Ladies Knight

The Warriors played the Knights at Mt Smart on Friday night and female fans were treated to 'Ladies Night' as part of the NRLs 'Women in League'. It was a cold rainy night at Mt Smart but the Warriors held a team to nil at home for the second game in a row, downing the Knights 13-0. There were some notable performances, in particular Kevin Locke who ran 70m to score the final try of the match. Lance Hohia did well wearing number 6 using his head and his boot to land a drop goal, ensuring that even if the Knights were to cross that we would be more than a converted try ahead. Unfortunately it looks like Wade McKinnon is still missing his spark, there is no sign of the side step we have witnessed in the past or the electric pace that made him a fan favourite and a try scoring machine. In my opinion Stacey Jones has been a waste of valuable salary cap money.

In my fantasy league on nrl.com I'm now ranked 514 out of just over 69, 000. I've also been managing my school, the Alfriston College 1st XIII who have done incredibly well in their first year in the competition. Last week the boys defeated Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate 22-20, the win put them into the 1/4 finals where they will play St Pauls. Last weeks game was played on the Mt Smart no.2 as part of 'Warrior Wednesday', prior to the game the team was taken on a tour of the Warriors gym, changing rooms and received a chat from under 20s coach Tony Iro.

So go the Warriors - fingers crossed they come out of this bye a little better than the last and go AC!!!

Shark Attack

The Warriors lost 18-10 to the bottom of the table Sharks in Cronulla. This was only the third win of the season for the Sharks who have been troubled on and off the field in 09. The Warriors hunt for a top 8 spot doesn't get any easier facing the on form Newcastle Knights at home. The current top 8 are fast seperating themselves from the rest of the pack with a 3 point gap between 8 and 9.

Kevin Locke was again impressive in his second NRL game and Steve Price backed up well after a tough Origin match mid week.

The Warriors once again failed to score within the first 20mins for something like the sixth game in a row! The kicking game looked to have improved with Stacey Jones placing the perfect kick to allow Manu Vatuvei to score in the corner, but apart from that it was lack luster. Something really needs to be done about the halves and fast!

Fingers crossed for a much improved performance at home on Friday night.

LOCKED & Loaded!

Kevin Locke made a wonderful debut for the Warriors on Sunday scoring 2 tries in the 14-0 win over the Tigers. The game saw both teams make a lot of errors and there were more than a few unnecessary turn overs but the Warriors defence was desperately solid and for the first time in two and a half years they managed to keep a team to nil. Michael Luck did a good job filling in as captain for Price who was away on Origin duty. Simon Mannering and Lance Hohia put in solid performances but the kicking game was still pretty poor. The win was the Warriors first since round 7 (they drew against Melbourne 14 all in round 7). Fingers crossed the form follows them over the Tasman for this weekends clash against the Sharks.

The form leading up to this game has been much less than what the pre-season hype promised! After the draw against Melbourne there was a hard fought loss 11-12 loss to St George followed by the round 9 bye, a 34-12 thrashing from the Cowboys at home and a 38-12 loss to the Raiders away.

In other league news I'm managing the first XIII for the school I teach at, the boys are great and put in a fantastic performance last week. Fingers crossed for a win this week :-) Also in fantasy league I'm now ranked 540 out of over 65,000 participants.

I will try not to leave it so long until my next update but with the depressing losses winter flu and piles of marking I couldn't find the time to get to this.