Richie Barnett: Inexperience letting Warriors down

Lewis Brown coming into the centres will help shore up the Warriors' defence out wide. Photo / Brett Phibbs

With the Warriors' season falling apart there's a lot of focus on coach Brian McClennan.

That's only natural. But I think people should look at the big picture. I added up the number of caps of the players who were missing the other day and it came to more than 600. That's a massive chunk of experience for any team to lose.

The strategy at the club has been to promote the young talent from within. I'm a huge fan of that. It's vitally important for the game in this country that it continues. But when you factor in all the injuries this season it has meant that the club has had to rely more heavily than it would have wanted to on young players, and some players have been promoted earlier than would have been ideal.

That has affected the balance of the side and the results have been there for all to see.

I can cop last week's loss. Manly are a great side and they've done that sort of thing to lots of teams. They are relentless. But there have been plenty of other similar results this season from the Warriors and the pattern has been the same. They dominate matches for long periods but fail to finish teams off. To me that is down to inexperience. The young Warriors aren't ruthless enough and time and again it comes back to haunt them.

Whether they turn it around this season is entirely up to them. The teams between 8-11 on the ladder are all in the same position. It will come down to how badly they want it.

Having Lewis Brown in the centres should help the edge defence - an area that has been a problem all season.

We've all heard the stat that the club has lost every match when it hasn't scored 26 points or more, and won every game when they do score 26 or more. That's an awful stat. The problem has been the ease with which points have been conceded - which again comes down to inexperience. Brown should help firm up the D out wide but Cronulla will provide another huge challenge.

The Sharks have had injury problems - welcome to the club - and have also copped a couple of shocking game-changing refereeing decisions this season. They've been tumbling back down the ladder so will be desperate to stop the slide tomorrow.

With Paul Gallen, Todd Carney and Jeremy Smith back in the side they will be a totally different kettle of fish.

McClennan needs to get things right this week. Bringing Konrad Hurrell back on last week backfired badly. The coach needs to get his bench rotation spot on. He can't afford to have Ben Matulino, Russell Packer and Feleti Mateo all off at the same time. The Warriors aren't the same team with those guys off the field.

There's not much McClennan can do about the experience issue. It's up to the young players to stand up.

We've seen quite a few debuts lately and I'm pretty excited about the latest one. Big things are expected of Carlos Tuimavave. He has been in the system for quite a few years now so let's see if he is ready to step up.