July 21, 2025 • 9 mins
Warriors coach Andrew Webster is in awe of his team's 20-15 NRL win over the Knights in Newcastle.
The visitors trailed 15-14 late before Leka Halasima seized on a charged down field goal attempt to dash 40 metres to the tryline.
He joined Piney to discuss further.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from news Talk zed Be.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
To the Warriors, who last night snatched a twenty fifteen
win over the Knights in Newcastle in utterly dramatic fashion
that shut.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Warriors Shojo.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Tasty, astonishing forward Lecha Hellasimas scoring the game winning try
and the final seconds after collecting the ball from a
deflected field goal attempt and running over forty meters with it.
The Warriors stay fourth on the table, level on thirty
points with the third place Storm and four points behind
(00:47):
the table topping Raiders. Warriors head coach Andrew Webster is
with us, Webbe, thanks for taking time to chat to us.
Can we start at the end of the game last night?
Can you talk us through the range of emotions you
and your fellow coaches went through from when Tanner Boyd
missed the late penalty which would have put you into
the lead the for your goal he then attempted which
(01:08):
was charged down, and then lek a hell a seamer
picking up the ball and sprinting away to score.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Oh yeah, mixed the motions, obviously celebrating such a special play,
But I still wasn't sure if everyone was on side.
I didn't know from my angle whether he got it
down straight away, so it just wasn't clear. Part yet
to be over celebrating, but I was quietly confident that
he'd come up with an amazing play. And then yeah,
I was a part of me was I wish we
(01:37):
had our earlier because I've actually felt like we put
ourselves in a position and win the game when we
probably weren't playing our best footy. But I thought the
boys really started putting pressure on the Nights and winning
field position and giving ourselves some good looks at field goals.
So yeah, it was a little bit frustrating, but yeah,
I'm pretty exciting at the same time.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I want to come back to Lecca in a moment.
But just on Tanner Board you mentioned there he had
a couple of opportunities to win the game with drop
goals or that penalty near the end. He looked creased,
fallen when that penalty didn't go over and he thought
the game was gone. What sort of conversations did you
have with Tanner Boyd after the game.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
No, I just liketerally said made just keep going for it.
I mean, like, I think there's an old saying it's
quite corny, but Michael Jordan missed more winning shots more,
he missed more winning shots and he did than he made,
but everyone remembers the one they made and seeing more Jordan,
and he's kept winning the ball and kept wanting to
throwing in the game for his team. So I was
just impressed how Tanner kept going after the moment, but
(02:37):
I wasn't going his way, and I reckon, you'll learn
a lot from it. So I just said, down on
to define him, and it's got to move on quick
and keep chasing the next moment.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Laka hell of Sema then not even twenty years old yet,
but capturing headlines all over the place, and this tribe,
I'm sure you've seen, is everywhere. How do you keep
such a potentially brilliant young player grounded and focused?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Just feedback, really, just honest feedback. Just celebrate what he
does well and telling him what he needs to work on.
He's he's pretty good at that. I haven't seen any
signs even getting ahead of himself. But I think that
we'll even look at the rest of his game and
not be satisfied. But I think he can certainly, because look,
(03:22):
he's a brilliant player, doesn't. I haven't pulled him that,
None of our coaches taught him how to squatrol of that.
He just naturally knows how to do that because he's
so athletic and he's such a talent. But yeah, he's
got so much to work on and if he nails that,
going to see a world class player.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, he came out of some pretty big defensive plays
as well, didn't he. We're all going to remember the
try at the end, of course, but his defensive workers
is improving by the looks of it. Is that something
you're encouraging him to work on as well?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, he just consistently mate like he's working at it
and got to improve. I mean, he came up with
a big tackle on his trial line, but he also
probably makes about thirty tackles. So if he score the
thirty tackles he makes, he's he's not where he wants
to be, or he's not where the standard of say
Fisher Harris or someone like that is. But he's nineteen
(04:10):
years old and he's learning. But yeah, he's still definitely
come up with some big plays.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I know, in typical warriors fashion. And is your nature
that the wind won't mask some of the work ons
that are required in the weak ahead and for the
rest of the season. What will the main elements of
your review be.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
We had a review already this morning in the hotel.
