The Warriors made it three in a row with a pulsating, seesawing 26-24 victory over Wests Tigers at Campbelltown, giving up a six-point lead on three occasions before fighting back from six points down themselves with 11 minutes to play.
While discipline with and without the ball was done on their grafting home wins over Manly and Sydney Roosters in the previous two rounds, the Warriors dug deep to ultimately convert territory dominance into a crucial victory.
In a throwback to the Addin Fonua-Blake led performances of 2023-24, the Warriors won the run metres (2,051 to 1,558) and post-contact metres (654 to 521) counts, while their average set distance advantage was perhaps most telling: 47.71 to the Tigers’ 38.02.
The Warriors have a healthy lead in the NRL in terms of all run metres (7,295) and post-contact metres (2,544), as well as set completion (85%).
The performance against the Tigers was also their most offload-heavy of 2025 so far, dishing 11 after making only 21 combined across the first three rounds.
Branching out in attack
Leka Halasima’s unforgettable 70-metre solo try was the Warriors’ first this season to originate from inside their own half.
Digging further, the match was a huge deviation from the team’s norm with three of their four tries covered more than 30 metres.
During the first three rounds, only one of the Warriors’ 11 tries – a last-minute intercept against the Sea Eagles – came from a play-the-ball more than 10 metres out from the opposition try-line.
Perfect pre-bye launching pad
The Warriors have chalked up three wins from their first four matches for just the fifth time in their history; they went 3-1 in 2002, 2003 and 2023, while they won their first five games of 2018.
In each of those campaigns, they went on to reach the finals with at least 15 wins. If they can topple bogey team Melbourne in their next outing, it would represent the Warriors’ fourth 4-1 or better start to a campaign (they went 3-2 in 2002).
Sunday’s result also marked the seventh win from their last eight matches preceding a bye.
Ton up for Metcalf
He’s still coming to grips with the nuances of halfback play at NRL level, but Luke Metcalf chalked up a minor career milestone at Campbelltown Stadium by registering his 100th point in first grade.
The injury-hampered playmaker, making his 30th appearance in the top flight, scored a try and kicked five-from-five – including a couple of clutch kicks in the last 10 minutes – for a haul of 14 points.
Metcalf has 14 tries and 22 goals since debuting for Cronulla in 2021. He’s racked up 32 points so far in 2025, a new career-high and fourth in the NRL.
If he continues at this scoring rate and plays every game, Metcalf would finish the regular season with 192 points – which would be the third-highest in the club’s history, behind Ivan Cleary’s 242 points in 2002 and James Maloney’s 206 points in 2011.
A decade of Bunty
Cult hero front-rower Bunty Afoa’s first NRL appearance of 2025 saw him join a select group of players whose first-grade career at the Warriors has spanned 10 seasons.
Afoa is just the 14th player to boast a tenure with the club spanning 10 seasons – and only the 10th of those to stay at the Warriors for 10 consecutive seasons.
Debuting as a 19-year-old, Afoa is the only player aside from fellow 2016 club debutant Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, who had a two-season rugby union foray, and Erin Clark and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, who both debuted in 2017 before embarking on extended stints at rival clubs, from the current squad to play their first game for the Warriors prior to 2020.
Eye on the Storm
The Warriors return from the bye in Round 6 sizing up the end of the NRL’s longest active rivalry losing streak.
Melbourne has won its last 16 games against the Warriors, whose last victory over the Storm was at Mount Smart in 2015.
The Storm are also on a nine-game winning run against former annual Anzac Day opponents the Warriors at AAMI Park. The Warriors last won there in 2014; they have conceded 30-plus points in seven of the nine games at the venue since.
Number crunchers
There was a surplus of stats studs in the Warriors’ win over the Tigers:
- Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad ran for a game-high 233 metres from 28 carries. Following a subpar showing in Round 1, CNK is now equal-first in the NRL for most runs with Souths’ Jye Gray (92) and fourth for run metres (811).
- As well as maintaining his big lead in the NRL’s dummy-half runs category in another outstanding performance, Wayde Egan topped the Warriors’ tackle count once again with 45. His 185 tackles this season is second only to Dolphins hooker Jeremy Marshall-King.
- Erin Clark led the Warriors’ forwards for the fourth straight game with 159 metres from 16 runs, and is sixth in the NRL among forwards (25th overall) for run metres (608). He also made 30 tackles against the Tigers.
- Jackson Ford was huge off the bench again with 147 metres from 14 runs and 23 tackles in 38 minutes, as well as eight tackle-breaks – double the next best Warrior.
- Interchange tyros Demetric Vaimauga (90 metres, 19 tackles) and Leka Halasima (131 metres, 11 tackles) made their half-hour stints count.
- Maligned winger Ed Kosi had one of his best games in the NRL as a late replacement for Rocco Berry, racking up 200 metres from 18 runs and popping three offloads.
- Prop duo and co-captains James Fisher-Harris (120 metres, 37 tackles) and Mitch Barnett (131 metres, 30 tackles) toiled as hard as ever.
- Five-eighth Chanel Harris-Tavita deserves special mention for his 29-tackle contribution.