NRL: Warriors' season threatens to slip away

Manly player Glenn Stewart. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Another likely fine for an off-field balls-up, another injury to a key player, another muddled effort - just another Saturday night for the Warriors.

A quarter into the 24-game regular season the picture is not pretty after a soggy defeat at Manly that was perhaps the Warriors' ugliest display of the season.

The forward pack that flattened the Roosters and held its own against the Sharks was no match for the Sea Eagles. With no platform from which to operate, the halves struggled just to keep the team afloat, the outside backs saw no quality ball.

The 10-point margin did not reflect Manly's dominance, which suggests a slight nod should be given to the Warriors' defence, although the sodden conditions may have played a big part.

Positives? At a stretch it could be suggested much of Manly's superiority stemmed from the same blueprint from which the Warriors are attempting to construct a successful club.

Veterans Glenn Stewart and Joe Galuvao aside, Manly's best efforts came from a clutch of youngsters groomed through the junior ranks. Manly recruited Joe Nobody and his brother Next To for this season, putting their faith in the likes of emerging talents Daly Cherry-Evans, William Hopoate, Jamie Buhrer, Vic Mauro and Michael Oldfield.

On Saturday, many Warriors with significantly more experience looked distinctly second-rate compared with the Manly tyros.

The Warriors' system is stacked with at least as much young talent. Some of it has already started to blossom. Glen Fisiiahi, the fullback of the future, will return soon enough to add a good degree of the spark that was missing on Saturday.

Elijah Taylor capped an impressive three-game foray into the NRL with a late consolation try. He also racked up 37 tackles and looks as if he could develop into a player with Micheal Luck's workrate, with ball-playing ability thrown in.

Young hooker Alehana Mara and strapping forward Sione Lousi made their first appearances of the season. Mara's impact was limited by the lifeless efforts of too many teammates, while Lousi's display was energetic, and more composed than last season.

The question now for coach Ivan Cleary is whether he continues down the path he took when he put the cleaners through his first-choice line-up in round four. The first indication of which way he leans will come as early as tomorrow, when he names his replacement for Shaun Berrigan, the veteran utility who broke his hand.

Cleary could either bring back Joel Moon to plug the gap at centre, or blood new signing Shaun Metcalf. Behind those two, young rugby convert Konrad Hurrell has been hugely impressive in two matches for the U20s. The strapping Hurrell scored a try and powered his way to a remarkable 327m on debut against the Roosters on debut last week, and followed that up with a two-try 201m effort against Manly's U20s on Saturday.

The margins are fine in the NRL. A better effort on Saturday night could have seen the Warriors reach 3-3, a win-loss ratio that would have given their season an entirely different feel.

Having lost the talismanic Manu Vatuvei just minutes into the season, and then Jerome Ropati and Fisiiahi - three of the seven opening-night starting backs - 3-3 would have looked like a pretty decent holding job.

Saturday night, then, was a missed chance. But no more than the opening night fumble-fest against the Eels, or the round-two loss to a Tigers side begging to be beaten. Three missed opportunities begin to look like a pattern.

The attempts to hold it together on the field haven't exactly been aided by a messy effort from the off-field officials. A likely fine for prop Jeremy Latimore starting the match despite being listed as a reserve on the team sheet follows two separate fines last week, when the team took the field late against the Roosters and trainer Ruben Wiki came into contact with a player.

Such incidents don't bode well ahead of a trip to Melbourne to face the super-methodical Storm next Monday.