Rugby League: Injuries leave Warriors with player problems

By PETER JESSUP

The Warriors have big problems in critical positions after their loss at Newcastle.

Skipper John Simon is out for a month with a broken thumb and Scott Pethybridge, who needs shoulder surgery, is gone for the season.

Simon's loss will hurt the attack, Pethybridge's the defence.

It was State of Origin back-ups Andrew Johns and Adam MacDougall who engineered the Knights' 30-12 rugby league win.

The scoreline was way short of a disaster for the Warriors, given that their two previous visits to Marathon had produced a combined score of 81-10 against.

As for the injury toll, there are player options - the improving David Myles perhaps most likely to go to fullback, since both Lee Oudenryn and Joe Galuvao have been tried and replaced there.

The buying-in of Jason Bell looks a smart move now, as he can cover for Simon. Cliff Beverley is likely to come back to the bench after sterling performances for the Newtown Jets in recent weeks, ironically taking Bell's spot

It was lack of a kicking game that cost the Warriors dearly at Marathon on Saturday. The Knights employed a strong down-the-ground wind in the first 40 to stretch out to a 14-6 lead, everyone running at little Stacey Jones, who, with his arm still mending, was clearly still not 100 per cent confident on defence.

Simon was also reluctant to tackle on a couple of occasions. In fact, the Warriors missed 26 head-on, one-on-one tackles.

The Warriors played too long at the wrong end and, as they slipped back to one-out running and poor support play, were lucky the Knights dropped off the pace too, their effort probably dented by a drop in crowd numbers and enthusiasm.

The 13,594 total was around 5000 down on the Marathon average, the absentees presumably responding to calls for a boycott in response to the club board's decision not to re-sign Andrew Johns' big brother Mattie.

The younger Johns engineered almost all the try-scoring play, his vision and long pass coming into play after big ground gains by Origin team-mates Ben Kennedy and MacDougall. The latter went 80 minutes, despite a viral infection, and had to be given oxygen at the break.

Odell Manuel should have had a touchdown at the 70th minute when he was clear down the left flank but he was ignored by Shontayne Hape, who suffered a big turnback in form after two tries last weekend.

The most ominous play came in the 60th minute, when Andrew Johns put a well-directed kick down Oudenryn's wing and his opposite, Timana Tahu, bundled Oudenryn into touch for a 40m gain. Johns rushed up to high-five the could-be Kiwi, could-be Aussie.

You had to wonder why he and other up-and-comers would stay with strugglers Auckland when they could team up with some of the best in the world in Aussie. Lock Henry Perenara is the one currently attracting the attention of the transtasman talent scouts.

The Warriors completed their scoring at 75 minutes with a bent-over run from Robert Mears to duck the defensive line from 5m out, a method he uses to notch around a half-dozen touchdowns a year.

No Warriors game would be complete without a couple of oddities.

In this case it was the Knights' choice of the Kiwi band The Swingers' Counting the Beat as victory song, and the state of Marathon's surface. Incessant rain in Newcastle in recent weeks had left the strip like an over-grazed cow paddock.

The Warriors looked down after a mid-week tragedy: the death of coach Mark Graham's son Matthew, aged 13. In the dressing room afterwards, there seemed to be more disappointment that they could not have won the game for him than there was for the convolutions of the points table.

Matthew Graham's funeral will be held in Sydney on Wednesday. Graham's assistants Mike McClennan and Trevor Clark will runtraining until Thursday.

The points table will come back into focus on Saturday night when the Warriors meet the Canberra Raiders at Ericsson in the first of two home games they must win to stay in with the top eight.