Richie Barnett: Cleary delivers despite hurdles

Warriors coach Ivan Cleary (right) has held it together through tough times. Photo / Dean Purcell

Opinion

You've got to give a huge rap to Ivan Cleary and his backroom Warriors staff.

There's been plenty of debate about whether Cleary is up to the job but so far this season he has done an incredible job.

Competing in the NRL is hard enough, but trying to do it with a team that keeps losing its big stars to injury is almost impossible.

It's hard to overstate the effect of the shocking run of injuries Cleary and his team have had to deal with.

And yet after 10 games the club is inside the top eight.

That says plenty about how Ivan and his staff have dealt with adversity.

It's also a big tick for the club's recruitment and development. The depth has been severely tested already this year and for the most part the players have all stood up.

Bill Tupou and Upu Poching have looked pretty good and with the likes of Siuatonga Likiliki, Elijah Taylor and Shaun Johnson still to come through, the future looks bright.

There's no doubt, however, there are still some tough times ahead to negotiate.

Sam Rapira's injury is just the latest in a incredible run of bad luck.

It seems like every week the team loses another key player. When you are trying to build consistency and understanding, that has a massive effect.

Just look at the list of players who've been out this year: Steve Price, Brett Seymour, Simon Mannering, Manu Vatuvei, Ian Henderson, Jacob Lillyman and now Rapira.

They are all players with different abilities and skills and when you lose just one of them, it's difficult to come up with a gameplan.

Not only do the coaches need to make sure their own side is going to function, they also need to come up with ways to counteract the threats posed by the opposition.

When you're trying to figure out how to deal with threats like Luke Lewis, Trent Waterhouse and Frank Pritchard, the last thing you need is to also be covering for the loss of a guy like Mannering in your back row.

When you know you are up against a dominant forward pack and your own pack is down on quality and size, it has a huge effect on your gameplan and can also affect the morale in the side.

Mannering is a big second-rower who will always gain the advantage line, his work rate is extremely high and his experience means he keeps calm under pressure. Take that out of a side and you've got a problem.

Then you've got the likes of Price and Seymour. You'll always get yardage out of Price but what you also get is his ability to talk in defence and provide direction for the side. In that respect Seymour is the same type of player - a talker and an organiser.

Those guys are vital to any side.

Factor in the loss of Manu, who gets the team's sets off to strong starts, provides huge yardage and is a massive offensive threat and, really, it's quite remarkable how well the Warriors have coped so far.

As well as the coaches, plenty of credit should go to the team's trainer Craig Walker. It's Walker's job to manage the players' workloads and energy levels.

When a squad suffers injuries like the Warriors have, that job gets that much harder. The game is based around enthusiasm and if a player is down on energy it will really affect their performance and those around them.

A lot of work goes into making sure that doesn't happen and you'd have to say Walker is doing a pretty good job.

With the short turnaround for tonight's game that job gets even tougher. And Rapira's injury - along with Micheal Luck and James Maloney - means the Warriors will have to cope with the loss of yet another group of key players.

So far, at least, they've done that very well.