NRL 2021: New Zealand Warriors Season Preview

The Warriors were the feel-good story of the 2020 NRL season, but can they have the fan base feeling good with a further improvement in 2021?


2020 Wrap

You’ll struggle to find a better 10th-placed finished in NRL history than what the New Zealand Warriors produced in 2020. Stuck in Australia for the whole season, players returning home to New Zealand and their coach sacked after winning two of their first six games, to end up with eight wins and remain a mathematical chance of the Top 8 up to Round 18 was an incredible result.

Historically poor in Australia overall and regarded as a weak team under pressure, the Warriors showed the sort of fight rarely seen for more than a week at a time at the club. Winning four games in five weeks in the second half of the season highlights just how far the team came following difficult circumstances to start the year.

The likes of Adam Pompey, Jamayne Taunoa-Brown, Patrick Herbert, Jack Murchie and most notably, Eli Katoa, all exceeded expectations to become key contributors to an impressive Warriors team. It’s doing it all again with Covid restrictions still hanging over the club in 2021 that is the new challenge.

Predicted Profile

What will the New Zealand Warriors look like and how will they play? We take a stab at profiling their playing style ahead of Round 1.

The Warriors are always said to have a “big pack.”

In reality, they haven’t had a big pack for years. That is all changing in 2021, though.

Addin Fonua-Blake and Ben Murdoch-Masila headline an influx of big bodies onto the roster. By adding the 195cm and 112kg Tohu Harris to the middle of the field along with Jamayne Taunoa-Brown, Eli Katoa and Leeson Ah Mau, the Warriors finally have that big pack people have been referring to over the years.

The outside backs lean further into the profile of a forward-focused team through the middle. With the return of Ken Maumalo and David Fusitu’a to the back-three along with the signing of Euan Aitken, the Warriors are looking to force their way up the field from tackle one on every set.

The crash-and-bash may not be limited to hard sets working away from their own line either. Katoa and Murdoch-Masila pose as dangerous threats on the edges if Kodi Nikorima and Chanel Harris-Tavita can isolate them onto a single defender. With Harris also ball-playing through the middle, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck’s focus can return to breaking through the defensive line himself rather than trying to create for others as he did last season.

Hooker is a serious issue for the Warriors. This big pack loses some of it’s impact if the service from dummy-half isn’t up to scratch. In good ball areas, having Harris-Tavita and Tuivasa-Sheck on one side with Nikorima and Harris on the other is for little if the right pass isn’t being made from behind the ruck.

The Warriors are going against the grain in 2021 and working towards size over speed. Whether or not that proves a successful formula with the way the game is trending remains to be seen.

2021 NRL Notepad

Jason Oliver cracks open his notepad to find a key player, style or stat to keep an eye on this season.

Tohu Harris

More ball-playing middle forward gear?!

We’ve been on about it for a while now here at RLW. It’s been a regular feature in the NRL 2021 Season Preview series, but this one is different. Promise.

Tohu Harris is made for this role. He’s a big and strong ball-carrier but a skillful and subtle ball-player at the same time. Despite being named on the edge on a Tuesday, Harris spent most of his time in the middle of the field on game day in 2020. It sounds as though he will be wearing the #13 jersey from Round 1 in 2021.

We highlighted the importance of Victor Radley’s ball-playing to the Roosters early last season. More recently, we touched on Cameron Murray at the Rabbitohs, Tyrone Peachey at the Titans and Connor Watson at the Knights and their role in shifting the ball in attack. Harris fits the overall mould of the modern-day lock forward, but he can add even more to the attack than the names above.

Radley, Murray and company tend to be used to move the ball through the middle of the field on wide shifts. Typically at second receiver, they can dig into the line and move the ball out the back to one of their halves. Harris, on the other hand, offers a subtle touch closer to the ruck.

