KEY POINTS:
Yes, they lost again but the Warriors' defeat by Wests Tigers was much easier to stomach than the previous two.
From minute one, they looked more adventurous on attack, they played both sides of the field as opposed to favouring the right and were testing the Tigers right to the end.
But yet again poor ball control in the opposition half cost points.
The game was lost when second rower Louis Anderson was sin-binned eight minutes out from the break in what seemed a harsh reaction from referee Steve Clark.
The Tigers scored twice while he was off and again in the minute after he came back on.
Warriors coach Ivan Cleary turned questions about his take on the sin-binning back to the media.
"What did you think?" he asked, keen to avoid a financial penalty for criticising the officiating.
Clearly, he felt the loss of Anderson took the wind out of their sails.
"Maybe it was an over-reaction," Cleary said.
Anderson was marched when the Warriors were up 12-8 approaching halftime. Halfback Michael Witt scuffled with two Tigers players after a tackle, players from both teams ran in and, subsequently, the Warriors were penalised for joining the fray.
In the next plays, Anderson was sent off for flopping on a tackled Tiger.
"Our halfback had two of their blokes hanging off him. There wasn't a punch thrown, correct me if I'm wrong," Cleary said.
But he liked the play of the new halves combination, Witt's kicking game offering more.
They had focused on "playing more football" this week than they had against the Sharks and Knights so some errors were to be expected.
"We offered more on attack, I thought we looked dangerous a lot," the coach said.
True. The 26 points they scored is the most put on the Tigers this season.
Their coach, Tim Sheens, said he felt they were in control when they went 12 points up while Anderson was off. "We should have gone on with it." The Warriors muscled up right to the last minutes.
Had they won their last three games the Warriors would sit in third place on the NRL ladder - instead they hover on the edge of the top eight.
They might have had a flying start yesterday but for an obstruction call from Clark.
Jerome Ropati, who looked strong at five-eighth, was in the clear after snaffling a Tigers kick and may have gone 80m to score, but instead of six up, they were two down after the resulting penalty.
With a try to Manu Vatuvei off Witt's kick to the wing and another when Ropati found a gap, the home team took the box seat.
They relinquished it when Anderson went off and former Junior Kiwi Ben Te'o scored to level 12-all at the break. With 12 men on the park, they let the kick-off run dead and that added to an error count that meant they again did far more tackling than the opposition.
Quick hands put Simon Mannering in at the left corner and Patrick Ah Van scored spectacularly from the kick-off when Tigers centre Dean Collis failed to trap the ball with his boot.
At 26-22 with 12 minutes to go, they had an unexpected chance to get home. But Tigers fullback Brett Hodgson nailed crucial penalties to maintain a winning gap.
Their next assignment is no easier, the Eels away at Parramatta next Monday night. The Eels have lost at home just once this season.
* Cronulla withstood a furious Bulldogs comeback to notch a 30-20 victory yesterday. Cronulla backrower Paul Gallen finally put the Sharks out of reach with a try two minutes from time, the visitors racing in five tries to the Bulldogs' four.
