Slade Griffin: On the Warriors run of success against top sides

Warriors Assistant Coach Slade Griffin joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to discuss their recent success + their side to play the Melbourne Storm. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from News Talks'd be Slack.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Griffin joins us now as we look at the Warriors
team coming up against the table topping Storm Slade, welcome
to the program. Team is out. There's named no surprise,
Sawn Johnson back in the seven junter jumper. Excuse me
moving to Mighty Martin out to the sixth role. Pretty
simple decision for you and welcome.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Yeah, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
Yeah, So obviously Sewan has done a really good job
there as close to gatting Deliam last year. So as
Tomighty has been great for us, and I think he's
taken a lot of confidence out of getting his hands
on the ball a lot more in the last couple
of weeks, and Sean's just going to come back in
and play his role, but also, you know, build accommodation
with Tomighty and help support him as well. So it's

(00:56):
good to have both halves confident and ready to get
their hands on the footy.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
So how much does to Mighty's success transfer out to
the sixth Jersey? What are your expectations around what do
you expect them to do with a different number on
us back.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
He'll still play similar to the way he's been playing.
Like Shawn's really keen to come in and almost help
support Tomighty and what he's been doing, But our attack
still stays very similar. You know, I think it's just
a confidence thing to Mighty got the opportunity to get
a bit more involved and he's built some real good
confidence out of it. So yeah, looking forward to seeing

(01:32):
those those two keep building their combination.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
So the decision, and look, it's not yours planing its
head coach, but you'll have some I'm presuming some sway
or say in this form v fame. Is it a
difficult decision to go, Hey, Tomighty's playing some fantastic football,
but Shawn's got the history. Does that even get discussed
or is it like a given that he'll come straight
back in.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
No, it's kind of I mean there's always discussions, but no,
it's we know what Shawn's strengths are and what Tomighty's
strengths are, and we'll keep trying to put those guys
in positions where they get to show their talent. So again,
Shortan will come in and help with the kicking game
a bit more, and yeah, they'll play off in our structure,
in our system and get to put their spin on it.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Suppose that the guy who gets the dud card, well
not he's still playing on the bench now, Harris Tavita. Again,
you can't fit that many players in, can you. And
this is a guy who can cover how many positions
off the bench do you think? Slade?

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Oh, it's been brilliant.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
You know, his tackling, his kicking game, his energy, he
wants the ball, he's been quite dangerous down that left edge.
So yeah, unfortunately, you know he goes back to the bench,
but we've seen through Origin that you know, a guy
who can cover that utility role on the bench is

(02:54):
super important. And you know when Luke broke his league,
Chanell come on early in the game and played really
well at six. So we're really confident in whatever position
he plays, he'll put his hand up and do a
great job.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
For us to having your number one team on the pack.
If this such a thing, we've got Roger Tuivasa k
he's sitting on the interchange. May or may not turn up,
not entirely. Sure, it's just a list after all, not
a team. But you're you're very close to the thirteen
best players and you're coming up to the best team
in the competition. That's it's a lovely combination. Is It's

(03:29):
all just come right at the right time, So your
hopes must be quite high.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
Yeah, exactly. We missed a few at the start of
the year, and then I had some very tough games
and we're pretty you know, beating up and we've just
got boys back at the right time. And on the
other side of the buy everyone freshened up. I think
you're seeing kind of the intensity we played out last week.
So yeah, everyone's fresh and feeling really good and got

(03:55):
a bit of confidence out of some good performances.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
So yeah, fingers crossed. You know, we get to keep
that going.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
And you know, I know the boys are always excited
playing Mount Smart, So yeah, Storm, it's gonna be a
tough one, but yeah, we're excited.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
And you look at the players that are slowly sifting
their way back into the side again from like a
couple of weeks ago when it was almost unrecognizable as
a Warriors team. The senior guys coming back, what they
take from what the reserves I suppose did when they
when they came in. They've embraced that with open arms there, like, yeah, yeah,
they don't see it as being a challenge to their role,

(04:32):
more as a supplement what the whole team are doing.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
I just think that was a great replication of what
the club's about.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
You know, those those younger guys got their opportunity and
they get to train against the ner old boys and
do the same drills, the same they try to play
with in the same systems, and they really got a
mojo back, if you want to say. And then the yeah,
some of the senior boys come back a bit fresher

(05:01):
and got to continue on that form. So yeah, they
put us in a really good position, and look, we
just got to keep it going.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Now, great win last week, but you can't build too
much off of that because you just went through. You
went straight through the opposition, so you've got to recalibrate.
The Storm are going to provide a lot more. So
what do you think you have to tighten up before
taking on the competition leader's slade?

Speaker 4 (05:30):
Like, yeah, every every game has its different challenges, you know,
the Storm and no for you know, their gritty defense
and scrambling and making the like the game is going
to be a very close one, there's no doubt.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
So we just got to really front low with our.

Speaker 4 (05:46):
Defense and standing the arm wrestle with them, hopefully do
a good job to limit their spines influence. You know,
Jerome Hughes and and Harry Grint are so dangerous off
off you know, the platform that they're forwards and outside
backs create. So yeah, we're ready for them, hopefully. And yeah,
still got a couple of days, but got a big

(06:07):
session on Thursday to get prepared for them and stuff.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
You've gotta leave behind what disappointed you, your coaches, right,
you're always more disappointed than happy. You kind of find
the thing that stands out. What was it?

Speaker 4 (06:20):
Oh, mate, To be fair, we're actually you know, not
saying we need to improved like drastically, you know, just
really want to repeat the same performance. I thought the
boys really dove straight in and we started fast and
just the application to our defense I think was the
biggest takeaway. So yeah, we just need to replicate that

(06:41):
against a different style.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
And with Tess likely he might make it onto the interchange,
it's still a work in progress. Does he sit right now?

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah? I think we'll let Bellamy stressed about that one.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
Nay, Roger hasn't had a buket load of reps coming
off that hamstring injury, so just trying to get him
back into some full train and get some more reps.
Obviously we know those high speed athletes coming off hamstrings.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, biggest thing. We just want to get in more
reps and make sure he's ready to go.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
And we're ready to go to watch it. But that's
why we're more focused on what's something Yes Saturday night
up against the Melbourne Storm and Slave Griffin. We thank
you very much as always for your time. You train hard,
go well.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
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