He ran for 172 metres per game last year and is a proven carrier of the football. His late footwork at the line allows him to poke his head through more often than not to promote a quick play-the-ball. And it’s his threat as a ball-runner that opens up opportunities around him.

It all started to show in Round 3 last season.

Early on, he took possession in good ball and forced Tyson Frizell to make a strong tackle on Isaiah Papali’i. Digging into the line forced Corey Norman to turn in and help on Papali’i leaving Tuivasa-Sheck as another option (arguably the better of the two) out the back.

It’s the damage Harris can do further down the field that is most exciting, though.

King Vuniyayawa is a little bit behind the play here, but if Harris runs in pairs with another prop while Tuivasa-Sheck floats around his inside shoulder, the defence will need to be prepared for three options as Harris engages the line.

a) Harris takes the line on himself, b) he digs in and tips the ball onto a big body isolated onto a single defender – ideally Fonua-Blake or c) he turns it into a support player, in this case Tuivasa-Sheck. Nikorima popping up out the back of this shape is possibly another option too.

Harris is already one of the best players in the game. He may soon be the best ball-playing lock of the lot if he influences the Warriors attack in ways we know he can.

Please, Cameron George and co, sign him up beyond this season. Give him the captaincy. Whatever it takes. He can’t be allowed to leave.

I hopped on the NRL Boom Rookies podcast to preview the Warriors 2021 season. I wore my eyepatch on both eyes throughout. They’re a Top 8 team at one point but Brown is being moved on halfway through next season by the end. Hope & skepticism. Is there any other way to be a Warriors fan?

“Heads In” 2021

Oscar Pannifex unpacks a scrum of three key questions ahead of the 2021 NRL season.

Centre-Field Scrum – What’s centre-frame in the Rugby League lens this season?

Chanel Harris-Tavita finished the 2020 season as the Warriors first-choice halfback following Blake Green’s mid-season departure and the young playmaker looks set for a break-out year in 2021. 

Playing the final seven games of the year, Harris-Tavita’s two tries and six try assists are a healthy-enough return for a rookie halfback, but what is most pleasing was his seven forced dropouts. Regarded through the junior grades as a silky, creative attacking player, Harris-Tavita has always had the skills to make it in the NRL. His growing ability to manage games and build pressure at halfback last season has me excited to see what he can produce in 2021. 

In his final game of the season – admittedly against an injury-hit Manly side – Harris-Tavita had four try assists and a key role to play for a few others to send the Warriors out a winner in 2020. 

He showed good hands to pluck a wayward dummy-half pass off the turf before spinning a ball to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck sweeping out the back. RTS takes the pass at speed and with all the hard work done on the inside, it’s a simple tip-on for Adam Keighran in the corner. 

The next one was even better – a switch play from the middle of the field saw Harris-Tavita launch a bullet spiral cut-out to his fullback down the blind side, and the Warriors were in again.

Harris-Tavita wasn’t credited for an assist in either of these tries, but the quality of his pass to Tuivasa-Sheck was arguably the difference between New Zealand scoring or being herded over the sideline. 

Harris-Tavita did get the credit for four more tries though, and all came from the boot. 

A perfectly weighted grubber into the in-goal for a charging Eli Katoa followed by a pinpoint cross-field chip to an unmarked Patrick Herbert on the paint saw Harris-Tavita finish 2020 on a high. With elite aerial threats David Fusitua and Ken Maumalo hopefully lining up on the edges for the Warriors in 2021, Harris-Tavita’s kicking game will be one to watch out for.  

Right Scrum-Line – Who is feeling the pressure this season? 

As Jason touched on above, the Warriors have assembled a monster forward pack in the offseason under new coach Nathan Brown and they will be looking to barge and charge their way into 2021. 

Big, hard-running bodies like Fonua-Blake, Murdoch-Masila, Taunoa-Brown and Katoa will do plenty of damage on their own, but even the best forwards need a hooker to steer them around the park and Wayde Egan has plenty of pressure on him as New Zealand’s starting dummy-half this season. 

