Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
Speaker 1: from Newstalk ZB.
Speaker 2: Warriors assistant coach Slade Griffin with us. Thanks for your
Speaker 2: time mate. How pleasing a night was there?
Speaker 3: Yeah, obviously, like it was just a great night for
Speaker 3: the club, Like just really proud of the boys, really
Speaker 3: proud to be a part of the club. You know,
Speaker 3: Fish come to the club, wanted to come home and
Speaker 3: ever since he's been really proud about obviously his culture
Speaker 3: and we wanted to do something like that last year
Speaker 3: and boys just went ready. But they've practiced it and
Speaker 3: you know, they did the hucker and it was just
Speaker 3: spine tingling scenes and I think that just obviously got
Speaker 3: them going. And yeah, look the boys have trained really
Speaker 3: hard for a couple of years and the build a
Speaker 3: game that we fell hold up in the big games.
Speaker 3: You know that Army stole style of footy and they
Speaker 3: got that on last night. And yeah, it was just
Speaker 3: a really good performance, like you said, against the minor
Speaker 3: premiers at the moment. So yeah, awesome night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the pregame like a Tamata man. Spine shilling is right, man,
Speaker 2: It was amazing, even iman on television. It was amazing.
Speaker 2: I can't imagine what it must have been like there.
Speaker 2: So James Fisher Harris was one of the drivers of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah he was, Yeah, and he was. You know, some
Speaker 3: of the boys are a little bit nervous, they haven't
Speaker 3: done much of that in front of a big crowd
Speaker 3: like that, but he just gave them confidence. And really
Speaker 3: it was about representing obviously our country to be a culture,
Speaker 3: even Pacifica and the Maldi boys. So yeah, it was
Speaker 3: just awesome and like our crowd just got right behind them.
Speaker 3: You know. It was one of the loudest crowds ever
Speaker 3: been a part of SOS. Just an awesome night.
Speaker 2: Electric, Yeah, certainly was. And then on the field James
Speaker 2: Fisher Harris goes out there and has an absolute stormer.
Speaker 2: I mean, how influential is he in your playing group
Speaker 2: because we see him slat and this is no surprise
Speaker 2: to anybody. You know, he doesn't say a heck of
Speaker 2: a lot in media situations, right, and he's you know,
Speaker 2: he's pretty he's pretty low key, he's pretty understated. How
Speaker 2: influential is he within your group?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Very He just has an aura about him. He
Speaker 3: obviously believes in the hard stuff as well. Which has
Speaker 3: been very vital for us, and he leads that with
Speaker 3: his actions. But he doesn't speak a ton of training
Speaker 3: as well, but when he does speak, everyone listens, and yeah,
Speaker 3: he's obviously like he started really good. People hadn't even
Speaker 3: seen at the back end of the game when they were,
Speaker 3: you know, really coming home strong. He made a cover
Speaker 3: tackle after playing sixty minutes or something, so yeah, just
Speaker 3: those top of efforts instrumental for us.
Speaker 2: Luke Metcalf comes back into the side. Couldn't really have
Speaker 2: scripted a better return after such a long layoff in
Speaker 2: time out of the side. Were you expecting him to
Speaker 2: make that sort of impact straight away?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we all know what he's capable of. I think
Speaker 3: it's also a credit to our forward pack like that
Speaker 3: just lay in such a good platform for us buying
Speaker 3: to playoff. But yeah, he obviously had his time out
Speaker 3: of the team and has been confident the bit to
Speaker 3: get his moment and he's been training really well for
Speaker 3: his moment. So yeah, we all know the class player
Speaker 3: he is. He obviously did it last year, so he's
Speaker 3: done his apprenticeship under Shawn Johnson as well, so he
Speaker 3: knows the club, he knows the system, so just really
Speaker 3: happy for him to get his moment coming back from
Speaker 3: that injury, and it seemed.
Speaker 2: As though he didn't try to do too much. And
Speaker 2: I guess that could have been the temptation, right, you
Speaker 2: come back in after so long away, So right, I'm
Speaker 2: going to I'm going to just take this game by
Speaker 2: the scruff of the neck and really take charge, which
Speaker 2: he did on occasion. But did you consciously speak to
Speaker 2: him or did the coaches consciously speak to him about
Speaker 2: not trying to do too much?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean on the defense coach where he might
Speaker 3: have given him a little bit more of a clear
Speaker 3: game plan. But I think the whole year, we're just
Speaker 3: so confident in our Ford pack and our style of play,
Speaker 3: you know, playing a long game, dragging him into the
Speaker 3: deep ends of the Armory sole and then looking for
Speaker 3: the cues off that. So yeah, he brought him to
Speaker 3: the game plan and then he obviously added his what
Speaker 3: he can do on top of it. You know, he's
Speaker 3: such a good support player. Whenever he plays, he gets
Speaker 3: on the man he wants and can put people in
Speaker 3: the holy ones. So yeah, his speeds not many people
Speaker 3: have it, and it's nice to get that. Plus is
Speaker 3: kicking game that was obviously really helped us put them
Speaker 3: in some tough spots.
