Graham Lowe: Warriors can still do it

Simon Mannering and the Warriors can still make a deep playoff run. Photo / Getty

As I was leaving Mt Smart on Saturday night I faced a barrage of questions from fans mainly coming from a pessimistic angle.

The Warriors are blessed with a great support each week but sadly many are in a holding pattern waiting for the arrival of Issac Luke and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck next year.

I'm another who looks forward to their arrival but this is 2015 and a premiership is there to be won.

A holding pattern is the NRL version of death row and the Warriors are not sitting there.

While time is running out, I for one have a strong belief they can get all the way through and I mean the grand final.

Sure there are some better teams than they are at the moment ahead of them on the ladder but they don't have to play them all at once.

This is about the Warriors taking on one team at a time, not how good the Broncos are or the Cowboys, Roosters and Rabbits and any other team for that matter.

I got a whiff of "we'll do what we can this year and next year will be the one" while I was at the ground and frankly it nearly made me sick.

The Warriors have a good coach and a strong squad who are better than they were at the start of the season. Yep they've lost the player many consider their best in Shaun Johnson but they are still well positioned.

A month ago they turned a corner and became a serious contender but since then, well the results speak for themselves.

However the main reason I am so optimistic is their problems are easily fixed.

Lesson one is that if you have a team that is capable of being physically dominant you don't use that weapon as your first choice, you try and get through by using the ball and playing smart.

The Warriors fell into the trap against a pretty ordinary a Sharks side of just trying to win in a 'barge a thon'.

I don't care how big a player is but if he just charges at the line with no obvious intent of passing the ball, he is the easiest player to tackle, it's as simple as that.

The big lesson the Warriors have failed to learn in the last two games is the the ball beats the man, always!!!!!!!

The encouraging thing from Saturday night's game was the enthusiasm displayed by the Warriors forwards in particular because without that, they do have no hope this year.

I was also impressed once again by Simon Mannering, what a game.

But as I have mentioned, this Warriors team is far from done in 2015 and maybe all it will take is a rethink of what is working and what's not.

The decision to play Tuimoala Lolohea at half back wasn't the reason the Warriors lost and he looked confident in the role. However, as I said in this column last week, and I feel even stronger now after Saturday night's result, Sam Tomkins would be better suited during this next critical period.

Lolohea is a good player of that I've not the slightest doubt, but in a team that at the moment is demonstrating a total lack of attacking threat, Tomkins would be the man for me.

After playing with well less than 50% of possession in the first half and facing a constant pounding on their own goal line, I'm sure the Sharks would have gone into halftime happy to only be behind 10 points. The Warriors enjoyed enough ball and field position during the first forty minutes to have scored double that.

Unfortunately there was a lack of options for any attack from the Warriors during that first half simply because they lacked depth most of the time and with a lack of depth there is never any extra options.

I imagine the Warriors coaches will put plenty of focus on how the Sharks scored 18 points in the second half, but I think they lost it in the first half with poor attack given the possession they enjoyed.

But next week is a new game, another toughie, but winnable in Wellington against the Dragons.

And I share coach Andrew McFadden's optimism for 2015, but it's the players that need to look and what they have to do!

Draw and pass boys, betcha!