the players love that. The crowd gives the opposition crap. You're in there in the crowd and you are riding every moment, every small little micro moment that
137. 13:47Speaker 5: goes the Warriors way. Everyone is up cheering. Every micro moment that goes against the Warriors, everyone's up booing.
138. 13:53Speaker 4: It doesn't matter.
139. 13:54Speaker 5: So I think that they will miss that a little bit.
140. 13:57Speaker 5: I think playing in a different location where they're slightly out of routine, new changing rooms, all those little things probably does play into the opposition's favour. Having said that, 48,000 Warriors fans at Eden Park is going to be
141. 14:09Speaker 5: a sight to behold.
142. 14:12Speaker 2: What's capacity at Mount Smart?
143. 14:14Speaker 4: About 26.
144. 14:15Speaker 2: Yeah, right. So, considerably more.
145. 14:17Speaker 3: Yeah, you're talking about noise. I think it'll be pretty loud at Eden Park on Sunday.
146. 14:21Speaker 2: Mount Eden is not going to know what's hit it.
147. 14:24Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. This is not an all day game. Godspeed to anyone living in Kingsland.
148. 14:28Speaker 5: Yeah.
149. 14:29Speaker 4: On Sunday night, the streets are going to be manic.
150. 14:32Speaker 3: At least the new rail line will get a workout.
151. 14:34Speaker 4: Yeah, oh, 100%.
152. 14:35Speaker 2: Yeah, that's going to be as much of a news story as anything.
153. 14:37Speaker 4: Good luck to the rail line.
154. 14:38Speaker 3: Yeah.
155. 14:38Speaker 2: Hey, we've had a couple of.
156. 14:39Speaker 1: Cracks at the grand final before, but it's been a while between drinks.
157. 14:44Speaker 2: When was the last time we were in the grand final?
158. 14:45Speaker 4: 2011, I believe.
159. 14:47Speaker 2: So a good 15 years.
160. 14:48Speaker 1: And it feels like it was not that long ago where we were just happy to be there.
161. 14:53Speaker 2: You know, just happy with a win.
162. 14:56Speaker 1: Things have really changed over the last few years, and I feel like the fandom's really reflected that as well. 100%.
163. 15:01Speaker 4: I think....
164. 15:04Speaker 5: You know, because the Warriors have been successful over the last few years, they've made the final three out of the four years Andrew Webster's been in charge. They obviously
165. 15:13Speaker 5: went to the preliminary final in 2023. That was a great shot at a title and they missed out. I would argue that 2026, they are in the best position
166. 15:23Speaker 5: they have ever been to win an NRL title. They put it all together. Injuries are going to play a factor and it always does. They always do at this point in the season. But, I mean, they recorded more
167. 15:34Speaker 5: regular season wins than they ever have before in an NRL season. So from that perspective, it's been a huge success.
168. 15:40Speaker 5: It's about capitalising on that now.
169. 15:43Speaker 3: You just look at the team, it feels like it's possibly the most well-rounded this team has ever been. You look across the park and there are guys who would star in any team in the competition.
170. 15:53Speaker 2: Are you telling me we've got a real shot this year?
171. 15:56Speaker 2: This could be.
172. 15:58Speaker 3: I mean, if they play up to their potential, yeah.
173. 16:01Speaker 3: If they do what they did last week and clock off toward the 60-minute mark, then there should be some concern.
174. 16:08Speaker 2: Okay, that's an Eels fan talking. Do you think that this could be our year?
175. 16:13Speaker 4: Oh, you're looking for the bias view?
176. 16:15Speaker 2: I'm looking for the bias view. Come on.
177. 16:16Speaker 5: Look, I think it is championship or bust for the Warriors this year. I think we knew that weeks ago when the Warriors beat Penrith. I think at that point,
178. 16:27Speaker 5: when they knocked over Penrith at Mount Smart after that haka, this season became title or failure. Failure is a harsh word.
179. 16:37Speaker 5: Broadly looking at the season, it's been a monumental success.
180. 16:41Speaker 5: But if they lose ahead of the grand final, if they make the grand final and lose, it's going to feel like a massive missed opportunity because this team will not be the same next year as it is this year.
181. 16:51Speaker 4: Mitch Barnett departing.
182. 16:53Speaker 5: Obviously, Luke Metcalfe leaving, we don't know if he's going to play a role, you know, in these last few games of the season, potentially. But I 100% feel that
183. 17:03Speaker 5: this is, if they are going to do it, this is a year they have to capitalise on it.
184. 17:08Speaker 2: Okay, great stuff. Up the wires. You know, up the eels, I suppose. What are they up to at the moment, do you think? They're just hanging out. They're just slithering around.
185. 17:18Speaker 4: They're a noosa party.
186. 17:19Speaker 1: Thank you both for joining us on the front page and all the very.
187. 17:23Speaker 2: Best to us all for the weekend.
188. 17:24Speaker 4: Thank you.
189. 17:29Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us.
190. 17:30Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of The Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at nzherald.co.nz or in the Herald app. The Front Page is produced by me, Jane Yee, and Richard Martin, who's
191. 17:42Speaker 1: also our editor. Kane Dickey is our studio operator. Subscribe to The Front Page on the iHeart app or wherever you get your podcasts and tune in next time for another look behind the headlines.