Rugby League: Coach reveals areas Warriors need to improve in second half of NRL season

Coach Andrew Webster has revealed the areas the Warriors need to improve as they target the second half of the NRL season and a run to the playoffs.

With an 8-6 record, the Auckland club
are in sixth place with 10 rounds to go on a congested NRL ladder. It’s a good position, especially as the Warriors have six matches in New Zealand, including five at Mt Smart.

They also have momentum, after the 34-8 victory in Canberra, which was a new benchmark in terms of resilience.

But Webster is taking nothing for granted ahead of Friday’s trip to Wollongong to face the St George Illawarra Dragons (10pm).

“We have to keep getting better,” Webster told the Herald. “There is another huge chunk of improvement to come in a lot of teams. In the history of the NRL, the teams who make the eight from here on in are the ones that improve. That has happened forever.

“You might have a team that’s near the top that falls and scrapes into the eight – that’s happened too – but it’s a marathon. Each week is a sprint but the season is a marathon. You want to win each sprint but are you mentally good enough to do it over a season?”

The Warriors have showed promising signs. Their results have been built on a defensive platform – drastically reshaped from last season – while their attacking thrust is much more profound.

Asked how the Warriors can make further gains, Webster identified three specific areas.

While his squad have been good at standing up to pressure – shown most recently in the first half against the Raiders – they need to be able to control the blowtorch themselves.

“We are absorbing [pressure] well,” said Webster. “And then we can hang in there and apply pressure ourselves. [But] we want to be the team that applies it for longer.”

Webster points to the round 14 victory over Redcliffe, where the Dolphins were ground down in the second half.

“We were really ruthless,” said Webster. “We need to maintain that relentless intensity and get even better at going after teams.”

The other key aspects are more offensive patience – “to build pressure” – and adding an unpredictable edge to their work.

“I’d like the defence to not know what side we are attacking,” said Webster. “Be unpredictable but it’s predictable to us. So the opposition don’t know what they are going to do but we have real clarity.”

When asked to identify the best performances so far, Webster lists four, starting with the emphatic March win over the Cowboys, only the second success in Townsville since 2001.

“We had put a lot into the week before against the Roosters and come away with nothing,” said Webster. “After that game I felt like we walked away saying, okay, ‘we know now we have got something here’. I thought everyone here felt that.”

The second was the improbable comeback victory at Cronulla, where the Warriors turned around a 26-6 deficit.

“We earned it,” said Webster. “We grinded them into the ground and then came over the top. It gave me even more reassurance that we can do that, particularly when the game was on the line. It wasn’t a fluke, that second half.”

The others were the Redcliffe display – “the way we went after the opposition was as good as we have done” – along with the effort against the Raiders.

“We weathered the storm on a huge occasion,” said Webster. “I feel like it added another element of confidence. We have showed heaps of resilience on our try line but that was definitely the best we have done it. It was a new benchmark.”

Conversely, Webster felt the defeats to Newcastle (away) and Brisbane were the most disappointing displays, lamenting some soft tries given up against the Knights and the way the team lost their composure against the Broncos.

“[Brisbane] was the best game to learn from,” said Webster. “We created so many opportunities, didn’t get over the tryline and we allowed ourselves to get frustrated.”