ANALYSIS: Don’t dare put the hex on the Warriors by saying this could be their year, just savour their greatest, grittiest NRL comeback.
No-one books grand finals tickets in April, but Warriors fans could be forgiven for clicking a sneaky screenshot of this week’s points table showing their side in second place.
A Warriors team of old – last season’s group even – would have given up the ghost after a 20-0 deficit after 18 minutes against a side of the Sharks’ strength. They’d have lost something like 66-10.
Yet the Class of ‘23 found deeper reservoirs of resolve and went on to win 32-30 when Shaun Johnson slotted a last-minute goal and Cronulla counterpart Nicho Hynes missed.
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It was the Warriors’ second-biggest comeback win (by one point) in their 28-year NRL history, This Warriors Life website editor Will Evans pointed out.
But, the Shark Park revival is the Warriors’ best comeback in context.
In March 2021, the Warriors trailed the Raiders by 21 points at halftime in Canberra, but stormed back to win 34-32 after a late try to Adam Pompey.
Sky Sport
The Warriors recover from 20-0 down to beat the Sharks 32-30 in a thriller in Sydney.
Without in any way diminishing that achievement, the Warriors did benefit from a dodgy try. NRL head of football Graham Annesley later, correctly, decreed Kodi Nikorima’s pass that led to a score by Ben Murdoch-Masila was clearly forward.
The Raiders also ran out of steam after a rash of injuries left them with one interchange player for most of the match.
Contrastingly, the Cronulla camp could have no complaints on Sunday. The Sharks were beaten fair and square, even getting a break in the first half when Warriors’ second rower Marata Niukore was risibly sin-binned and placed on report for an alleged hip-drop tackle.
Shaun Johnson’s animated post-match interview went rival after telling how the Warriors went from “talking s…’’ at halftime and convincing themselves they’d have “a story to tell the grandkids’’ if they “gave it a crack in the second half’’.
But, as Johnson raved about “resilience’’, he added a telling rider that must bring new-found hope to even the glass half-empty brigade.
“It’s about us not getting comfortable and complacent,’’ he said. “We go home, we work hard and we come back next week.’’
Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
Shaun Johnson slots his vital goal.
That’s the key. The Warriors haven’t always come back next week. Too often after a turnaround, the old bus has lurched back down the same old cul-de-sac. The Canberra win two years ago was followed by a 20-point loss to the Roosters. (Such is the NRL player churn only five Warriors from the 2021 game were in Sunday’s Shark Park lineup).
But the Cronulla comeback was no one-hit wonder. The Warriors have now won four of their first five games – their second-best season start – and have completed a comeback away win over the Sharks without injured captain Tohu Harris, their most consistent player of the last few years.
And, then there’s Born Again Shaun.
Johnson is now in his 14th season in the toughest competition in Australasian sport, yet he sounded like a skittish kid when he told Fox Sports: “Man, we are so resilient bro. I love being a part of it. It’s such a good feeling.’’
Elias Rodriguez/Photosport
New coach Andrew Webster has revitalised the Warriors.
The Warriors’ turnaround is due, in large part, to new coach Andrew Webster, who has restored respect for the club across the Tasman.
You can see his influence in the Warriors’ perkier line speed. The previously porous Kiwi goal-line defence is now as heavily fortified as a modern-day Maginot Line.
Webster has learnt well at the Blue Mountains bastion of Penrith coach Ivan Cleary, the best mentor the Warriors have yet had.
The new gaffer’s galvanic effect has allowed his charges to play with a new freedom, especially Johnson, who has always had hard acts to follow – Stacey Jones at club level and Benji Marshall on the Kiwis’ stage. Yet, at his best, he’s a bona fide club and country great, with an innate range of skills.
A Carlos Spencer-type playmaker, capable of the sublime and the ridiculous, often in equal measure, Johnson’s game management has gone to a new level in 2023. That clever, hurtled pass to a steaming Josh Curran at Shark Park was vintage SJ, and there was never any doubt he’d nail that glorious goal in the rain.
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Marata Niukore (L), pictured congratulating Shaun Johnson, has brought class and consistency to the Warriors pack.
Johnson now knows he has his coach in his corner. Yet he would be first to attest to the debt he also owes his forwards. The recruiting of second rowers Niukore and Jackson Ford and utility Dylan Walker have added starch to the pack. Jazz Tevaga seamlessly stepped up from the bench into Harris’ loose forward role. Curran, stung by his dropping to reserve grade, had a stormer off the pine, and stand-in skipper Wayde Egan is one of the NRL’s form dummy halves.
There’s another important factor too. The Warriors spent two-and-a-half years in Australia during the Covid pandemic. Now, they are back home in Auckland with their families and that cannot be under-estimated.
The Warriors are also thriving from playing in front of New Zealand sport’s most loyal crowd.
Warriors fans have had precious little to cheer since Cleary last led them to the grand final promised land in 2011, yet they flock in their thousands to Mt Smart Stadium to support their team through thick and thin.
There is bound to be a few “this is our year’’ calls as supporters sashay down Beasley Ave post-Easter. But any over-confidence should stay on the down-low. There’s still 19 rounds to go, and a Sunday night against the Knights to keep the encouraging momentum going.
