A Melbourne wonder try sunk the New Zealand Warriors in the final seconds of their 30-26 away loss to the Storm on Saturday night.
“It’s pretty obvious it’s gut-wrenching,” Warriors coach Andrew Webster told reporters.
“When you’ve got a winger that can jump over a skyscraper and then put the ball down in the corner, it’s pretty amazing - but it’s hard to cheer them when you’re feeling this way.”
@nrl Coates clinches it for the Storm! #NRLStormWarriors ♬ original sound - NRL
The defeat handed the Warriors their second straight loss, after their season-opening 16-12 defeat by the Sharks last weekend in Auckland.
Again, it comes after the team left it all out on the park, two weeks in a row.
“When you put all your emotions into, and all your physical and all you can into two performances, and you’re trying really hard and you don’t get what you want - particularly one tonight right on the siren - it’s gonna test ya.
“It’s gonna test what we’re about as a team, as a club and how much are we willing to put our energy into winning every day next week. And then go and get the two points.”
The Warriors trailed 18-6 at halftime.
Captain Tohu Harris said they got their game back on track and gave themselves a shout at winning in the second half.
“We just spoke about getting ourselves back into the game, giving ourselves a chance to play footie. And we do that by doing all those hard things - the little efforts, the physical stuff, getting them right - and then we can build our game off the back of that.
“We really did that well in the second half, but you give a quality side a head start like that and in the end it was a little bit too much.
“But we did a really good job of getting ourselves back into the game and giving ourselves a chance to win this footie game.”
Webster said the team was disappointed in their lack of discipline for a second week running.
“The boys are disappointed.”
“It’s not like I’m a school teacher b*tching on at them, saying boys you got to get this right. I’m more like trying to say, trying to make them realise if they do it, just how good of a footie team they can be.
“But effort is only going to get us so far. There’s so much effort, like for two weeks. We’re trying so hard, but we got to execute that stuff. It’s frustrating.
“We’re just got to keep working at it, not sook. And move on, and fight the next challenge.”
The Warriors host the Canberra Raiders in front of a sold-out Christchurch crowd on Friday night. Webster said it’s time to stop talking and win.
“It’s on us now to make sure we’re got our heads up and we attack the week. And we can’t talk for long, put it that way.”
Match highlights
