Bulldogs 18
Warriors 14
As lessons go, they don't come much harsher. The Warriors are today facing a grim reality. Their season is in tatters. The reason? Well, 14 points just isn't enough to win many NRL matches. For the 10th-straight game, that's where this toothless Warriors' offence topped out. Just two of those
matches have ended in victory.
The last time they breached what appears to be as much a psychological as a physical barrier was April 19, a round-six 17-16 victory over the Roosters.
For 78 minutes yesterday it seemed another paltry return would be enough to claim the two competition points that would have kept their season alive, at least for another week.
Prop Russell Packer, in for the absent Steve Price, made the most of his recall with a bullocking try and a desperate late cover tackle on Tim Winitana - both acts that seemed to have got his side home.
But stand-in skipper Micheal Luck coughed up the ball as the Warriors went in search of the killer blow and the Bulldogs made them pay with a game-winning counter-attack.
The Warriors will lament losing a match they should have won comfortably but they can't claim to have been undone by some of the greats. It wasn't an Andrew Johns or Jonathan Thurston who slipped them the dagger, but Yileen Gordon and Ben Barba, two ring-ins in a Bulldogs side that contained eight changes.
The disruption caused by State of Origin call-ups, injuries and suspensions led to what coach Kevin Moore described as a "disjointed" display by the Bulldogs.
"It shows the club has come a long way in the style of football we play," Moore said of the sweeping 90m counter-attack that sealed the match.
The result pretty much said the opposite about the Warriors, who had no excuses for a performance for which "disjointed" would be a charitable description.
"In a few ways it probably summed up the season," coach Ivan Cleary said. "Not being able to convert points, making pretty poor errors when we had them under pressure. We couldn't defend those errors, particularly when they counted, at the back end of the game. That doesn't add up to winning performances."
The problems for Cleary's side are numerous. Not only do they lack punch up the middle without Price, they appear bereft of confidence and imagination. Plan A was to march the ball down the field and kick to Manu Vatuvei's wing. Plan B was conspicuous by its absence.
As Cleary pointed out, effort is not the problem. His side came within four minutes of keeping their opponent scoreless at Mt Smart for a fifth-consecutive half. And when they did finally concede, there was an element of fortune about the try.
Brad Morrin made a half-break that took him to within five metres of the Warriors' line on a last tackle play. The Warriors' scrambling defence seemed to have snuffed out the threat, but Morrin's offload ricocheted off Luck's legs into the in-goal. With Wade McKinnon committed to shutting down Morrin, hooker Michael Sullivan simply had to chase through and score.
The try cancelled out Vatuvei's fifth-minute effort - a simple barge over from a Joel Moon inside ball - and Hazim El Masri's conversion edged the Bulldogs in front.
Being breached didn't inspire the Warriors to great deeds. Their kick chase on the next set was lethargic and they were almost made to pay, only a forward pass denying the Bulldogs a try on the halftime hooter.
Four minutes into the second half the visitors did cross again, Stacey Jones making a weak attempt to stop Luke Patten as he chopped off his left foot to make the Warriors' pay for conceding a stripping penalty.
Skipper Andrew Ryan should have killed off the match but he fumbled the ball over the line and the Warriors accepted the lifeline.
Kevin Locke had looked the most dangerous of the Warriors and it was no surprise when he leaped high above Winitana to drag in a Jones cross kick and score. His conversion attempt deflected away off an upright but when Packer crossed five minutes later the Warriors were back in front.
But then came Luck's blunder. Gordon raced deep into Warriors territory, forcing Locke to head across field in cover. When the Bulldogs switched play back left, Simon Mannering and Ian Henderson were staring at a seven-on-two overlap. Barba made no mistake, crashing over for a try that was both a match-winner for the Bulldogs and a season-ender for the Warriors. "We came across confident, we knew we would be in the game," Moore said.
Until the Warriors rediscover the art of scoring points, it's a sentiment every team that travels to Mt Smart will share.
