Rugby League: Australian media take aim at Warriors after another year of disappointment in NRL

Warriors head coach Stephen Kearney. Photo / Photosport

The sun has barely set on the Warriors' season and the knives have already come out.

Top league commentators in Australia have already given a brutal assessment of their season, with Paul Kent and former premiership winner Brett Finch not mincing their words on the Matty Johns Podcast.

The pair indicated that a coaching change is needed at the club, with Stephen Kearney not doing the job.

"The Warriors have always had that problem, they will give you a great 30 minutes then go to sleep. That's the history of the team and it's been there for 20 years now," said Kent.

"They need someone like Adam O'Brien, someone who demands they bring it every day to training," he added.

O'Brien has just signed on to coach the Newcastle Knights, after doing his apprenticeship at the Melbourne Storm and Sydney Roosters, two of the most successful clubs of the past decade.

However the Warriors are certain that Kearney, who has a 42 per cent winning record, is the man for the job, re-signing him at the beginning of the season through to the end of the 2022 season.

Few pundits believe he will make it that far.

However Kearney sees otherwise, saying earlier this month that he doesn't believe he is under pressure.

"I don't focus on the pressure, what I focus on is that we have gaps, in our game style, in our footy team, that we need to improve."

Kearney has struggled to assert his authority over the club with his inability to drop under-performing players and a lack of creativity on attack an issue.

Their defence leaked 22 points per game, and was especially problematic late in the season as the wheels came off - issues that will surely come up as the Warriors start their end of season review process.

Matty Johns also gave his honest assessment saying the Warriors "have an over-reliance on their back three."

"One thing about the Warriors always throughout their history is that they have a big strong pack of forwards that are hard to handle - I thought their pack was really, really disappointing this year."

However, Finch had praise for the Warriors' back three, calling David Fusitu'a, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Ken Maumalo "unbelievable".

His assessment on skipper Tuivasa-Sheck specifically was predictably full of praise.

"He's a freak isn't he. You worry for him in the future the load on his back, not only the captaincy but the amount of work he carries the footy, then he's expected to create with his line-breaks. He's a unique talent but there is a lot of pressure on him there."

Tuivasa-Sheck has lead by example all year, leading the NRL in running metres by over 400 metres to fellow Warrior Maumalo, who had a breakout year grabbing 18 tries.

However, as the story has been of late, the Warriors' season can only be rated as a failure, missing the finals for the seventh time in the past eight years, finishing in 13th place.