Speaker 2: Laka hello, Seema. Man, he just keeps on producing moments
Speaker 2: that make people set up and take notice. But from
Speaker 2: your point of view, Slat and that defensive sense, you
Speaker 2: know he's playing in the centers, that's different. You know.
Speaker 2: Have you had to work with them on his defensive
Speaker 2: reads and such, l.
Speaker 3: Like, Yeah, so we just have a long story short.
Speaker 3: We practiced our defensive fundamentals a lot, so our forwards
Speaker 3: train like our backs with our defensive movement. So we
Speaker 3: want to be a really well moving team, and Leck
Speaker 3: is one of our best defensive players. So yeah, when
Speaker 3: he gets thrown out there, he's just such a confident kid.
Speaker 3: He's not scared of anything. He actually played centers growing up,
Speaker 3: but it's obviously different at n our ol level. But yeah,
Speaker 3: he's so sound defensively that we all have confidence in
Speaker 3: trying them out there with his reeds the.
Speaker 2: Ten minute period where the Panthers sort of started to
Speaker 2: become the Panthers again, desperate to get back in the game.
Speaker 2: We know that they've got that in them. They have
Speaker 2: come back from deficits of that sort before a couple
Speaker 2: of tries, another one just allowed. What did you make
Speaker 2: of that segment of the game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we just got a few things wrong on our
Speaker 3: right edge there, so we'll tide of that up this week.
Speaker 3: We're just a little bit disconnected, guys making reads outside
Speaker 3: of the system and they're not doing it together. So look,
Speaker 3: we had obviously wanted idea where Nathan was, because where
Speaker 3: he is, Jenny, the ball is going to follow, and
Speaker 3: he really took the game by the scruff of the
Speaker 3: neck there. Thought in that here we also didn't be
Speaker 3: ruthless enough, like we were giving them fast start to
Speaker 3: put a kicking down our left edge and Brian too
Speaker 3: picks it up and runs forty meters and gets a
Speaker 3: fast start where we could have turned it over in
Speaker 3: the corner and they're probably kicking it from inside their
Speaker 3: forty So there's a few moments we kind of let
Speaker 3: them out of their end and then put a lot
Speaker 3: of pressure on our defense. But we've got to be
Speaker 3: able to handle that as well, because you need the
Speaker 3: perfect But yeah, just shows the quality of Nathan a.
Speaker 3: So they left opportunities like that you give them to, you.
Speaker 2: Know, to be of you off and just to Finnish,
Speaker 2: so I'm just looking at the table here. Panthers thirty
Speaker 2: six rooster, thirty six, Warriors thirty four. The Sharks will
Speaker 2: probably beat the Dragon, so they'll go to thirty four,
Speaker 2: four games each. Left man, this is going to be
Speaker 2: a sprint down the home straight. How do you keep
Speaker 2: your heads?
Speaker 3: Yeah, obviously you just got to worry week by week,
Speaker 3: even training session by training session. So the boys get
Speaker 3: three days off this weekend. We give them a little
Speaker 3: mini buyers to freshen up again. The travel schedule has
Speaker 3: been really tough for them, so they'll come back in
Speaker 3: fresh and then yeah, obviously the goal is to get
Speaker 3: that top two because we'd love to play at home
Speaker 3: in front of our fans. I think they deserve it.
Speaker 3: So the boys, we're doing everything they can, but you'll
Speaker 3: literally have to take it week by week because every
Speaker 3: team's hard in this competition and they will deserve respect.
Speaker 2: Congratulations on last night's laid really special, special performance from
Speaker 2: the team. All the best as you hopefully get a
Speaker 2: bit of a break as well, and we look forward
Speaker 2: to seeing how the back end of the regular as
Speaker 2: implies out and beyond. Thanks for chatting as always, mate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks so kids at home, so a little bit harder.
Speaker 3: I'm on told of How'm going to work for it easier,
Speaker 3: but no, thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Slide back to the family. Slide Griffin on
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