Redemption

Last week Kiwi Sports Blog advised Joel Moon to take out Justin Hodges' knee to help us beat the Broncos.  Unfortunately Moon misunderstood the message and took out his own knee, so we were missing both our first choice centres, then we lost the game.

Many non-fans lost the faith; betting agencies blew out our odds for the premiership to $9 - the longest odds of any team.  We were expected to walk into ANZ Stadium against the hottest team in the league and get soundly beaten out of the comp.  Our starting centres were Lewis Brown and...Krisnan Inu.

 

The greatest team in the world, the Mighty Vodafone Warriors, pulled off the greatest win in franchise history.  Add that to the fact that I had bulk dollars on the Warriors to win, and that I found $5 on the floor of the bar, and it was pretty much one of the greatest sporting nights ever.

Krisnan Inu showed last night what he is capable of when he actually wants to play.  He was solid on defence, urgent around the field and, not to engage in hyperbole, he scored the most important try in Warriors history.  As long as he keeps playing like that, one of the centre positions is no longer a weakness.  The other, Lewis Brown, is still a bit of an issue on defence.  Too much time in the Vulcans seems to have made him ill-prepared for the beasts at centre he will face in the next few weeks.  But he'll have to do.

Have we already played our final?  I hope not, but it's a real risk.  Next week we have to come up against a well-rested and well-prepared Storm team, which would be a death sentence for most teams.  Unfortunately the game will also be played in Melbourne either at Etihad Stadium or the MCG because the Preliminary Finals are played at Regional Venues.  It's a huge ask.

Luckily we are the Storm's bogey team.  And we are still legitimate contenders.  Three areas we need to improve on to keep on winning:

1. Goal line attack - inside the red zone we still look a touch uncertain, a touch hesitant.  Feleti Mateo's try last night that kickstarted the greatest comeback of all time came off a beautiful Shaun Johnson pass that was as good as anything Benji Marshall has ever thrown.  But generally we don't create like that on attack, we'll just bust up the middle for a few tackles and then try a kick that sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.  The other four teams left all have go-to plays that they can rely on to work more often than not.  We don't.  It looked like Cleary was working on one over the week where Maloney threw a cut-out pass to Mateo who instantly flicked it back inside to a charging Kevin Locke.  It didn't work but could easily catch out a few tired forwards.  Unfortunately the other teams have realised Kevin Locke is pretty much the most dangerous player in the league at the moment (now that Benji is relaxing at home) and it's getting tougher to get him open.  But look for Locke to out-Slater Billy Slater next week.
2. Middle of the ruck defence - I'd love to put this one down to Lance Hohaia weakening the middle, but he was fantastic last night.  Instead I think the reason our defence has struggled in the last few weeks is all about our propping quartet.  They have been on fire lately on attack, amassing huge yardage and hit-up totals between them.  It stands to reason that the big front-rowers have been a bit more tired on defence as a result and, as good as Mannering and Luck are, they can't do it all.  Also Mateo may be pretty much the focus of our team at the moment but he is still horrendous on defence.  If our propping quartet turns in a vintage performance on both sides of the ball, we'll win easily.
3. Getting the refs to like us - another week, another terrible reffing performance against the Warriors.  They really have seemed to hate us lately when they realised that we might actually win this year.  Two penalties last night were shocking: first when Locke was penalised for a late hit even though the tackle was nowhere near complete.  If that was a completed tackle, then this was definitely a completed tackle.  And second, when Micheal Luck was penalised for interfering in the ruck when he was literally doing nothing - he knew he was offside and so he didn't move a single muscle.  Robbie Farah purposely muffed the play-the-ball looking for the penalty and Jared Maxwell was only too happy to oblige.  Good old Cleary has called them out and demanded different refs.  Hopefully we can get two unbiased refs next week.

There would have been a fourth point asking Shaun Johnson to turn up since he's been pulling a disappearing act the last three weeks, but he turned up in the second half and was brilliant.  Keep it up.

It might just be that KSB is pretty one-eyed when it comes to the Warriors but I still think we look good enough to win the whole thing.  Mateo, Maloney, Locke, Luck, and Mannering are still playing some of the best football in the league, and when the rest of the team turns up we are a juggernaut.  If Manu can continue on from last night and get back to being the best winger then I'm not sure we can be beaten.

It's a matter of faith.