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Sunday, May 29, 2005

Warriors Win Two Straight!!! 

What a momentous occasion.

The first time they have won two straight since the playoffs in 2003. Pretty aweful bloody stat that is, or was.

I went there and finally witnessed a team I support winning. I think I'd seen about 15 straight draws or losses spread over 18 months across 4 teams. The rain on the stand roof was so deafening that you couldn't actually hear anything at all and they felt so sorry for all the folk in the open stands that they let them go sit in the covered areas which was a bloody nice touch. I'd like to see that happen at Eden Park. bbiirrrrttt.

Still it was a bit of a culture shock for me to be surrounded by so much common muck from the cheap seats. They breed us snobby out in West Auckland ;).

Stacy Jones had an excellent game, running the ship nicely and Clinton Toopi did more very good things than dumb things for once. Francis Meli is still looking bloody awful though. How did he go from busting the line and running 50 metres almost every game to doing it never... ever, anymore? And he once again gave away a try completely unneccessarily by leaving his man unmarked when there was plenty of cover coming across.

Ah well, two points in the bank, now just two outside the top eight and with nearly the best defence in the league and an attack that is not what it needs to be but not that shit either. If they could just get Meli to hit some REAL form and Toopi to get on a roll they could start to make a push up the table. Don't go counting on it though.

Some stats:
Warriors made 20 errors which is pissporr even given the conditions and they did their best to lose it in the first 20 of the second half. If they had been playing a top side they would have gone behind at that point.

Missed tackles was only 10 from 270 which is excellent and the Tigers never looked like scoring or cracking the line really.

Sione Faumuina and Jones both made 4 mistakes each though I can only recall one from Jones and Faumuinas were crap. Ball security mate! Byrne made 3 apparantly though I can't remember any of them. Byrne also apparently managed to go 80 minutes without making a tackle which is quite the feat. Good on ya mate. No need doing anything you don't need to.

Louis Anderson topped the tackle count with 29 and Faumuina had 28.

Toopi made the most metres with 129 from just 13 runs.

And Price looks to be out for a while so....... fuck!

And the table after round 12 looks like this.

20 Broncos +101
18 Sharks +60
18 Sea Eagles +57 (not finished)
16 Cowboys +50
16 Eels +15
14 Roosters +27
14 Raiders -18
14 Storm +119
12 Warriors +39
12 Dragons -8
12 Tigers -30
10 Bulldogs -45
8 Panthers -16 (not finished)
6 Rabbitohs -167
4 Knights -182

* The Warriors are only one point away from having the best defense in the comp (208 from 11 games) which must come down to Campion running that side of things. Less than 20 points a agme average compared to nearly 30 last season.

** Their attack (247 from 11 games) is only better than the Rabbitohs and the Knights though which is a bit grim.

Have the Sea Eagles got enough points and momentum to achieve the unthinkable and NEARLY make the playoffs??!!

Will Sonny Bill fire the Bulldogs to get them surging up the ladder?

Can the Roosters threaten the Broncos for the minor premiership now that they have sorted their shit out?

Sharks to finish in the top 4 and get knocked out immediately like they always do?

Panthers to do a Warriors and barely make the playoffs before falling apart and taking their rightful place at the bottom of the ladder for the next 5 years?

And looking to the near future the Warriors are heading into a long hard patch.

v Dragons AWAY
v Storm HOME
v Eels AWAY
v Broncos HOME
v Cowboys AWAY
v Bulldogs HOME
v Roosters AWAY

No many easy points there are there?!

Comments:
Yamis said: "I went there and finally witnessed a team I support winning. I think I'd seen about 15 straight draws or losses spread over 18 months across 4 teams."

Easy way to fix that, mate, move to Dunedin: no sports I care to watch are played here, we can't pick up Prime, and can't afford Sky. So you're completely insulated from sporting disappointments. :)
 
Count yourself lucky alright.

I've seen the Kingz lose about 3 out of 3. The Breakers lose 2 from 2. My basketball team in Korea lose 2 from 2 this year. The Warriors lose 3 games before yesterday. My footie team in Korea close the season out with about 10 draws and losses.

So finally!!!

The curse is broken!
 
Yamis said: "Warriors made 20 errors which is pissporr even given the conditions"

Remember last year's NZ vs OZ union testmatch in Wellington (I think?) where it poured rain the whole time. From what I recall, their must have been over 20 mistakes from each team in the first half alone.
 

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