KEY POINTS:
I am convinced this Warriors team are building an environment on which the organisation's future can be based. The next crop of players will be absorbed into what we see are a team that will persevere and not capitulate, as we have seen in the past.
Despite Friday night's loss, in which the Warriors did plenty to win, all is not bleak. The growth of Evarn Tuimavave and Sam Rapira under the guidance of Ruben Wiki and Steve Price is especially encouraging. The front row is critical for any team to gain ascendancy and the two young chargers are blossoming into future internationals.
The rest of the team have balance and combine well, especially in tight situations. Departing players Todd Byrne and George Gatis are delivering outstanding performances. This attitude epitomises that of the club where professionalism oozes, starting from management and coaching and filtering down to staff and players.
A number of players were experiencing finals football for the first time and handled it well. I thought the Warriors halves duo may wilt under but they rose to the occasion and distributed and directed fine under tight conditions.
If anything, it was an experienced senior player who had a telling effect on the outcome. With about 20 minutes to go the Warriors placed sustained pressure on Parramatta's goal line with repeat sets which eventually created what was a significant 3-on-1 overlap. This is what you build pressure for as Parramatta were doing extremely well to hold out the Warriors.
The ball was passed to Logan Swann who may have been a little hero-searching in his mind. Instead of delivering to Simon Mannering (who still had a player outside him), Swann charged through, was caught short of the line and held up.
At that point the game swung back towards Parramatta who made the most of their chances and nailed two converted tries. There was an element of luck on the Warriors side as they were granted a penalty try by video referee Bill Harrigan, who was also involved the penalty try to Melbourne Storm in the 1999 grand final.
I say lucky because my understanding is that a penalty try is awarded if a foul is committed on a player who is in the motion of scoring a try and Michael Witt was not in that mode. He had yet to catch the ball and run approx 3m to the line. Under normal circumstances he would have done so but that could not have been guaranteed, so the Warriors were a bit fortunate.
The fat lady has yet to sing as the rest of the weekend's games may still favour the Warriors. I think they deserve to be contenders for the top 4 playoff, given their season performance, but unfortunately what you do during the season does not count in this knockout format.
My real wish is that the 22,000 who joined the faithful 7000 do not give up on this club as easily as they attached themselves on Friday.
