KEY POINTS:
Wade McKinnon's ankle has suddenly become the most interesting body part in New Zealand sport.
The Warriors' bid to make this year's NRL grand final is standing shakily on one leg after Canberra sent a chill through their previously booming campaign.
Coach Ivan Cleary claimed that it was
momentum uninterrupted after the heavily favoured Warriors conceded two late tries which enabled the Raiders to score a shock comeback win. But it looked a little more serious than that.
The NRL is a logjam and the Warriors have gone from playoff darlings to top-eight stragglers in one swoop. They now face a very good Manly side in Auckland, then travel to bottom-placed Penrith where the locals will hope to farewell the rugby-bound Craig Gower in style.
The turning point in Canberra, if you had to find one, came when interchange forward Wairangi Koopu raced out of the line then waved halfback Todd Carney through the hole. Carney's try brought the home side back into the game with 10 minutes remaining. There is a lot of talk in the NRL about the use of dangerous wrestling tactics but Koopu's effort barely rated as a hug.
It was a brave effort from the Raiders, who produced one of the great bounce-backs after being annihilated by the Bulldogs in the previous round.
Saturday night's result emphasised that teams can't drop their guard in this competition.
Not all of the NRL teams are created equal, but they are as close to being evenly matched as you could hope to find in a 16-team competition. Canberra are a team of no names but there is almost no such thing as a truly poor side in the Australian premiership.
Many sides need an X-factor to rise above the pack and in the Warriors' case, their biggest X is fullback McKinnon.
The former Parramatta back was getting the plaudits he deserved anyway. But absence has made his darts look even stronger.
Fullback is the one position that has not been overtaken by robots. Fullbacks are the last of the league mavericks, men with crazy feet and hearts who are free to hunt for opportunities.
Look through the list of NRL teams and the excitement machines are invariably at the top of the team sheet - Matt Bowen, Brett Stewart, Preston Campbell, Billy Slater, Anthony Minichiello et al.
McKinnon showed great heart two weeks ago when, despite suffering an ankle injury, he played the full 90 minutes in the heart-stopping match against the Roosters. He has been named for subsequent games against the Gold Coast and Canberra before having to withdraw.
Maybe the Warriors were due a fall anyway. It is a difficult competition to maintain the type of form they have been showing every week. But even when the Warriors had what looked to be a match-winning lead in Canberra, they lacked the spark which has infused their resurgence in the past two months or so.
McKinnon does so much for this side. He puts a vibrancy into the deal when they start new sets of six, and he can create something out of nothing. He zooms up the middle of the field looking for offloads, turning simple passes into Artie Beetson artwork. The Warriors have become long-range try-scoring specialists and McKinnon is the inspiration for that.
The Warriors actually looked uninterested in delivering offloads without him on Saturday night.
They are a muscular but workmanlike side and need their X-factor players to shine. Manu Vatuvei is one, and he had another encouraging game with the ball and in the air. But Epalahame Lauaki fell back at the very moment he should have given the competition another scary shake.
Most significantly though, McKinnon was sitting in the stands.
That ankle is worthy of Wayne Rooney/metatarsal-type scrutiny. If the injury does mend in time, the Warriors should be up and running again, and certainly good enough to secure a win at Penrith. If not, their fans will fear they have begun to limp when in sight of the finals.
