The Warriors overcame some first-half defensive lapses and a 16-0 deficit – as well as a 22-14 scoreline with 70 seconds left – to force Manly into extra-time in a miraculous finish at home in Round 6.
Neither side could find a match-winner in golden point, instead sharing the spoils at the end of a 22-all barnburner. The result was just the second draw in the past four NRL seasons and only the ninth in the Warriors’ history.
The club has featured in four other stalemates during the golden point era: a 31-all classic at the SFS against the Roosters in 2007; a dramatic 14-all result in the inaugural Anzac Day game against the Storm in 2009; a 32-all draw after blowing a 26-point lead at Penrith, also in 2009; and a Suncorp Stadium thriller against the Broncos in 2009 that finished 18-all.
Saturday’s showdown was only the second draw at Mt Smart Stadium – the first was the Warriors’ maiden stalemate, against a star-studded Newcastle outfit in 2000 after Knights lock Bill Peden charged down a kick by Warriors stand-in No.7 Ben Lythe to score with a minute left.
Charnze would be a fine thing
On the back of a scintillating return from injury in the Round 5 thrashing of Souths, lionhearted fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad produced the most industrious performance of his career to date with an incredible 346 metres from 33 carries against Manly.
Coincidentally, CNK’s monstrous tally was exactly the same as that of Sydney Roosters’ stand-in custodian Joey Manu against Newcastle 48 hours earlier – which was revised from what would have been a new NRL-record 370 metres.
Manu memorably ran for over 400 metres in a Test for New Zealand against Tonga in 2022, before Nicoll-Klokstad forced him back to the centres during the Kiwis’ triumphant 2023 Pacific Championships campaign.
The pair’s run-metres mark sits equal-third of all time with long-time record-holder Justin Hodges, who ran for 346 metres during a stint at fullback for Brisbane in 2006.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck smashed the record with 368 metres during the Warriors’ aforementioned golden point draw against the Broncos in 2019, before Parramatta custodian Clint Gutherson pipped it by a mere metre during a 2020 match.
RTS has two more entries on the upper reaches of the leaderboard, racking up 339 metres in a game for the Roosters in 2015 – his first year after switching from the wing to fullback – and for the Warriors during his Dally M Medal-winning 2018 campaign.
North Queensland freight train Jason Taumalolo (345 metres in 2020) is the only non-fullback with a tally in the top 10, but remarkably two other players in uncustomary positions topped the triple-ton in Round 6: Canterbury centre Jacob Kiraz and Canberra prop Joseph Tapine, who both ran for 303 metres.
Most run metres in an NRL match (1988-2024)
369 – Clint Gutherson (Parramatta, 2020)
368 – Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (Warriors, 2019)
346 – Justin Hodges (Brisbane, 2006)
346 – Joey Manu (Sydney Roosters, 2024)
346 – Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad (Warriors, 2024)
345 – Jason Taumalolo (North Queensland, 2020)
345 – Wade McKinnon (Parramatta, 2004)
344 – Dylan Edwards (Penrith, 2022)
341 – Tom Trbojevic (Manly, 2019)
339 – Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (Sydney Roosters, 2015)
338 – Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (Warriors, 2018)
Tackling the issue
Aside from CNK’s workhorse offensive effort from the back, the standout statistical feature of the Warriors’ draw with Manly was the defensive load shouldered by their forwards.
Every member of the Warriors’ starting pack reeled off at least 47 tackles. Wayde Egan led the way with 58, followed by the indefatigable Tohu Harris (54), Mitch Barnett (50), Jackson Ford (48), Kurt Capewell (47) and Addin Fonua-Blake (47), whose tally must have been close to a career high as he incredibly played 74 of the 90 minutes.
Harris ranks in the NRL’s top 10 for average tackles per game (41.0) overall – with Capewell (39.6) and Egan (39.0) also in the top 15 – and fourth among non-hookers.
Dungeons and Dragons
St George Illawarra was for a long time the Warriors’ number one bogey team, winning just five of the teams’ first 26 encounters and going on an eye-watering 1-15 run in the rivalry from 2004-15.
The Warriors’ 12-24 all-time record against the joint venture remains their second-worst against any current club (after Manly, 13-1-27), but they have won seven of their last 10 against the Dragons.
Last season the Warriors romped to a 48-18 win at Wollongong’s WIN Stadium in Round 17 – with Dallin Watene-Zelezniak blazing in for four tries – and held on for an ugly 18-6 victory at Mt Smart over the cellar-dwelling Dragons in Round 26.
The Warriors’ records at the Saints’ two home grounds – Kogarah/Jubilee Oval (2-8) and WIN Stadium (3-11) – are the club’s two worst at any venues that they have played at more than six times. The Kogarah tally include defeats to Melbourne and Cronulla (twice) in 2020-21, while the Warriors’ sole win in Wollongong prior to 2018 was against Illawarra Steelers in 1996.
A gritty 18-12 win over the Dragons in 2018 snapped a 10-match losing streak in the South Coast city, while last season’s blowout win represented their only visit since.
The Warriors head to Wollongong this Friday searching for three straight wins at WIN Stadium – something they have only achieved at Stadium Australia/Accor Stadium (courtesy of their Round 5 victory over Souths), the SFS/Allianz Stadium, Gosford’s Grahame Park/Central Coast Stadium (their surrogate 2020-21 home), Dolphin Stadium (their surrogate 2022 home), Penrith Stadium, Gold Coast’s Cbus Super Stadium and Manly’s Brookvale Oval among Australian venues.
Number crunchers
No shortage of abacus-rattling displays from the Warriors on top of Charnze’s insatiable run-metres effort and the engine-room defensive splurge:
- Roger Tuivasa-Sheck topped 200 running metres back at centre and ranks third in the NRL for average running metres of players who have made more than two appearances in 2024, behind Penrith duo Dylan Edwards and Brian To’o.
- CNK’s amazing ball-running game also encompassed a team-high eight tackle-breaks.
- As well as soaking up an enormous defensive workload, starting props Addin Fonua-Blake (196m from 21 runs) and Mitch Barnett (164m from 17 runs), and middle-forward compadre Tohu Harris (148m from 26 runs) stepped up in a ball-carrying capacity with typical vigour. The trio are 13th, 46th and 37th, respectively, overall in the NRL for average run metres, and second, eighth and sixth, respectively, among forwards.
- Shaun Johnson drew level with Stacey Jones courtesy of his 77th try for the Warriors as the second-most prolific tryscorer in the club’s history behind Manu Vatuvei (152). The sizzling 40-metre solo effort also contributed to a throwback tally of 147 metres from 21 runs for the 33-year-old wizard.
- Dallin Watene-Zelezniak bagged his second double of the season – and his seventh brace of tries in his last 24 outings. Prior to Round 8 last year, DWZ went 36 NRL games without scoring more than one try.