For the fifth time in a row after conceding 50-plus points in their previous game, the Warriors have come away with a victory – ever so partially burying the memories of their club-record-equalling 66-6 loss on the Gold Coast with a patchy 32-16 home win over depleted Brisbane.
The Origin- and injury-hit Broncos fielded just seven members of the team that trounced the Warriors in last year’s preliminary final. But they nevertheless fought back from a 16-0 deficit to trail just 22-16 with 15 minutes remaining.
The six-tries-to-three result was underpinned by a polished display from halves Te Maire Martin and Chanel Harris-Tavita, and a dominant forward-pack performance.
The Broncos finished on the better side of the line-break (5-3), tackle-break (25-24), effective tackle percentage (92.05 to 91.26) and penalty count (7-4) ledgers, but the Warriors’ territorial advantage proved insurmountable for the visitors.
On top of 55 percent possession, the Warriors steamrolled the Broncos in all run metres (1,721 to 1,195), post-contact metres (615 to 327), average metres per run (9.67 to 7.76) and average set distance (40.03 to 29.89).
Magic Martin
The debate continues to rage among the fanbase about who the best fit at halfback is for the Warriors – Te Maire Martin or Shaun Johnson – but there’s no question that Martin is making the most of his opportunities in the No.7.
Now four wins from four matches at halfback in 2024, Martin laid on four tries – three from the boot – and scored one himself to get the Warriors off to a hot start and ensure they kept the Warriors at arm’s length in the second half.
The 28-year-old former Penrith, North Queensland and Brisbane five-eighth/fullback’s try assist tally stats this year have been quite remarkable.
Martin boasts 12 try assists (equal-seventh in the NRL) – already a career-high season haul, after managing just 21 in 77 games prior to 2024. His best previous tally in a season was eight in 13 games for the Broncos in 2022, while he produced just two in nine games for the Warriors in 2023.
What’s more remarkable is the difference between his try assist production at five-eighth and halfback. In just four starts in the No.7, he’s racked up a remarkable 10 try assists; in eight games in the No.6, he has just two.
In comparison, Johnson has nine try assists in 12 games this season – still among the healthier per-game averages in the premiership (but a drop-off of just one from his last four outings after racking up eight in his previous six games) – following his incredible, NRL-high and career-best 29 from 25 games in a sparkling 2023 campaign.
Dogs days
There’s not too many rivalries the Warriors have an overwhelmingly dominant recent record – owing partially to their tough three-year period jettisoned in Australia – but they have won their last six against Canterbury-Bankstown, their opponents in Sydney this Saturday.
The Bulldogs’ last win against the Warriors was a 27-26 upset at home in 2018, courtesy of a booming late field goal from Lachlan Lewis. They were a long-time bogey for the Auckland-based outfit, winning 13 of 17 clashes from 2004-15.
Last season’s two showdowns between ex-Penrith assistant coaches Andrew Webster and Cameron Ciraldo both fell the Warriors’ way – 16-14 at Mt Smart in Round 4 and 24-12 in Round 11 at Accor Stadium.
But the Bulldogs have apparently assumed the ‘most improved’ and ‘top-four bolter’ tags adorned on the Warriors in 2023, while Ciraldo is shaping as a top contender for the Dally M Coach of the Year honour Webster collected last year.
Fifth-placed Canterbury has won eight games so far this season – already more than any campaign since 2019. The resurgent club is on course to end the NRL’s second-longest finals drought, last making the Top 8 in 2016.
The Bulldogs’ improvement, like the Warriors’ last season, has been built around defence. In 2023 they were ranked last in the NRL for points conceded per game at an eye-watering 32.04; this year they are leaking just 16.73 points a game, second only to Penrith.
Last year the Warriors gave up 18.67 points a game during the regular season (third) but tellingly have dropped off to 23.44 in 2024 (11th).
Homebush away from home
The Warriors are currently on an unprecedented three-match winning streak at Accor Stadium, winning matches against Canterbury there in 2020 and 2023, before blitzing Souths 34-4 in Round 5 this season (their only win from their last five matches in Sydney).
Prior to this run, the Warriors were just 7-1 13 at Stadium Australia overall – including their 2002 and 2011 grand final defeats – and had lost six of their previous seven at the ground.
The Bulldogs, though, have turned the cavernous Homebush venue – their most frequent home ground – into a graveyard for visiting teams in 2024.
After losing seven of their last nine at Accor Stadium, the Bulldogs are currently on a six-match winning streak there, the club’s best run since going 10 in a row in its 2012 minor premiership campaign (which was ended by Melbourne in the grand final).
Number crunchers
No shortage of individual standouts in Saturday’s pressure-relieving win:
- Mitch Barnett continues to underline his value to the Warriors’ pack, topping the team’s tackle (32), run metres (184) and tackle-breaks (6) count against the Broncos, as well as producing a match-sealing try assist.
- Addin Fonua-Blake toiled for 164 metres (62 post-contact on 15 carries and made 23 tackles; he leads the NRL for total post-contact metres and is 20th overall in the NRL (third among forwards) for average run metres with 170.6.
- Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad’s 161 metres from 17 runs saw him retain second spot on the NRL’s average run metres table with 212, behind only Dylan Edwards.
- Dylan Walker produced 18 runs for 174 metres in just 55 minutes, on top of 18 tackles and 16 passes.
- Jazz Tevaga’s per-minute output continues to impress, racking up 87 metres from eight carries and 18 tackles in only 29 minutes. Meanwhile, Tohu Harris managed 27 tackles in a mere 25 minutes.