Warriors NRLW 2019 season by the numbers

The Warriors entered the second season of the NRL Holden Women's Premiership more prepared and with an emphasis around fitness. 

Their opening win in round one against the Roosters at AAMI Park set the tone early.

However, their second half against the Dragons on home turf in round two came back to bite with the team falling short of advancing to the NRLW grand final on for-and-against.  

An upset win over the Broncos at the SCG in round three provided a major highlight for the team as they look for positives ahead of next season. 

Snapshot

The Warriors entered the second NRLW season recruiting just one signing from a rival club in Kiwi superstar Honey Hireme while only retaining 36% of their squad from the inaugural year.  

Hireme was set to return to Auckland after a season at the Dragons but tragic circumstances involving her late mother Caryn saw the prolific try-scorer miss the entire competition on compassionate grounds.

The squad's average player age of 28 was the oldest in the competition despite blooding an equal competition-high 11 rookies.  

Among the recruits included former Kiwi Ferns forward Kathleen Wharton, rugby union back Jules Newman and playmaker Charntay Poko.

Poko was arguably one of the brightest talents to come out of the second NRLW season with her kicking game turning heads and guiding the Warriors to a 2-1 record.

Attack

The Warriors managed to score 32 points from three games at an average of 10.6 per outing while they conceded 46 in return.

Their six tries were evenly shared among the outside backs and forwards.

Warriors back-rower Onjeurlina Leiataua finished in the top 10 for most runs with 34 in three appearances.

Her 294 metres gained was ranked eighth highest in the competition behind the likes of Kezie Apps and Millie Boyle.

The Warriors finished second for tackle busts with 88 in total at 29.3 per game. Leiataua and Annetta Nuuausala proved most damaging with 15 apiece while Charntay Poko (10) and Jules Newman (9) finished in the NRLW's top 10.  

The Warriors' goal-kicking ranked second behind the Roosters with 66.7% - Apii Nicholls slotting four goals from six attempts.

Discipline

The Warriors didn't get the match officials too offside with their discipline, conceding just 4.3 penalties per game to rank second best behind the Dragons.

Krystal Rota (3) joined Annetta Nuuausala, Crystal Tamarua and George Hale (all two) in the NRLW top 10 for penalties conceded.

Their error count average of 6.7 per game was also the best of any other side with no player standing out in this category.

In return they were awarded 14 penalties at an average of 4.7 per game in a fairly even result.  

Defensively, the Warriors suffered most in terms of missed tackles.

Their overall count of 34.3 was down on last season but was still the highest in the competition.

They conceded 15 line breaks that resulted in nine tries.

Charntay Poko and Krystal Rota had the most missed tackles with 10 apiece, finishing behind the Dragons' Maitua Feterika (15) and the Roosters' Nita Maynard (11).

Rota could be excused given she accumulated 91 effective tackles in three games. Only Warriors captain Georgia Hale (110) made more tackles for the side at an incredible 96.5% efficiency rate.

Warriors centre Jules Newman missed nine tackles of her own but dominated the one-on-one category with a competition-high eight efforts.

Metres gained from offloads

The Warriors recorded just 12 offloads across the three regular season games to be ranked fourth in the competition but data shows they recorded the most metres in total.

The Warriors generated 117.9 metres (39.3 per game) from offloads at an average of 9.8m per offload. This was well ahead of the Dragons (5.5m) and Broncos (4.2m) who offloaded more often but didn't make as much yardage.

Warriors hooker Krystal Rota topped the support play list with 44.5 metres recorded after receiving an offload.

Charntay Poko, Annetta Nuuausala and Onjeurlina Leiataua finished in the NRLW's top five for helping generate yardage by keeping the ball alive.

Dragons centre Tiana Penitani finished on top of this category to generate 42.2 metres for her teammates from five offloads created.

Kicking game factor

The kicking game of Charntay Poko in the NRLW set a new standard for future seasons with the Warriors halfback generating a whopping 1120 metres off the boot from 40 kicks in 2019.

In terms of finding space, Poko kicked to open ground 25% of the time.

Broncos captain Ali Brigginshaw (603 metres from 27 kicks) and Dragons halfback Maddie Studdon (556 metres from 20 kicks) were next best in the competition for yardage.

Brigginshaw (29%) and Studdon (50%) found more space than Poko but had less kick metres per game on average with the pair having the use of halves partners who also took on a kicking role.

The Roosters were serviced in this department by Kirra Dibb, who despite being limited with good field territory, finished with 449 metres from just 15 kicks in play.

Poko's ability to kick long was well supported by her short kicking game with a competition-high four repeat sets in the regular season.