Drama, controversy, courage, complete and utter heartbreak – the Warriors’ 13-12 golden point loss to Canterbury at Accor Stadium had it all.
The visitors could claim something of a moral victory with injuries claiming their entire back-three, a shocking non-call of a blatant penalty in the dying minutes, and a couple of missed field goal opportunities ultimately bringing them undone.
The constant changes to their line-up and resultant fatigue didn’t stop the Warriors from coming out on top in most key statistical areas, including: possession (51 percent), run metres (2,096 to 1,980), post-contact metres (758 to 460), metres per run (9.07 to 8.18), average set distance (41.1m to 38.08m), line-breaks (5 to 3), tackle-breaks (53 to 32), effective tackle percentage (89.06 to 88.09), errors (13 to 14) and penalties conceded (5 to 6).
But ultimately it wasn’t enough with the Warriors held scoreless from the 30th minute. The Bulldogs’ score was the lowest by a side to beat the Warriors since the Knights’ 10-6 victory in atrocious conditions in Newcastle midway through 2021.
The 7-1-9 Warriors sit in 14th and face an uphill battle to make the finals, but they can channel three of their predecessors who had a negative win ratio after 17 games but went on to qualify for the Top 8: 2001 (in a 26-game regular season) – 7-1-9; 2007 – 8-9; and 2008 – 8-9.
All that glitters is not golden point
The Warriors have now been involved in the equal-second-most golden point games since the controversial concept was introduced in 2003, level with Canberra Raiders on 24 matches and behind only North Queensland Cowboys, who chalked up their 26th later on Saturday.
The Warriors’ record in golden point puts them 12th in the NRL in terms of win percentage, winning eight, drawing a record five and losing 11 of those 24 matches – a success rate of 43.8 percent.
Of those losses, eight have come via field goal – including their last five golden point defeats. During the same period, the Warriors have collected three wins from Shaun Johnson droppies and played out a pair of draws.
Matt Burton’s winning field goals in the past two weeks against Cronulla and the Warriors has enhanced Canterbury-Bankstown’s status as golden point’s golden boys, improving the Bulldogs’ all-time record to a remarkable 12 wins, one draw and three losses from 16 games (78.1 win percentage).
The NRL’s most hapless golden point team is Wests Tigers, who have won five and lost 15 of 20 games.
The Butler did it
While Bunker official Adam Gee’s horrendous non-call of Jaemon Salmon’s late hit on Te Maire Martin in the dying minutes (for which he was subsequently charged by the NRL judiciary) attracted the ire of Warriors fans, the end result continued a remarkably poor record for the club in matches controlled by Chris Butler.
The Warriors have now won just eight and drawn one of 27 matches under Butler – their worst win percentage with any referee who has handled more than 10 of their games. They have managed just one win and one draw from their last eight Butler-controlled fixtures.
Incidentally, the Warriors are 13-14 with Gee as the man in the middle.
WARRIORS’ WORST WIN PERCENTAGE BY REFEREE (minimum 10 games)
20% – Eddie Ward (10 matches – 2 wins, 8 losses)
29.6% – Chris Butler (27 matches – 8 wins, 1 draw, 18 losses)
31.6% – Chris Sutton (38 matches – 12 wins, 1 draw, 25 losses)
34.6% – Alan Shortall (26 matches – 9 wins, 1 draw, 16 losses)
34.8% – David Munro (23 matches – 8 wins, 15 losses)
WARRIORS’ BEST WIN PERCENTAGE BY REFEREE (minimum 10 games)
64.7% – Brett Suttor (17 matches – 11 wins, 6 losses)
60% – Moghseen Jadwat (10 matches – 6 wins, 4 losses)
60% – Gavin Morris (10 matches – 6 wins, 4 losses)
58.6% – Henry Perenara (29 matches – 17 wins, 12 losses)
55% – Bill Harrigan (20 matches – 11 wins, 9 losses)
Barnett’s bolt from the Blues
What more can you say about stand-in skipper Mitch Barnett? Playing all but five minutes of the match, he racked up 24 runs for 226 metres, an equal-team-high 56 tackles, made five tackle-breaks and produced a try assist.
Impressively, Barnett sits fourth in the NRL for total post-contact metres (1,058), 14th – and fourth among forwards – for all run metres (2,529), and 34th for total tackles (497).
The latest in a string of gritty, powerhouse performances has catapulted him onto the NSW bench for next Wednesday’s State of Origin decider, after being an extended squad member for the first two games.
The 30-year-old from Taree becomes the first player ever to debut for the Blues from the Warriors. The club’s only other NSW representative was Ryan Hoffman, a long-serving incumbent who played all three matches in 2015 following his move from Melbourne to Auckland.
Number crunchers
Alongside Barnett, several players stepped up in a shorthanded Warriors outfit to produce some astonishing numbers:
- Addin Fonua-Blake put in his most prolific performance in some time, finishing with 223 metres from 20 carries with 104 post-contact metres, along with 27 tackles.
- Retrenched from fullback to centre just before halftime, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck put together 26 runs for a game-high 281 metres (116 post-contact), plus two line-break assists and a try assist.
- Wayde Egan matched Barnett’s herculean defensive effort with 56 stops.
- Dylan Walker, who spent a chunk of the game at centre, was incredibly busy again with 23 runs for 190 metres, 33 tackles and 19 passes.
- Interchange forwards Jackson Ford (15 runs for 123 metres, 41 tackles in 66 minutes) and Jazz Tevaga (13 runs for 122 metres, 35 tackles in 40 minutes) put in huge shifts from the bench.
- Leka Halasima produced one of the great debuts – most of it in the unfamiliar centre role – and had seven runs for 108 metres along with an unforgettable line-break in 37 minutes.
- Pitched in as a middle forward with the Warriors running out of troops, back-up hooker Freddy Lussick played the last 22 minutes as a middle forward and contributed 17 tackles and seven runs.
- Splitting his time between second-row, centre and wing, Queensland Origin utility Kurt Capewell carved out 14 runs for 126 metres and 34 tackles in arguably his best game for the club.