The Warriors’ season – and their ambitions of a repeat top-four finish – are back on the rails courtesy of a third straight win, demolishing a dismal North Queensland outfit 42-12 on the road.
Looking at the fulltime stats, any result besides an overwhelming beatdown was highly unlikely. The Warriors finished on the right side of virtually every key category:
- 56 percent possession
- 84 percent completion to 77 percent
- 1,863 all run metres to 1,306
- 750 post-contact metres to 492
- 7 line-breaks to 2
- 32 tackle-breaks to 21
- 42.35m average set distance to 36.29m
- 5 offloads to 1
The result brought the Warriors back to a .500 record – winning six, losing six and drawing one.
Besides 1995 and ’96, every season the Warriors have been at 50 percent or better after 13 games (2002, 2003, 2011, 2018, 2023) they’ve gone on to make the finals.
The boys are back-to-back in Townsville
The Cowboys’ meek defensive display won’t come as a surprise to many – they are one of the leakiest teams in the NRL and have conceded 16-plus points in every game this season.
But the magnitude of the Warriors’ 30-point win is illustrated by the fact it was the Cowboys’ second-biggest loss at home since 2007.
Meanwhile, it gave the Warriors a third straight win against the Cowboys overall – matching their best effort in the rivalry between the 1995 entrants (1999-2001 and 2002-03) – and was only the second time they’ve won consecutive games in Townsville, achieving the feat back in 1999-2000.
The Warriors have now won eight of their last 11 against the Cowboys at all venues, after winning just eight of the previous 23.
Attack clicks
The Warriors scored a season-high 42 points and seven tries, on the back of one of their most prolific first-half performances of the Andrew Webster era.
Racking up 22 points before the break was their equal-second-best effort since the start of 2023, behind only the 30 points they racked up in a 48-18 win over Parramatta in Round 19 last year.
It was the fifth time the Warriors have topped 40 points under Webster and their sixth win by a 30-plus margin during his 40-game tenure. For context, the Warriors’ highest score was 34 points and biggest winning margin 14 points in 37 games under Nathan Brown.
Te Maire Martin had a field day at Queensland Country Bank Stadium, chalking up four try assists. That gives him seven for the past three rounds and an equal-career-high season tally of eight in 2024. Martin recorded a modest 22 try assists in his first 83 NRL games – but now all eyes are on whether he can maintain this recent playmaking form spike when Shaun Johnson returns to the line-up.
AFB keeps record in sights
Producing the goods all-round in his first match back from a much-publicised standdown, Addin Fonua-Blake barged over for his fourth try in just five matches.
It was also the marquee front-rower’s sixth of 2024 – halfway towards equalling the premiership record for most tries in a season by a prop.
Gold Coast’s Ryan James crossed 12 times in 2016.
Storm streak looms large
The Melbourne Storm hoodoo that has strangled the Warriors over the past nine seasons is well-documented.
The 15-match losing streak is the equal-ninth-longest in premiership history – and the longest between any teams since 1972.
The Warriors’ last win over the Storm was in 2015, a memorable 28-14 result at Mt Smart best remembered for Nathan Friend’s upside-down try involvement.
Since then, the Storm have only visited Auckland five times, winning by an average margin of 12 points.
If you’re looking for an omen, however, the absence of Melbourne’s five-eighth talisman Cameron Munster could be the key to a Warriors drought-breaker this Saturday night.
Munster’s only loss to the Warriors was in his first clash with them as a rookie fullback in that 2015 encounter. He’s been a thorn in the Kiwi club’s side in 14 of the current streak of 15 consecutive Storm victories but is currently sidelined by a groin injury.
Number crunchers
No shortage of stats studs from one of the Warriors’ most comprehensive wins in recent years:
- As well as bagging his first NRL double since 2020, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad ran for a game-high 251 metres. CNK’s average metres per game (232.6) is just behind the NRL leader, Penrith counterpart Dylan Edwards (233.2).
- On top of his early four-pointer, Addin Fonua-Blake’s return included a massive 207 metres from 20 runs. His average of 180 metres per game is 10th in the NRL overall and second among forwards behind Pat Carrigan (180.9).
- Jackson Ford relished his move to prop with 19 runs for 178 metres and 33 tackles. The tireless Aussie ranks sixth in the NRL for total tackles in 2024 (514).
- Jazz Tevaga’s per-minute production in recent weeks continues to astound, chewing through nine runs for 73 metres and 23 tackles in just 28 minutes off the pine.