Warriors' coach Nathan Brown admits his team let a huge opportunity slip, after their frustrating 24-22 defeat to the Broncos on Sunday night.
The loss has virtually ended their NRL finals hopes.
Stuck on 18 points and with an inferior differential, they would need to bank victories in both oftheir remaining games, and hope that the Sharks, Titans and Raiders (all 20 points) go winless in the final two weeks.
It's not completely out of the question, and Warriors face both Canberra and the Gold Coast, but fate is no longer in their own hands.
A victory on Sunday would have ramped up pressure on their rivals, and further boosted their confidence and belief, but now it will be hard to rebound.
Reece Walsh of the Warriors is consoled by Chad Townsend at full time. Photo / AAP
The Warriors had built strong momentum, after three consecutive wins, but couldn't maintain the improvement, letting their standards slip against an erratic but willing Broncos side
They pushed to the end – and scored five tries to four – but it was always an edgy affair.
"We would have kept our season alive so obviously that is disappointing," said Brown. "We have lost a heap of games by [one, two and four] points this year and you pay the price for it. We needed to be a little better in some areas."
Fullback Reece Walsh struggled off the tee, making only one conversion, but Brown was more concerned with their inability to defuse Brisbane's attacking kicks.
"Our kick defence wasn't good," said Brown. "They got three of their four tries from kicks, which is obviously something they work hard at. When you have big targets like they have, we needed to be a little bit better in a couple of areas. A couple of blokes didn't quite get their jobs done and it can prove costly."
The Warriors led 14-12 with 20 minutes to play and had the wind in their sails, after retrieving a 0-12 deficit.
But that hard work was undone with Albert Kelly's scrappy try, after the Warriors couldn't clean up two Brisbane kicks, though the bounce was kind for the Broncos' half.
The Warriors again fought back, levelling through Dallin Watene-Zelezniak's try just after the hour mark, but couldn't summon the urgency to prevent Anthony Milford's decisive 72nd minute touchdown, after a Broncos bomb was batted back.
Brown also lamented a flat first quarter, as they failed to test the Brisbane defence.
"We started off far too conservative with the ball," said Brown. "Just hitting the ball up and not using the ball. We were really poor offensively; when we started to play some footy we scored some terrific tries."
"We are trying to develop a style of footy and when we use the ball we are far better than when we just ruck the ball up."
He couldn't find his range with his goalkicking, though four attempts were from out wide. The 19-year-old was badly caught out for the first Broncos try, as a Milford bomb sailed over his head, and later missed touch from a penalty. But he was a constant spark on attack, setting up two tries and always trying to make things happen.
"He hasn't even scratched the surface of his football yet," said Brown. "He is basically playing on instinct and natural talent. Reece does things out there that no coach teaches him, he just does it naturally."
"He has got plenty in his game to become an elite NRL fullback that he needs to work at and that will come with experience and time."
"He has obviously brought plenty to our team and he has added some different things…he is a different type of player to Roger. The pre-season will be a good time for Reece to work on other parts of his game."
