“It was just not acceptable, a not good enough start”

Warriors’ Head Coach Nathan Brown says his side “needs to be better” to start winning games after giving up a half-time lead to lose for the second week in a row, but don’t expect him to wield the axe just yet.

The Titans ran in two tries in the first 15 minutes before a mistake by the Titans’ Phillip Sami gave the Warriors field position and Wayde Egan scored in the 18^th minute to make it 12-6.

Titans hit back with a second try to Greg Marzhew in the 24th minute before the Warriors’ Marcelo Montoya scored 11 minutes later.

Just before half-time, a grubber from Ash Taylor could not be contained by the Titans’ Phillip Sami, Pompey pounced and the bunker awarded the try. Reece Walsh made the kick, giving the Warriors an 18-16 lead at the break.

The Warriors missed opportunities, created some for their opponents and the only try in the second half – from the Titans’ Philip Sami - wrapped it up for the home side.

“It was just not acceptable, a not good enough start … obviously a good effort to get back in the game and again get into the front like we did last week … then we had two young outside backs drop the ball the line wide open just purely and simply because they didn’t get deep enough … again not acceptable … not now with where we want to be as a football club … really disappointing,” Brown said at the post-game press conference.

“We’re past trying to develop players, we want to win bloody games of footy.

“You can’t drop the ball with the line wide open twice. It was a good game of footy. I don’t think anyone was better than the other. I think both sides had some periods that were better … who deserved to win, I’m not sure.

“Whether you deserve to or not deserve to win … you get the ball with no one in front of you, you catch it and put it down and score … we had two glaring ones. They took (advantage of) everything they created, credit to them.

“We’ve got some talented young players and they need to understand the consequences of not getting it right. It costs you game and it makes us all feel down because the effort was good from both sides.

“Both sides hung in there in the heat, at different stages we were both out on our feet and people were coming up with ways to stop tries from both sides. I think both sides are better teams than they were last year … but we’re still on naught points.”

Changes to the team?

When asked if he planned to drop players as a result, Brown was quick in his response.

“It’s not about dropping people it’s about players understanding that these things have big consequences on the football club and the team and the ladder,” he said.

“We’re certainly not asking them to do something they’re not ready to do as players but when they don’t get it right in such simple situations …

“We just need to be better and people need to understand, if you don’t get your role right it’s disappointing. It’s not about dropping people it’s about get it right.

“I’m disappointed because I know that some of those guys could have done a little better than they did today in those situations.”

Brown said Ash Taylor was solid in his first game for the Warriors.

“He kicked the ball reasonably well and he came up with some nice stuff to help create that last opportunity when we spilled the beans with the line wide open. We’d say solid, would we like a little more at times? 100 per cent but it’s his first game for the club,” he said.

Brown was asked if he’d like to see more defensive intent from Reece Walsh, who played his first game for the season against the Titans.

“I’d like to wait another few weeks and see where Reece is at. That’s his first hit-out today. Reece is an exciting young talent, we all know that, and he made Queensland last year as the youngest player… that’s because he’s an elite talent but Reece has got some real focus areas for himself and over the next 4-5 weeks obviously we’d like to see some growth there,” he said.

Today was game one, obviously very hot conditions, and we’ll see how he grows.”

The Warriors travel to Campbelltown Stadium, where they will face Wests Tigers on Friday at 5pm.