Warriors coach Stephen Kearney was frustrated at his players and unhappy with the officiating after his team’s 40-12 loss to the Rabbitohs on Friday night.
It was a crashing back to earth for the Warriors at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney as they were soundly beaten by a better side.
Last week against the Cowboys, the Warriors played so well to win 37-26, even if their defence leaked too many points.
Against the Rabbitohs, their defence was even worse and while they created more opportunities than they’ve done in most of their games this season, they could still only score two tries.
“It’s obviously very disappointing,” Kearney said in his post match press conference.
“Probably disappointing and frustrating are probably the two words that come to mind right at the minute.
“What disappointed me was the softness of the tries,” he added.
“Seven tries, 43 missed tackles and to bee fair, we created enough opportunities ourselves.
“We got over the try line three, four times. Lost the ball, one got batted away, so I thought we created enough opportunities for ourselves, but we just didn’t have any resilience to keep them out.
“They’re obviously a good footy team, play a really open style of footy and we didn’t show enough toughness to mount a challenge.”
Aside from the possible eye gouge by Wayde Egan on Latrell Mitchell in the second half, there were a couple of key moments in the game.
One was the sin binning of Kodi Nikorima for flopping on Dane Gagai to stop a quick play the ball after a break.
The other was when Mitchell went unpunished for a head high tackle on Fusitu’a.
The Warriors winger looked set to score his second try of the game, but Mitchell swung out his arm, knocking Fusitu’a down. Not only did he lose the ball, but he had to go off for a HIA, which he failed. So the Warriors were robbed of a try and one of their key players.
“It’s all there to see,” Kearney said.
“I didn’t think you could hit the back of the head of a player.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m blaming the officiating because that was one minor issue of a number of issues tonight. But in the last half hour, there wasn’t as six-again blown. So just the consistency around it, it’s frustrating.”
But it wasn’t just this incident that Kearney was unhappy about. The NRL had promised to clean up teams infringing early in a set and while Cody Walker was sin binned, in the second half, referee Matt Cecchin let the Rabbitohs constantly slow down play.
“I thought there were a few decisions tonight and it’s a bit hard when you’re on the back of a belting,” Kearney said.
“But I don’t think there was a six-again in the last 30 minutes.
“When you’re on the end of a belting, it’s a bit hard to point fingers, but I thought we just could not get anything, nothing.
“We created some opportunities for ourselves and yes, we didn’t execute well when we needed to, but geez.”
It wasn’t just a bad night because of the result, the Warriors picked up injuries which could impact which side Kearney picks to play the Storm on Friday.
“David’s not in a good way,” he said. “Lachlan (Burr) isn’t in a good way to be honest, it was his second game back from a couple of head knocks at training.
“Eli (Katoa) got a high ankle sprain, was able to come back on but didn’t finish off the game.
“So it’s a bit like getting over the line and not coming away with the points, it was all mounting up tonight. But that’s the game isn’t it?”
