Andrew Webster’s Warriors might be the talk of the NRL following Sunday’s incredible comeback victory over the Sharks but keeping the winning run alive will require another special performance – with a depleted forward pack set to take on the Knights this week.
The 32-30 win over the Sharks has come at a major cost with tough edge forward Marata Niukore set to miss two matches due to a hip-drop suspension.
That rules Niukore, a key off-season recruit who has been a major player in the improved defence from the Warriors in 2023, out for Sunday’s match against the Knights and the following week against the North Queensland Cowboys.
Losing Niukore could not have come at a worse time with captain Tohu Harris only 50-50 to return from a knee injury and confirmation, on Monday, that the club will continue to be without early-season standout Mitchell Barnett, for another couple of weeks.
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Nobody could write the Warriors off, especially after Sunday’s epic comeback from 20 nil down against the Sharks, but taking on the much improved Knights without battle-hardened forwards Niukore, Barnett and potentially Harris would be a huge ask for a team already skinny in the middle forward department.
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Marata Niukore will be a huge loss for the Warriors across the next two weeks following his hip-drop suspension.
Niukore was controversially sin-binned for a hip-drop tackle in the 39th minute against Siosifa Talakai, after the bunker intervened and advised referee Ben Cummins to go back some five tackles and 50 metres up the field.
Hip-drop tackles are firmly back in the NRL spotlight after Sharks enforcer Dale Finucane – who was also sin-binned – Jayden Okunbor (Bulldogs) and Niukore all received grade-two dangerous contact charges from the match review committee on Monday.
Unless they are contested at the NRL judiciary, Finucane is set to miss three matches, Niukore two and Okunbor one, with differing penalties due to their previous records. Webster has suggested the Warriors would accept the two weeks.
With a number of Warriors players currently sidelined with injuries, Webster said Te Maire Martin (concussion) is the only one guaranteed to return, meaning Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Brayden Wiliame’s calf injuries look set to keep them on ice for another week.
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Warriors forward Mitchell Barnett is not due back from a neck injury for another couple of weeks.
“Tohu’s injury is one of those ones where it could just all click into place very quickly for him,” Webster told SENZ radio. “That could happen and it might not”.
Getting Harris back, from the knee injury he suffered just before half-time in the round four win over the Bulldogs would be a huge boost but the skipper can’t afford to be rushed or risked either.
Webster hinted the club was taking a cautious approach with Barnett after a nasty neck injury suffered against the Cowboys in round three. Many Warriors fans had been optimistic he would return to take on his old club on Sunday.
“We just want Mitch to get confidence around it, it’s not like it’s a leg … it’s his neck, so whilst he’s all fine we just want to make sure that he gets some complete contact and he builds up his tackling at training because Mitch is really important to us long term,” Webster told SENZ radio.
“We’re a squad, we’re not a 17-man squad, there are 28 blokes in the squad,” Webster said.
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Te Maire Martin is the only player from the Warriors causality ward who is certain to return this week.
In the opening round of the season, the Warriors snuck past the Knights 20-12 in Wellington last month but the Newcastle side produced its best performance of the season on Saturday in their 32-32 draw with the high-flying Manly.
In the Warriors’ favour this week is a long turnaround with the Knights match not until Sunday.
The Warriors, who currently sit second on the NRL ladder behind the Brisbane Broncos, returned to New Zealand on Monday and Webster said they would only get two full training sessions in before their fourth trek across the Tasman in five weeks.
Webster also confirmed exciting off-season recruit Luke Metcalf is set to be sidelined for three to four more weeks after the speedy half suffered a serious hamstring injury before round one.
