Warriors coach Stephen Kearney. Photo / Photosport.nz
Warriors coach Stephen Kearney wants his side to punch through the Raiders defence rather than go around them in tonight's NRL clash in Canberra.
The Warriors are coming to grips with a more expansive and free-flowing style of play this season, but Kearney was frustrated by their tendency to shift the ball laterally in last week's entertaining win over the Titans.
The visitors will be tempted to keep the ball alive with second-phase play to shift Canberra's big forwards around at GIO Stadium, but while Kearney is happy to give his players free attacking licence, he'd prefer they find a better balance with the football.
"We've got a certain structure and it doesn't stray too far from the foundation of our game style, so we don't want to change too far from that," Kearney said.
"We probably didn't do that well enough last week and there was probably too much sideways movement.
"We played into their hands a little bit and needed to be a bit more direct and more penetrative when we're getting through the line, whereas we tried to go around them.
"We needed to be more direct, more penetrating, so we've got to balance that up."
The Warriors' revamped style comes after they were criticised for playing too conservatively last season, with Kearney placing an emphasis on structure and ball security in his first season in charge.
They finished with the best completion rate of any side (79.7 per cent), and the equal-fewest errors with 225 (9.4 per game), but their attack was predictable, as they threw the third-fewest offloads with 181 (7.5 per game), leaving them ranked 13th in points scored.
Their free-wheeling attack has won plenty of admirers in the past fortnight, but last year's style gave the players a good foundation to work from, while the 2017 squad lacked the experience and ability that new recruits Blake Green, Tohu Harris, Adam Blair and Peta Hiku have been able to provide.
"I think there's too much made of our current style," Kearney said.
"It is different, but the experience and lessons from our style last year probably taught us a little bit about what we need to do.
"But that's also managed by the capability of the team. It's one thing playing a certain style of footy and it's another thing having the personnel to do that."
Injured forward Simon Mannering admits they may have learned to respect the ball more, although they pushed the limits with 28 offloads last week.
However, the 280-game veteran believes the game has progressed to the point where teams can't afford to play it safe and need to throw caution to the wind to score points.
"Even though we're playing expansive footy, we still have respect for the ball, which we may not have had at times before," Mannering said.
"I still think we sometimes go too far with it, but we're getting the wins and we're still finding our grasp with how we want to play.
"Obviously it suits us, and if you look at any team, if you're not willing to promote the football or offload, it's pretty hard to score.
"The times of just grinding teams down are gone, defences are too good.
"Look at Melbourne, they don't even do that any more. They still play a tight game, but they definitely look to play off the back of offloads and shift the ball."
The Warriors won just once away from Mt Smart last season and have already matched that with their first-up win over the Rabbitohs in Perth.
Beating the Raiders away to notch a third straight win would give them further confidence ahead of a tough stretch of games that sees them play title contenders the Roosters, Cowboys, Broncos, Dragons and Storm.
"There's a wonderful challenge in front of us, so we'll put our best foot forward [today]," said Kearney.