Pre-Season Prediction: 13th
Actual Finish: 13th
Highlights:
- Try scoring wingers: For the second year in a row the Warriors had a monster winger who scored a boatload of tries. Last year it was David Fusitu'a, this year it was opposite winger Ken Maumalo.
The towering winger crossed the line 17 times in his 23 appearances in 2019. This saw him finish fourth on the top try scoring tally for 2019.
Considering the Warriors only scored 72 across the season, that's an incredible number.
The Warriors have traditionally big wingers but in Maumalo they have a real gem. He ran for almost 200 metres per game in 2019, mainly out of his own end. 16 line breaks and 72 tackle breaks show how hard he is to contain. He also lead the league in post contact metres with 1490.
On the other wing is last year's top try scorer, the aforementioned Fusitu'a who this year crossed for a relatively lean five tries, but also chipped in for over 120 metres per game.
The two star wingers have become like extra forwards coming out of their own end, and attacking superstars close to the opposition line. Huge!
- Beginning and end to the season: For Warriors fans there was plenty of frustration in 2019, however their bookend performances were incredible.
The Warriors started the season with a massive home win over the Bulldogs.
The 40-6 flogging soothed nervous fans who didn't know what to expect and gave them the feeling they'd be better than the expected lower sides.
Young Adam Keighran had a day to remember scoring a try and kicking six goals. Simply put they couldn't have done much more.
Fast forward to round 25. The Warriors travelled to Canberra with only pride to play for, while their hosts were gearing up for a title tilt.
A late Blake Green try and Issac Luke conversion saw their side sink the grand final bound Green Machine.
If you only watched those two games you'd swear blind the Warriors had to have had a fantastic season.
Low Lights:
- Never in finals contention: Despite enjoying a brilliant start to the season and briefly leading the competition, the Warriors were never genuine finals contenders.
For every great performance there was a shocker to follow not far behind.
Their amazing round 21 win over Manly was sandwiched in between two 30+ point hammerings.
The Warriors are a side rarely accused of consistency but every move they made in the pre-season was designed to improve on that.
Sadly, other than perhaps the opening weekend, they never looked like a side likely, or capable of finals footy.
- No replacement for SJ: The Warriors took the biggest gamble in club history by allowing club marquee superstar Shaun Johnson to leave.
The move had the potential to spark younger players to step up and take over or it had the potential to sink the club's finals chances for literally seasons.
I wouldn't go as far as to say releasing SJ was a disaster but they certainly didn't have the cattle that could step up and replace the go to half.
Johnson needed a change of scenery, so I'm not criticising the club's move, however they moved on a perceived highly paid, inconsistent half, to replace him firstly with rookies, then a highly paid inconsistent player.
The major difference between Johnson and Nikorima is that the formers ceiling in terms of performance is much, much higher.
Warriors fans can be forgiven for shedding a single tear watching their former club hero literally end the Tigers season in round 25 and lock in his new club's finals presence.
- Luke out: In isolation the departure of Luke isn't a huge negative given he was reduced to bit part player in 2019, but what a sad way for such a hugely hyped signing to end his tenure in Auckland.
Luke was brought to the club to be that missing piece of their title charge.
He had some brilliant moments but the fact he arrived an international star and left a fringe first grader isn't fun.
Hopefully he and the Warriors both fare better in 2020.
Star Player: Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
The Warriors megastar entered 2019 as the Dally M medalist and very well could have gone back to back in winning the award again this year.
Ultimately he would finish in sixth but he was head, shoulders and then some above the rest of his teammates at times.
Running for over 200 metres per game, RTS also scored seven tries, laid on 10 try assists, made 14 line breaks and broke 136 tackles.
All while captaining the side, making some ridiculous try-saving tackles and being literally everywhere.
RTS may be the most important player in the competition right now.
Season Grading: D
A season that started so well, truthfully ended very quickly.
The Warriors were far from the worst team in the competition across 2019 but, as mentioned, they never looked like a side with genuine finals aspirations.
RTS was a megastar, Maumalo scored tries for fun, and Blake Green played beyond his expectations, but otherwise the stand out performances just weren't there.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong across the season, but in both attack and defence the consistency just wasn't there.
It's an almost copy and paste every season but Stephen Kearney still has not discovered the magical cure to solve the Warriors inability to produce week to week.
Poor ole WorryWarts. Always look good on paper but never produce the goods.
As a Warriors fan I can whole heartedly say getting rid of Johnson has been the best decision in probably a good 5 years. He just let the team down to many times and as a half on a mil you have to step it up at times or play more consistently. Johnson is well past his peak and sadly he had to go.
As for this year you predicted we finish 13th which we did think that means we meant your expectations so surely we warrant a C grade. I expected us to finish 15th but obviously had hope we finished 8th hahahaha
I’d give us a C, season was as expected. Win some lose some, upset a couple big teams and loss easy games. Think I was a good season in terms of young players getting better. Maumalo improved hugely, CHT shines every opportunity, Herbert has been great, Afoa improved this year a lot also. Sadly Blake Green got worse, Fusitua had an off year, Issac Luke went missing a lot, Blair never ever made any metres for us, Harris has been injured, Pappalii I feel went backwards, as did Paasi.
This year we haven’t made any good signings, we still have an issue at hooker and still need another middle forward and have cap space. I don’t expect us to be any better than last year really. I’d love to see us sign some players (Andrew McCullogh, James Tamou preferably) and throw away some of the scraps (Nate Roache, Adam Keirghan and Lachlan Burr).
With these signings I think we become a 7-11 team.
1. RTS
2. Muamalo
3. Hiku
4. Herbert
5. Fusitua
6. Green
7. CHT
8. Ah Mau
9. McCullogh
10. Tamou
11. Harris
12. Blair
13. Teveaga
14. Nikorima
15. Paasi
16. Afoa
17. Pappalii
18. Beale, Perham, Pompey
19. Turner, Egan, Lawton, Slade
20. Listen, Pulu, Milne, Curran, Ale
Wont make the 8 again
Swa9..
People keep saying that Tamou is on his last legs for Penrith. Although I thought he had a fairly good season in 2019.
Are you sure about wanting to get a player who’s a real veteran to the Warriors?
Keighran was bought from Penrith’s Canterbury Cup team, after a fairly good season there in 2018. An unwanted player from the Bulldogs.
To be fair he played a lot of different positions at Penrith, because of injuries to others. He only played a handful of games in the halves, at the end of 2018.
It was silly to think that he’d be the most consistent of halves at the Warriors in first grade. When I’m not sure if he’d even played a first grade game , before the start of 2019.
I think Penrith would have him back cheap, as a centre. He also played pretty well there.