Fairytale’s over for Warriors

New Zealand’s outside chance to make the NRL finals seemed too good to be true. So it was in a defeat to Parramatta that killed their playoff hopes.

Chanel Harris-Tavita is mobbed by his Warriors teammates after scoring a try Picture: Getty Images

Tap backs. Cut-out passes from Gosford halfway to Sydney. Inside passes. Outside passes. Offloads. Swinging it left. Swinging it right. Two kicks. A swan dive from Chanel Harris-Tavita. A breathtaking try that encapsulated New Zealand’s season of backbone and spirit. The Warriors trailed by ten.

You’d only just finished your leap from your seat, and then picked yourself up from the floor, when they did it again. Roger Tuivasa Sheck put the shimmy-shimmy shake on Clint Gutherson. He dished up a diving one-handed offload. Kodi Nikorima kicked. Harris-Tavita was in for the second time in as many minutes. The Warriors were down four points. They were playing with heart and soul and Harlem Globetrotter-scale flair. Go you good things.

Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 NRL Telstra Premiership. Every game of every round Live & On-Demand with no-ad breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >

Go you big-hearted, code-saving, desperately homesick, self-sacrificing, strongarmed, long-limbed, offshore, in-form, impeccably behaved things, go beat Parramatta in the second half, go stay in the hunt for a playoffs berth that will be your club’s finest achievement, more meritorious than your grand final berth. While Richmond has become an embarrassment to the AFL – the only Bubbles in a Gold Coast strip club is dancing on a pole – NRL players have barely put a foot wrong during the COVID-19 season, and the Warriors have been at the forefront of doing the right thing under stressful circumstances.

Nathan Cleary’s TikTok, Tevita Pangai’s barber-shop visit and Wayne “I Still Need To Eat” Bennett’s restaurant rebellion have pretty much been the extent of NRL dramas but the resort-living, pool-visiting, stuck-up Tigers have thumbed their noses at those unable to enter Queensland for more genuine reasons than theirs. I know of a nine-year-old boy being buried in Brisbane next week while multiple family and friends, all devastated, are denied entry to the state.

The Warriors have had it worse than the Tigers. They’ve been trapped in this country since May, grappling with frustration and claustrophobia and boredom and confusion, having every reason to go off the rails, chasing lap dances from Bubbles that are unlikely to have abided by 1.5 metre social distancing rules before fighting on the street. The Warriors have kept themselves in check when, really, who could have blamed them if they lost the plot? They have not put a foot wrong in a proud chapter for the club.

If they beat the Eels on Sunday, a finals slot would become a tantalising possibility. They were gone at 16-0. They were back at 16-12. Apart from Cronulla supporters, who wouldn’t want the Warriors finishing eighth? Who wasn’t enchanted by the prospect of a premiership charge up there with the Miracle on Ice from the 1980 Winter Olympics? It seemed too good to be true. Alas and aye, that’s the problem with things that seem too good to be true. They’re too good to be true. The Eels hung on, 24-18, and the Warriors’ playoff prospects were done.

Warriors lock Jazz Tevaga was sin-binned for grabbing Nathan Brown’s collar and giving it a shove. If referee Grant Atkins started sin-binning everyone for that, there would be nobody left by full-time. Don’t worry about sending Tevaga to the judiciary. Send Atkins there on a charge of grade-one ridiculousness. The Eels scored two converted tries while the Warriors were a man down, going from 4-0 to 16-0 while Tevaga cooled his heels and scratched his head over one of the more ridiculous refereeing decisions since 1908.

Come full-time, the Warriors’ fairytale was over. The Cinderella story was dead in the Central Coast water. It was good while it lasted. Those back-to-back first-half tries encapsulated their season. The absolute brilliance but over the long haul, not quite enough. It’s nearly time for the good things to go home. They’ve been no Richmond Tigers this season, which has been to their credit.