Dragons end Warriors' hopes

Warriors v Dragons

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FIONA GOODALL/SNL Zoom

The Warriors' Wade McKinnon.

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Nathan Fien's Warriors career ended in reserve grade.

But yesterday, the Kiwi test halfback got a more fitting farewell from Mt Smart, as a key performer in a St George Illawarra Dragons team whose 29-4 victory ended the Warriors' lingering playoff hopes and set themselves up as minor premiership favourites.

This result, built on an 18-4 halftime lead and the toothless Warriors' failure to crack their defence, put the Dragons four points ahead of the Bulldogs at the top.

However, Dragons coach Wayne Bennett refused to talk about the minor premiership or even a home final.

The Warriors wouldn't discuss the finals either, although captain Steve Price and coach Ivan Cleary were instead being quizzed about their now surely minuscule chances of making the cut.

"Our challenge now is just to get better and that's a great challenge," Cleary said.

His side's only points came from a sixth-minute Joel Moon try, and while they tried to play with more freedom, they rarely threatened.

"We've got to work on going forward before we go sideways," lock Micheal Luck said.

A disorganised Warriors right-side defence, lacking centre Jerome Ropati, who withdrew late with a shoulder injury, was exploited by the Dragons, with two tries from wing Brett Morris and one from his centre, Chase Stanley, a player the Warriors unsuccessfully pursued earlier this year.

In a grim second half, the Warriors forced plenty of errors from the Dragons but couldn't come close to scoring, and leaked a decisive try just before the hour when Jamie Soward collected Ian Henderson's kick on his own line and ran the length of the field.

Soward confirmed the result with a late field goal before setting up fullback Darius Boyd's try just before the siren.

While some Warriors players were still privately unhappy with Dragons prop Justin Poore over his treatment of Price in Origin III, there were no fireworks involving either Poore or Fien, back for the first time since the club released him.

"I was surprised at that," Luck said. "But I thought Nathan handled himself with dignity. He got the job done for them."

Fien who had spent all last week in Auckland packing up his house so his family can fly with him to Wollongong today, was just as diplomatic afterwards.

"I didn't get the send off I would've liked to have got ... so to come back here and say one last goodbye to the fans was a great experience," Fien said.

"When I went out to warm up today, there was a lot of support there and a few cheers.

"I just went about doing my job. I just wanted to try and do it as best I could."

It was left to his team-mate, wing Wendell Sailor, to speak out.

"I'm a football fan and I was surprised [the Warriors released him]," Sailor said.

"I am not sure what he did. I think he is too good a player to be playing reserve grade, but someone's loss is our game and I am sure Fieny is going to be a big part of what we do this year."

Having decided that Fien isn't their halfback future, the Warriors' search for a new No7 may be over.

Warriors director of football John Hart said yesterday he was confident that they will conclude the signing of sacked Cronulla halfback Brett Seymour, who will be asked to sign a contract that includes key behaviour clauses around his alcohol intake, before the end of the week.

"There's further discussions to hold and we have to meet with the NRL, but it is progressing," Hart said.

Meanwhile in other matches, Parramatta tamed the Canterbury Bulldogs 27-8; Penrith pipped North Queensland 28-20; Melbourne outclassed Cronulla 30-10 and the Wests Tigers mauled Canberra Raiders 24-4.

On Friday night, Gold Coast beat Brisbane 34-18 and Manly thumped Newcastle 44-20.

- © Fairfax NZ News