Matulino sees brighter Warriors days ahead

He won’t be around to see it take shape, but departing Warriors forward Ben Matulino insists the building blocks have been set down in Auckland for more sustained NRL success in 2018.

The Warriors’ finals hopes for this season are likely over, with Friday’s 26-12 loss to Cronulla compelling them to win each of their five remaining games – and hope other results go their way – to sneak into the top eight.

If they miss the eight it will be their sixth straight season without finals football.

Nevertheless, Wests Tigers-bound Matulino, who has played 208 times for the Warriors, felt the club’s regeneration process was nearing completion.

Head coach Stephen Kearney will have settled into the job, while a host of first-team regulars – including David Fusitu’a, Ken Maumalo, Solomone Kata, Sam Lisone and Albert Vete – will have at least 40 NRL caps under their belts.

“Stephen will have the team under a second year, and there’ll be a lot of young guys who will be seasoned NRL players. They’ll be awesome,” Matulino said.

“Guys like Sam Lisone, he’s going to carry this club, the way he’s moulded as a prop – the new style of prop. He’s going to be a leader.”

The 28-year-old Matulino started on the bench against the Sharks but ended up playing 52 minutes, making 31 tackles and 143 running metres.

He felt, like Kearney, that the Warriors had let themselves down with poor execution after battling hard to stay in the physical contest.

“A lot of dropped balls, but I guess the pleasing thing we can get out of it is that we were still in the game,” the 23-cap Kiwi said.

“But I definitely felt like we gave them the ball heaps and definitely wrecked it for ourselves – easy turnovers, soft tries.

“It’s definitely disappointing, just because of (our) effort.”

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