Good times don't last long

Well the good times didn't take long to go bad this season did they. Tate out for the season and now it looks like Vatuvei is facing knee surgery as well.

Thats two seriously big time players out long term. The replacement at centre for Tate will be Patrick Ah Van. Follow the link above for a good video piece on Vatuvei's injury and Ah Van as a replacement. 

Loss to the Broncoes was a real dissappointment but they look to be the form team of the competition and early title favourites with Manly yet to record a win. This week's game vs South's looks to be another tough one with Souths showing some excellent early form with two wins out of three leaving them second in the table in points diff. 

With all the doom and gloom we have to remember its early days and based on last year the first 12 rounds don't actually matter that much. The Warriors need to stay strong and beat the bottom half teams and they will still be in contention when some of these injury worries blow over. 

I thought it was pretty cool to see the Bulldogs lose two competition points in round 3 for fielding 14 players  in their win over the Penrith. Those of you who are old enough will remember that a similar points deduction in the Warriors first season after a win over the old Wests Magpies was the start of the derailment of that Warriors inaugural year and in the end the club missed the playoffs by - you guessed it - two points. In that case the Warriors used five interchange players instead of four so their big win 46-12 was annulled and the points deducted. So a nice harbinger to see it happen to someone else - apparently it has happened six times in history with the Warriors one of those. However no way should Penrith get a rematch - if they do we need to replay the NRL seasons right back to that Warriors game in 95 to be sure we get a fair result.

I just got back from Poland on Sunday so am a bit slow to update the blog. I did however get an email from Ali G out of the blue - how goes it in Aussie Ali? 

G20 summit in London this week and major protests against the banks and capitilism generally are expected to shut the city down for the next two days. Large scale "G20 Meltdown" riots and protests centred around the Bank of England are on the cards. 

Great first up win for Warriors over the Eels

Well the Warriors off to a great start for 2009 with a win at home vs the Eels. A few shaky moments and errors but overall a good performance. There is a certain symmetry in being able to put away a Daniel Anderson coached side and lets hope its the start of a big year for the team.

Damning with faint praise

There are no bounds to the optimism coming out of NZ about the Warriors prospects this year. Striking a bolt from the blue - even Chris Rattue of the Herald a long time Warriors knocker and fair weather supporter if there ever was one - is picking a grand final spot for the team this year. That said - he is not exactly gushing in his support.

This mini-Manly implosion has got to be a good thing for the Warriors prospects though - you will recall the Warriors minor premiership and grand final appearance in 2002 was favourably assisted by the massive points penalty suffered by a fantastic Bulldogs side for salary cap breaches and it would be nice if Manly could take themselves out of the running one way or another.

I really enjoyed the Phil Gould suggestions that all NRL players should be contractually forbidden to drink for the duration of their contracts. Geez Phil don't you think thats a bit draconian?