KEY POINTS:
The Warriors' season is now officially over. They have no hope of making the top eight. And when they start playing a second rower in the centres as with Simon Mannering, whose defence is great but who offers very little on attack, it suggests the club is trying to shore up its backline defensive deficiencies.
That the Warriors have no specialist centres at this stage of the season when they lose Brent Tate to State of Origin duties does not say a lot for the development programme at the club.
The team named this week smacks of desperation and from here on in it's going to be a long, slow and painful wrap-up to the season.
Playing against Wests Tigers at Leichhardt with at best a piecemeal team suggests the Warriors deserve to carry a heavy underdog tag into the game and no doubt they'll be paying well at the TAB. While in sport there is nothing that is guaranteed, all signs suggest you do not invest in the club for the rest of this year.
What is truly depressing is that the woeful South Sydney Rabbitohs, after being played back into form by the Warriors, have now strung together two consecutive wins and with Craig Wing coming back it is more than possible the Sydney bunnies will soon overtake the Auckland bunnies. That would be a disaster.
It gives me no pleasure to be talking about the Warriors in this way but I know it is a reflection of the way that many league fans and many of their casual supporters are feeling about the performances this season.
This is the first time all season that I've been critical of selections by the coaching staff as I just don't feel that Mannering should be anywhere near the centre spot. I sincerely hope that this carry-on stops and stops soon.
The signings that the Warriors have held up as coups are not. They need class and not journeymen. My information suggests that they paid over the odds to secure Jacob Lillyman. He will bring a massive workrate on defence in the second row but very little in terms of blockbusting attack. Given the Warriors have plenty of defence-oriented players and bugger-all off-loading ability, why did the club not save its money and lay out big-time for a great ball-player?
I've heard the age-old adage that such players are simply not available on the market but given the relaxed rules that now apply to approaching players long before their existing contracts are up, why isn't the club targeting the number one and two players in that position and securing them a long way out? It might mean sacrificing one season but what a great way to blood new talent while we wait to get on board the players required to give the team a real tilt at the premiership.