Ye know, we missed. We completely let them out of
their end we are defensively or through penalties or through discipline.
And then we had too many fundamental errors coming out
of err and which just put us something too much pressure,
and we weren't defending well on the edges and they
were stripping us for numbers quite easily. And I thought
(04:51):
they made some great adjustments in the second half, and
you saw how much pressure we started putting on the nights,
they started forcing things, having errors, and then we started
winning the field, dish and battle, and hence why we
give ourselves a real chance to win the game. Like
they only scored a penalty go on the second half,
so they didn't cross our line for a trial, which
is awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Just on the tris you did concede though in the
first half a couple of them came down your right
hand side there left is that a concern will be
and what should Dellan what Tennis Lesniak do in a
situation like that, should he stay out so that the
overlap isn't created?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Well, he stayed out on one and they had a
line break, So you know that you're den if you're
do you den if you don't. I think it's probably
the biggest thing for the armchair fan to understand when
a player should be in, when a player should be out.
But I would just let everyone know we definitely need
to be better there and it's just not Dal and
it's everyone. And I couldn't believe how many times everyone
(05:53):
was creating an overlap defensively for our right edge. They
constantly had four V three or five E four situations
or three of V two situations and then if you
stay out on your wing and the Senate just goes through.
And that happened to was once. But yeah, I'm going
to give away the last secrets. We've got a plan
to fix that and fix it in the second half,
(06:13):
which was awesome.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Did you think Wade egans disallowed try in the first
half was a try?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yes, definitely. It was a bad decision, really bad decision.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I guess the context of it as well was the
try the Knights were awarded when Greg Marjou looked as
though he had passed it off the ground to Dane Gagy.
So did you think they got that one wrong as well?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah? I thought I was watching the All Blacks there. Yeah.
I mean the context of it is like, yeah, elbows,
elbow hits the ground, you held his elbow didn't hit
the ground, But he was clearly tackled and held like
forever in a day. This is common sense, Like you've
got to look at it and go, well, he's tackled,
(06:58):
and then he and then he comes up with the
See if I keep my arm off the ground, Am
I allowed to just throw it off the ground and
every time I get tackled? Of course not. So it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
I saw Luke Metcalf on the coverage last night. He's
obviously not playing at the moment with that season ending injury,
but you're clearly still involving him. What is his involvement
in the team even though we can't actually play at
the moment.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Now, Luke just went home for a week to Sydney
just to see family because he's going to have a
long recovery. Gets his operations with I've been trying to strengthen,
strengthen the muscles around the knee, so he has a
really good recovery before his surgery. So to send him
home and just wanted him to be around the team
come up to newcast and he's flying home, flying back
(07:43):
to New Zealand this morning to start his have his operations,
start his rehab. So yeah, we just he's going to
offer his plenty ship through leadership and every single team
member has to have an impact, whether you're injured or
you're playing.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And just back to the game to finish where we
regardless of how it came, you got the win, you
got the two points, How big a result is it
for you in the context of the for I.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Think, yeah, I think it. Well, only we'll only know
at the end, I think, but I think it puts
us in a lot better position than if we hadn't one,
that's for sure. But if we had a lost last night,
certainly wanted to find that the rest of our season.
But I think it, Yeah, every time you win it
it puts you in a step closer to that top
four that you know what we're chasing. But like in reality,
(08:31):
like we're not going to get anywhere we want for
we don't improve.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You're confident that you that you can though, and.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Will always always confident in this group. I love them,
like the way they compete and the way they work
hard every day. Going in your castle's not easy, It
really isn't so. But this season is probably on the
line and they put a lot into it, and there's
big periods there where we look the better team. But
(08:59):
I'm always confident we can. But if we don't, we're
just going to stay where we are.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I appreciate your time, where be all the best for
the week you here's you to prepare for the Titans
this coming weekend. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Awesome, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
We be Andrew Webster, their head coach of the Warriors,
with some interesting thoughts there.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks
It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from news Talk zed Be.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
To the Warriors, who last night snatched a twenty fifteen
win over the Knights in Newcastle in utterly dramatic fashion
that shut.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Warriors Shojo.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Tasty, astonishing forward Lecha Hellasimas scoring the game winning try
and the final seconds after collecting the ball from a
deflected field goal attempt and running over forty meters with it.
