Warriors fall under Panthers’ spell in Magic Round defeat in Brisbane

At Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane: Panthers 18 (Dylan Edwards 18 min, Brian To’o 27 min, Spencer Leniu 74 min tries; Nathan Cleary 3 goals) Warriors 6 (Addin Fonua-Blake 9 min try; Shaun Johnson goal). HT: 12-6

Sin binned: Jackson Ford (Warriors), Demitric Sifakula (Warriors)

The Warriors have slumped to their fourth defeat in five games going down 18-6 to the Panthers in their NRL Magic Round game in Brisbane on Saturday.

It continued the club’s downward trend after their bright start to the season, but again they played with courage and passion, if not enough skill, against one of the top teams in the NRL.

Thankfully for the Warriors, they won’t go through another tough three-week period like they’ve just experienced and they’re not going to play the Storm, Roosters or Panthers again this year, unless they meet in the playoffs.

The Warriors weren’t thrashed in any of these games, which is a positive, but they’ve lost three in a row and have fallen out of the top eight.

Like against the Roosters last week when they failed to score a point, the Warriors weren’t threatening enough on attack and although they can have periods where they’re on top, mistakes or poor kicks are stopping them from converting that into points and they’ve become too easy to defend against.

Shaun Johnson was this week linked to a move to the Tigers, even though that talk is premature as Scott Fulton has just joined the joint venture as their head of recruitment.

However, Fulton, like Andrew Webster in the Warriors coaching box, would have been disappointed with a couple of kicks the veteran halfback made in the first half, although he played much better over the second 40 minutes.

The Warriors weathered an early storm from the Panthers, but gradually worked their way into the game with Jackson Ford, Dylan Walker and Marcelo Montoya making an impact.

That hard work was rewarded by a try to Addin Fonua-Blake in the ninth minute. But there are reasons why the Panthers are back to back Premiers. They soaked up that pressure, never looking flustered and took their opportunities when they arose.

Dylan Edwards shouldn’t have been able to fend off a couple of forwards to make his way to the try line, but he did and got the Panthers on the board in the 21st minute.

The Warriors were showing signs of fatigue later in the first half and weren’t helped by Ed Kosi hobbling around after a collision with Stephen Crichton, which was subsequently reported as a fractured kneecap.

There’s only going to be one outcome when Brian To’o is given too much space on the right wing, the edge Kosi was defending, and that resulted in a try in the 28th minute to put the Panthers in front.

Ten minutes into the second half Ford was sent to the bin for a hip drop tackle on Spencer Leniu and given how the judiciary have ruled on these this season, he can expect to be sitting out a couple of games.

It wasn’t until the third quarter that the Warriors had a chance to score again in the second half, but the Panthers defence held solid.

Demitric Sifakula, in just his second NRL game, was sin binned late on for a striking action on Cleary and Spencer Leniu sealed the win with a try in the 74th minute.

The big moment

When Ed Kosi crashed into Stephen Crichton to send the Panther flying, it was one of the biggest hits in the young winger’s career. However, he is believed to have fractured his kneecap in the collision and it forced a major reshuffle of positions.

Match rating

7/10: It was a high quality game with the Warriors able to play at the Panthers’ level for large parts of it. However, their issue remains doing it for 80 minutes.

MVP

Aucklander Spencer Leniu was too much of a handful for the Warriors to contain and scored the try at the end to make sure of the win.

The big picture

The Warriors will remain in Australia, rather than returning home before Friday night’s game against the Bulldogs in Sydney. Given that the Warriors have shown they’re not yet at the level to defeat the NRL’s heavyweights, they need to beat poor teams like the Bulldogs.