ANZAC

Had to have a crack at the cowboys somehow

Well I hate losing the Cowboys - they were always the junk team of the NRL - in fact we always seemed to play them late in the season to decide who would get the wooden spoon. To seem them playing at an elite level and knocking the Warriors out of the playoffs last year hurts. Although I bet the rest of the NRL feels the same way when the Warriors beat them - nights like Meli's five try demolition of the Doggies in the playoffs a few years back does help undo a lot of the pain of the Warriors dark ages. Anyway without further ado on the cowboys are objects of ridicule theme check this:

Warriors capitulate to cowboys

I can cope with losses but pathetic blowouts I really tire of. Are the Warriors going to win a game away this year? If they can't they might as well not bother. Looks to me like all the Queensland teams are at an elite level this year - the Warriors however are not.

I watched Man U play Blackburn this evening, a win would have guaranteed the prem title they scraped a 1-1 draw in the final minutes with a Tevez header. A pretty important goal and an important point leading into the crunch match vs Chelsea with a three point lead. Man U play Barca away, Chelsea away and Barca at home all in a period of 7 days starting Wednesday.

Massive win over dogs - you just know that something good is going to happen

Man bring on the Vatuvei cost benefit analysis - great win over the Dogs - this is the yo yo of Warriors fandom at its best. Into the top eight. Lets shoot for a perfect home record.

Doggies and Ridge vs Wiki

Friday again thank goodness for that. Another riveting week at work flys by leading to another exciting weekend of sporting action.

Man U v Arsenal on Saturday is the big prem game of the week and with Arsenal out of the champions league at the hands of Liverpool mid-week (great game by the way shown on free to air TV here in prime time Tuesday night) this game is even more massive than usual as an Arsenal loss is basically their season over. Man U cruised past Roma and look set to have a real crack at the double .

As for the boys they face up to what will no doubt be a Doggies side desperate to redeem themselves after a Mason pounding. SBW is going to be dangerous and I have my doubts about the Warriors capacity to win this one. Lets hope they can. Only a couple more weeks till Price returns and hopefully gets the season back on track. I thinks its clear however that the Warriors are going to struggle to be top four material unless they improve significantly.

Also enjoyable this week was the minor Wiki vs Ridge spat. With Ridge, echoing comments from the hoff (does he read this blog?) and in a view I am tended to share, suggesting that Wiki was past his use by date - "Ruben quite simply can't keep up with the pace any more," Ridge told the readers of Sunday News. "It really pains me to say this, but there comes a time in a player's career when he has to sit back, take stock, and ask himself a simple question - am I still cutting the mustard?". Wiki on the other hand retorting that he was still doing his best for the club and that the "fire was still burning inside".

Notably Ridge also indicated he thought there was zero chance of the Warriors winning the title this year - fair comment and Ridge basically slams the whole squad as unfit, too big and not organised on defence. This is tough to take on two counts - one - because it is probably absolutely correct and two - Ridge was with the Warriors when they never even made the playoffs - this group of players have finished in the top four and played a home semi. So lets not fire Cleary and dump the squad wholesale just yet.

Warriors scrape past nights

Close game vs Knights at home but a win is a win. 26-20 is an ok scoreline when you are struggling. Nice start by Shortland (sleeper rookier of the year?) with two tries. A .500 record is a place to start from so the season does not get away on us but frankly the Knights are bottom of the table material. The Warriors are in desperate need of improvement in order to be able to compete at a Storm/Broncoes level.

By the way snowing in London this morning, its crazy.

Knights at home

Its hard to come up with the adjectives to describe how bad the result against Manly really was. Second worst Warriors losing scoreline of all time probably says it all. To say Ivan Cleary was speechless is the understatement of the year.

I hope this is a blip and not a harbinger of the season ahead. Anderson's downfall came as a surprise after a series of strong seasons and I hope last season was the first step in a climb to the grand final rather than the crest of the Cleary wave. Losses like this lay bare the Warriors weaknesses on defense and their lack of leadership in the absence of Price and Wade Mac. Although the Herald's Chris Rattue is not that interested in the Warriors - generally I agree with the tone of this piece on the potential debacle that awaits. Not sure if I agree however that the key flaw in the Warriors set up is the lack of quality kiwis in the skill positions.

You have to hope it can get better at home this weekend against the Knights. The Knights were dire last season so the Warriors need to assert themselves and smash them at home. However it should be noted that on the table the Knights are third with a 2-1 record and a +16 points diff, whilst the Warriors are 14th with a 1-2 record and a -46 points diff. SMH power rankings for this week put the Warriors 12th (not at the bottom yet!) and the Knights 8th with the Broncoes ranked as the top team at present.

So its not going to get any easier and Cleary knows this - a win as always is vital to maintain at a minium a 0.500 record at least until Price returns to inject some fortitude into this teddy bears picnic.