With almost 50 first-grade appearances to his name, the clock is ticking for Egan as he attempts to establish himself as an NRL quality hooker. There was plenty of hype around him as a crafty attacking dummy-half coming through the grades, but we’re still waiting for Egan to pull it all together at NRL level. 

With Tohu Harris expected to provide a ball-playing option through the middle-third and the key attacking trio of Harris-Tavita, Nikorima and Tuivasa-Sheck calling the shots, Egan doesn’t need to play a major role in the Warriors’ 2021 campaign – just a solid one. 

His running game is threatening enough to keep markers honest around the ruck and he is a decent defender, particularly with the aforementioned forward pack around him. If Egan can improve his service from dummy-half and get the mix right between running and passing, the Warriors’ should improve on their 14th ranked offence in 2020.

Left Scrum-Line – My left-field thought for the season

http://gty.im/1254186679

If ‘ball-playing middle’ doesn’t end up our Buzzword of the Year here at RLW in 2021, then ‘specialist centre’ could be an early smokey.

Zac Lomax, Stephen Crichton, Bradman Best and Campbell Graham have emerged in the last few seasons as go-to strike players on the edges after a long period in the game when centres were almost the forgotten men in rugby league, and we are here for it. 

But as these young guns danced and dove their way across the try line each week last season, the class and skill of New Zealand’s Peta Hiku continued to fly under the radar. 

Hiku is a specialist centre, through-and-through. 

With a strong fend and the speed and balance to skip outside opposition defenders, Hiku has made a career out of setting up his partnering winger – and 2020 was no exception. Hiku finished the year with 9 try assists (1st among centres), 11 line break assists (=2nd) and 28 offloads (=2nd) to arguably be the best attacking centre in the competition, statistically. 

At 28 years of age there is still plenty of footy left in the legs for the ex-Kiwi international and with Harris-Tavita throwing him good, clean pill this season, Hiku could be in for a big year.

Peak, Pass, Pit

Oscar and Jason give their predicted peak for the Warriors in 2021 along with a pass mark and worst-case scenario.

Peak

8th: There’s plenty of motivation for the Warriors to send talismanic fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck out on a high in 2021. They have recruited well, and if new coach Nathan Brown can pick up where Todd Payten left off last year, New Zealand could be a chance of sneaking into 8th place if a few other things go their way. ~OP

Top 8: Forget the potential issues off the field, the Warriors are still sending out Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Tohu Harris, Addin Fonua-Blake, Ben Murdoch-Massila, David Fusitu’a, Ken Maumalo and Eli Katoa. The foundations of a Top 8 team are well and truly there. It will take a few favorable bounces of the ball and a team or two to fall well below expectations, but the Warriors can sneak into the 8 with this group. ~JO

Pass

10th: After showing such promising signs in the back half of last season, a repeat on their 10th place effort must be the pass mark for 2021. This team seemed to grow as the competition went on last season, and I’m expecting more of the same this time around. ~OP

10th-11th: The squad is undoubtedly better this season than last. The Warriors should improve but maintaining a similar position to 2020 is the pass mark as they navigate another year away from home. ~JO

Pit

13th-15th: The Warriors had it stacked against them more than any others last season, but their refusal to concede kept them in the finals race far longer than anyone expected. Backing this up a second year in a row will be an immense challenge. They welcome some key names back – particularly out wide – but there will be plenty of excuses again in 2021 and things could get ugly for the Warriors if they start using them. ~OP

Wooden spoon: The Warriors have never finished an NRL season holding the wooden spoon. Nathan Brown has, though. Twice. This isn’t a 16th-place squad, but the circumstances they find themselves in until a Trans-tasman bubble opens up along with the uncertainty around the coach mean finishing at the bottom isn’t out of the question. ~JO

*All stats and video from NRL.com unless stated otherwise


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