The Warriors stay fourth on the table, level on thirty
points with the third place Storm and four points behind
(00:47):
the table topping Raiders. Warriors head coach Andrew Webster is
with us, Webbe, thanks for taking time to chat to us.
Can we start at the end of the game last night?
Can you talk us through the range of emotions you
and your fellow coaches went through from when Tanner Boyd
missed the late penalty which would have put you into
the lead the for your goal he then attempted which
(01:08):
was charged down, and then lek a hell a seamer
picking up the ball and sprinting away to score.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Oh yeah, mixed the motions, obviously celebrating such a special play,
But I still wasn't sure if everyone was on side.
I didn't know from my angle whether he got it
down straight away, so it just wasn't clear. Part yet
to be over celebrating, but I was quietly confident that
he'd come up with an amazing play. And then yeah,
I was a part of me was I wish we
(01:37):
had our earlier because I've actually felt like we put
ourselves in a position and win the game when we
probably weren't playing our best footy. But I thought the
boys really started putting pressure on the Nights and winning
field position and giving ourselves some good looks at field goals.
So yeah, it was a little bit frustrating, but yeah,
I'm pretty exciting at the same time.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I want to come back to Lecca in a moment.
But just on Tanner Board you mentioned there he had
a couple of opportunities to win the game with drop
goals or that penalty near the end. He looked creased,
fallen when that penalty didn't go over and he thought
the game was gone. What sort of conversations did you
have with Tanner Boyd after the game.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
No, I just liketerally said made just keep going for it.
I mean, like, I think there's an old saying it's
quite corny, but Michael Jordan missed more winning shots more,
he missed more winning shots and he did than he made,
but everyone remembers the one they made and seeing more Jordan,
and he's kept winning the ball and kept wanting to
throwing in the game for his team. So I was
just impressed how Tanner kept going after the moment, but
(02:37):
I wasn't going his way, and I reckon, you'll learn
a lot from it. So I just said, down on
to define him, and it's got to move on quick
and keep chasing the next moment.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Laka hell of Sema then not even twenty years old yet,
but capturing headlines all over the place, and this tribe,
I'm sure you've seen, is everywhere. How do you keep
such a potentially brilliant young player grounded and focused?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Just feedback, really, just honest feedback. Just celebrate what he
does well and telling him what he needs to work on.
He's he's pretty good at that. I haven't seen any
signs even getting ahead of himself. But I think that
we'll even look at the rest of his game and
not be satisfied. But I think he can certainly, because look,
(03:22):
he's a brilliant player, doesn't. I haven't pulled him that,
None of our coaches taught him how to squatrol of that.
He just naturally knows how to do that because he's
so athletic and he's such a talent. But yeah, he's
got so much to work on and if he nails that,
going to see a world class player.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, he came out of some pretty big defensive plays
as well, didn't he. We're all going to remember the
try at the end, of course, but his defensive workers
is improving by the looks of it. Is that something
you're encouraging him to work on as well?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, he just consistently mate like he's working at it
and got to improve. I mean, he came up with
a big tackle on his trial line, but he also
probably makes about thirty tackles. So if he score the
thirty tackles he makes, he's he's not where he wants
to be, or he's not where the standard of say
Fisher Harris or someone like that is. But he's nineteen
(04:10):
years old and he's learning. But yeah, he's still definitely
come up with some big plays.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I know, in typical warriors fashion. And is your nature
that the wind won't mask some of the work ons
that are required in the weak ahead and for the
rest of the season. What will the main elements of
your review be.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
We had a review already this morning in the hotel.
