Disappointment about the performance against Manly quickly gave way to anticipation for finals football for One New Zealand Warriors head coach Andrew Webster.
While he didn’t lose sight of the Warriors “making it really hard for ourselves” in their below par effort against the Sea Eagles, Webster was enthused about the club hosting its second home final in three seasons (with Penrith now confirmed as the opposition),
One moment he was offering his assessment of what unfolded in the 26-27 defeat by Manly, then quickly shifting gear for what lies ahead at Go Media Stadium next week.
“A new competition starts now and we’ve got to get excited about it,” he said.
“If we play our best football let’s see where that takes us. Instead of walking away from this season after a lot of hard work, to get ourselves here and not turn up and give ourselves a chance … if we don’t beat ourselves this week, I’m excited.
“No one has given us a chance since day one. We’re used to that. We believe what we can do in that dressing room. Back home all our fans believe it. We’re going to have a full house at Go Media Stadium.
Match: Sea Eagles v Warriors
Round 27 -
home Team
Sea Eagles
10th Position
away Team
Warriors
6th Position
Venue: 4 Pines Park, Sydney
“Lots of people at the start of the season would do anything to have a home semi. People who don’t believe that’s fine but we believe in ourselves.”
Captain James Fisher-Harris relishes the Warriors receiving little support.
“It’s a good opportunity, it’s a new competition. No one gives us any hope but I actually love that,” he said.
The result in the error-ridden contest on Friday night – the Warriors made 14 errors, Manly 16 – left the New Zealand team with back-to-back defeats going into the finals.
“It was chaos. I thought with both teams their best was really good and their worst was really, really bad,” said Webster.
“When we were playing well it looked like we could go on and win the game, when we weren’t playing, well it didn’t look like it was going to be good.
“We kept throwing punches all the way through but they just weren’t the right ones at times. You could see we wanted it but were probably overplaying and making it really hard for ourselves.
“When we strung four sets together in a row I thought we looked the better team. When it was stop-start I felt like they had really good energy. When we got into an arm wrestle and made it hard that’s when we looked our best. When we looked controlled and clear on what we were doing we asked some really good questions.
“It’s only as hard as we make. I said to the boys we’re actually in control of this. We’re the ones beating ourselves.“
While Fisher-Harris’ stunning fastest try in NRL history gave the match a dramatic start, Webster said it was counter-productive.
“We were so excited about the lead but we thought we haven’t earnt anything yet,” he said.
“Then Cherry-Evans kicks a 40-20 and we let in a soft try. I reckon we’d all get rid of that record of fastest try in the NRL. It sent us down a path for the next 10 minutes where we didn’t want to go. We wanted to earn everything tonight. It didn’t trigger us into the football we wanted to play.”
