NRL: Mid-term report highlights that Warriors can do better

Kevin Locke. Photo / Getty Images

It's the halfway mark of this year's NRL. Michael Brown looks at some of the best and worst of a Warriors season that promised so much.

Best performance

The 14-14 draw against Melbourne. This was a quality match from both sides and it was fitting they couldn't be separated after 90 minutes. Both completed more than 80 per cent of their sets in dreadful conditions and made more than 400 energy-sapping tackles. The 26-24 win over Manly was also good.

Biggest blow

Losing Brent Tate to a season-ending knee injury in the third round against the Broncos. The Warriors trumpeted their increased depth in 2009 but, as has been illustrated, centre is an issue. It obviously didn't help that Sonny Fai was lost but Patrick Ah Van is no Brent Tate and it's the Australian's absence which is part of the reason Denan Kemp has been so badly out of sorts. Tate provides experience, intelligence, competitiveness and leadership.

The find so far

Kevin Locke. He's played only one game but scored two tries in a dream debut last weekend against the Wests Tigers. The 20-year-old is a slight figure - 79kg wringing wet - but has a touch of Billy Slater about him. He's naturally a fullback, is quick, elusive and brave when confronted by much bigger opponents.

Biggest disappointment

The Warriors' form to date. Four wins and a draw in their opening 11 matches is not premiership-winning form. There was a feeling 2009 could be "the Warriors' year". It would take a dramatic improvement for them to get anywhere close but the one ray of hope is they have done it before.

Most heroic performance

Micheal Luck's 74 tackles in the 14-14 extra-time draw against Melbourne. Just think about that. That's a tackle every 72 seconds. And the Warriors had the ball for half of the game. Every team needs a Micheal Luck and, fortunately for the Warriors, they have the original.

Best moment

Stacey Jones' chip and chase in the dying moments of the dramatic 26-24 win at Manly. It was a throwback to 2002, when the Little General was awarded the title of the world's best player.

Jones followed it up with a pinpoint bomb to the corner, finished off by Jerome Ropati, which won the game. Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler said they knew what was coming from Jones, they were just powerless to stop it.

Worst performance

The 38-12 loss to Canberra. It came on the back of a 34-12 home defeat to the Cowboys but Johnathan Thurston was virtually unstoppable that day. The Warriors should have been desperate against the Raiders, with their season slipping through their fingers.

Instead, they let a Canberra side, who had been smacked 46-6 by Melbourne the previous week, run right over them. And through them. And around them.

Best quote

Stacey Jones, when questioned about criticism levelled his way. "Maybe five years ago it would have been a bit of a worry but, look, at the end of the day my family still loves me and I think I've still got friends, so I just get on with it."