Ye know, we missed. We completely let them out of
their end we are defensively or through penalties or through discipline.
And then we had too many fundamental errors coming out
of err and which just put us something too much pressure,
and we weren't defending well on the edges and they
were stripping us for numbers quite easily. And I thought
(04:51):
they made some great adjustments in the second half, and
you saw how much pressure we started putting on the nights,
they started forcing things, having errors, and then we started
winning the field, dish and battle, and hence why we
give ourselves a real chance to win the game. Like
they only scored a penalty go on the second half,
so they didn't cross our line for a trial, which
is awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Just on the tris you did concede though in the
first half a couple of them came down your right
hand side there left is that a concern will be
and what should Dellan what Tennis Lesniak do in a
situation like that, should he stay out so that the
overlap isn't created?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Well, he stayed out on one and they had a
line break, So you know that you're den if you're
do you den if you don't. I think it's probably
the biggest thing for the armchair fan to understand when
a player should be in, when a player should be out.
But I would just let everyone know we definitely need
to be better there and it's just not Dal and
it's everyone. And I couldn't believe how many times everyone
(05:53):
was creating an overlap defensively for our right edge. They
constantly had four V three or five E four situations
or three of V two situations and then if you
stay out on your wing and the Senate just goes through.
And that happened to was once. But yeah, I'm going
to give away the last secrets. We've got a plan
to fix that and fix it in the second half,
(06:13):
which was awesome.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Did you think Wade egans disallowed try in the first
half was a try?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yes, definitely. It was a bad decision, really bad decision.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I guess the context of it as well was the
try the Knights were awarded when Greg Marjou looked as
though he had passed it off the ground to Dane Gagy.
So did you think they got that one wrong as well?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah? I thought I was watching the All Blacks there. Yeah.
I mean the context of it is like, yeah, elbows,
elbow hits the ground, you held his elbow didn't hit
the ground, But he was clearly tackled and held like
forever in a day. This is common sense, Like you've
got to look at it and go, well, he's tackled,
(06:58):
and then he and then he comes up with the
See if I keep my arm off the ground, Am
I allowed to just throw it off the ground and
every time I get tackled? Of course not. So it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
I saw Luke Metcalf on the coverage last night. He's
obviously not playing at the moment with that season ending injury,
but you're clearly still involving him. What is his involvement
in the team even though we can't actually play at
the moment.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Now, Luke just went home for a week to Sydney
just to see family because he's going to have a
long recovery. Gets his operations with I've been trying to strengthen,
strengthen the muscles around the knee, so he has a
really good recovery before his surgery. So to send him
home and just wanted him to be around the team
come up to newcast and he's flying home, flying back
(07:43):
to New Zealand this morning to start his have his operations,
start his rehab. So yeah, we just he's going to
offer his plenty ship through leadership and every single team
member has to have an impact, whether you're injured or
you're playing.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And just back to the game to finish where we
regardless of how it came, you got the win, you
got the two points, How big a result is it
for you in the context of the for I.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Think, yeah, I think it. Well, only we'll only know
at the end, I think, but I think it puts
us in a lot better position than if we hadn't one,
that's for sure. But if we had a lost last night,
certainly wanted to find that the rest of our season.
But I think it, Yeah, every time you win it
it puts you in a step closer to that top
four that you know what we're chasing. But like in reality,
(08:31):
like we're not going to get anywhere we want for
we don't improve.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You're confident that you that you can though, and.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Will always always confident in this group. I love them,
like the way they compete and the way they work
hard every day. Going in your castle's not easy, It
really isn't so. But this season is probably on the
line and they put a lot into it, and there's
big periods there where we look the better team. But
(08:59):
I'm always confident we can. But if we don't, we're
just going to stay where we are.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I appreciate your time, where be all the best for
the week you here's you to prepare for the Titans
this coming weekend. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Awesome, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
We be Andrew Webster, their head coach of the Warriors,
with some interesting thoughts there.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks
It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
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