View photos: NRL round one casualtiesKEY POINTS:
The Warriors' loss in Melbourne will not be critical for their season result but the injury toll may be.
Inspirational leader Steve Price sits out this weekend and possibly six or eight games to come. Long-range try-scorer Wade McKinnon is already gone for the season.
The sight
of new buy Brent Tate testing his repaired knee and running gingerly through the match was not a good one for Warriors fans.
Less so was watching the ball being sent dead three times from the kick-off and the Storm's glee at returning to halfway to start with a penalty.
It was typical Warriors stuff, what we're used to. Moments of brilliance. Moments you can't understand, like Manu Vatuvei's inability to take the high ball, not even looking close, despite all the attention he's had in coaching in that area.
Moments of belligerence, as in Epalahame Lauaki's charge into the back of an already-grounded Billy Slater. Mind you, the NRL okayed that when its judiciary review decided not to charge Rooster Riley Brown for the shoulder charge that put Souths' Craig Wing out for three months with a dislocated shoulder. Then stupid errors that would see schoolboy footballers sacked. Then moments of brilliance again.
At times the Warriors looked sharp, at others foolish. You do expect some rustiness, some imprecision in early games. But not to the extent shown in Melbourne, with passes repeatedly thrown behind or in front of the catcher or over the sideline.
At times they did some really good things and then they would immediately go cold. At times they looked bemused by refereeing decisions and similarly slipped off task. In both circumstances the Storm used speed as their weapon. They made unnecessarily large metres from dummy-half. Billy Slater's support play was superb.
That and Cameron Smith's service from dummy-half. But this was not the supreme Storm effort. They were very beatable. They, too, were rusty. They were equal but not dominant up front _ the Warriors may have been dominant there had they not gifted so much possession.
The Warriors appeared to cope with the new 10-man interchange, despite the loss of Price shortening their bench, though the Storm suffered the same in losing Ryan Hoffman with rib cartilage damage.
They simply did too much tackling, especially in the second half, allowing Melbourne the stamina advantage.
The errors meant they never mounted the sort of pressure the Storm did, Melbourne scoring twice after repeat sets of six.
One loss is not the end of their season. Their problem now is that the man who would have led the regrouping, the one who might have calmed them and cut the error rate in Melbourne, is now sidelined watching.
Much falls to Ruben Wiki, and he's certainly capable, but his naming on the bench for the Storm game was specifically to allow Price to rest while maintaining leadership. So now Wiki, 35, must play more minutes and others like Logan Swann must accept more of the leadership role. And more responsibility falls to the younger props, Sam Rapira and Evarn Tuimavave.
There were some positives. Michael Witt's goal kicking was one. Nathan Fien's field kicking was good too as was his general play. Simon Mannering can surely not play as badly again. New fullback Aidan Kirk was solid if unspectacular _ his defence was sound, his back-up in support will improve with his understanding of the team.
Bottom line: They created plenty of opportunities on attack and failed to finish many, the defence was sound but ran out of steam after making too many tackles, due to making too many errors and conceding too many penalties.
Can it be fixed? Yes. Will they make the grandfinal? The gradient on the hill just got markedly steeper.