New Zealand Warriors v Gold Coast Titans highlights. Video / Sky Sports
Nathan Brown isn't frustrated; he's just disappointed.
As far as he's concerned, the Warriors are not in the business of focusing on developing players this season, and some of the performances from more inexperienced players in their loss to the Gold Coast Titans on Saturday left a lot to bedesired.
The Warriors were beaten 20-18 in a back-and-forth affair on the Gold Coast, allowing the Titans to get off to a fast start through some relatively easy tries, before blowing a number of golden opportunities to put points on the board.
Brown gave a succinct summary of his side's outing.
"It's not good enough; not good enough if you want to win games," Brown said. "We're past trying to develop players; we want to win bloody games of footy and that was just not acceptable."
While the Warriors got off to a horrible start, they were able to turn things around and found themselves in front early in the second half.
But for the second weekend in a row, they couldn't defend their position and the Titans did enough to close the game out – though the Warriors gave them some help.
On more than on occasion, the Warriors looked certain to score as they spread the ball wide close to the line, only to see the final pass fail to stick.
"It was a good effort to get back into the game and get in front like we did last week, then we had two young outside backs drop the ball at the line wide open, purely and simply because they just didn't get deep enough. Again, not acceptable; not now with where we want to be as a football club," Brown said.
"You can't drop the ball with the line wide open twice. It was a good game of footy, I'm not saying I think one [team] was better than the other – I think both sides had some periods that were better. Who deserved to win, I don't know, but whether you deserve to win or not, you get the ball with no one in front of you, you catch it and put it down and score.
"We're just past this stage. We've got some talented young players but they need to understand the consequences of not getting it right. It's not alright. It costs you games and makes us all feel down and sour, because the effort was good."
The Gold Coast Titans beat the Warriors 20-18. Photo / Photosport
While Brown mentioned wanting to make his young players realise the consequences of failing to make simple plays, he said it was unlikely he would be dropping players.
"We had some not-so first grade things happen. While some of the players that made them were young, you have to get it right; there are too many consequences. The first try the left edge let in, that's not to the standard of first-grade football. There was nothing on. They just didn't read the situation well enough. The good sides make the plays and we didn't make enough plays early in the contest.
"It's not about dropping people; it's about players understanding that these things have big consequences on the football club and the team and the ladder.
"It's just disappointing because I know a few of those blokes could have done better if they had just focused a little harder. We're certainly not asking them to do something they're not ready to do as players, but when they don't get it right in such simple situations, and you play against a good side like the Coast, we just need to be better."
