Mitch Barnett was at the peak of his powers before suffering his season-ending ACL injury. Photo / Photosport
The ACL rupture suffered by co-captain Mitch Barnett is the biggest injury setback the Warriors have faced in a decade.
That might seem like a big, over-the-top statement – but it sums up the cruel confluence of factors around this one. Injuries are a regular staple of the NRL, arguably the most physically demanding collision sport in the world. They happen, which players, coaches and clubs have to accept – but some are much more impactful than others.
That’s the case with Barnett. This Warriors team are humming and should only improve as the season goes on, given the new halves pairing, the number of young players and the obvious cultural cohesion of this squad.
They are already in a great position, with a 9-3 record and six of their 10 Auckland games still to come, plus two byes. They look headed for the playoffs but will now face September football without one of their two most important forwards and their co-captain. It’s not an insurmountable situation but it is bitter timing.
There is always a casualty ward during the NRL season, but the key is having as many troops as possible back for the playoffs. That happened in 2023, as the Warriors had all of their big guns on board for the playoff games against Newcastle and Brisbane, and it happened in 2018, with a full-strength team to face the Panthers in Sydney (though Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was injured in the first half of that match).
Of course, there have been serious injury losses in other seasons – in 2017, 2019 and during the Covid-19 era from 2020-2022, when at one point the club was loaning personnel from other NRL clubs. But, with due respect to those campaigns, none of those teams ever seemed bound for the top eight as they lacked the balance of ingredients for that kind of finish.
You probably need to go back to the 2015 and 2016 seasons to find a comparable situation to the Barnett scenario, where a highly promising Warriors team loses an almost irreplaceable player. In mid-July 2015, the Warriors were well placed. They had just beaten Melbourne at Mt Smart (which remains their last win over the Storm) to move inside the top four. They had plenty of attacking firepower and a solid forward pack, with Ben Matulino and Simon Mannering in their pomp.
Optimism was building around a return to the playoffs then two weeks later, Shaun Johnson broke his ankle against Manly. The team never recovered from the loss of their chief playmaker, dropping their last eight games on the bounce to fall from fourth to 13th and miss the finals by six points.
There were high hopes again in 2016, particularly after the recruitment of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. Back then he felt like an unstoppable force, after switching to fullback at the Roosters the year before. But his impact only lasted until round seven, when he ruptured his ACL in the ninth minute of the clash with the Bulldogs in Wellington after twisting his left knee awkwardly in a tackle.
“Roger is absolutely shattered and so is everyone around the club,” said then Warriors head coach Andrew McFadden. “We had huge expectations about what he would bring to us this season and he was so excited about the role he had to play. It’s the cruel side of football.”
The Warriors, who were still in the mix (seventh) coming into the final month of the season, finished 10th, three points outside the top eight.
Sunday’s incident was awful for Barnett, who had worked so hard in this second chapter of his career to become one of the most respected forwards in the sport. He was at the peak of his powers. A dominant figure at State of Origin level and the most established leader at the Warriors since the retirements of Tohu Harris and Shaun Johnson and the exit of Dylan Walker. He is an inspiring presence on match day, the kind that others follow, and a key figure around the club.
Alongside James Fisher-Harris and Wayde Egan, he is one of the hardest players to replace in the current squad, with Luke Metcalf, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and Erin Clark not far behind. The Warriors will have to find a way and there is no reason that the positive results can’t continue. There are other capable middle forwards and Marata Niukore may also shift back from the edge.
But it will be a big ask to get through half a season with Barnett on the sideline, let alone winning high-pressure matches in September without the talismanic forward.
Michael Burgess has been a Sports Journalist for the New Zealand Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America’s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast.