DWZ SCORED FOUR AS WARRIORS RUN RED V RAGGED

Flying finisher Dallin Watene-Zelezniak helped himself to a career-high four tries as the Warriors outclassed the Dragons 48-18 at WIN Stadium on Friday night. The Warriors' ninth win of the season lifts them into the top four and looking good to play finals footy for the first time since 2018. Andrew Webster's men opened the scoring in the fifth minute courtesy of a slick right side shift featuring Shaun Johnson and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and finished off by Watene-Zelezniak. Six minutes later it was the Warriors other winger Marcelo Montoya getting across the stripe but the try was disallowed due to obstruction in the lead-up. A dropped ball by Addin Fonua-Blake handed the home side good field position and they hit back through Tyrell Sloan, who showed dazzling speed to cross for his first try since Anzac Day against the Roosters. Zac Lomax's conversion gave the Dragons a 6-4 lead. Another brilliant Sloan run set up another chance for the Dragons but Ravalawa was denied by a strong cover tackle from Montoya. The Warriors regained the lead in the 26th minute when a long ball by Luke Metcalf found Montoya on the bounce and the winger powered through Sloan and Lomax to plant the ball down to make it 8-6 to the visitors. A perfectly placed grubber by Johnson laid on a try for Bayley Sironen in the 30th minute and the halfback converted for a 14-6 lead. Three minutes later it was the Warriors posting a third try when Jackson Ford flew high to bring down a Johnson bomb which the Dragons showed no desperation to try and catch. The Warriors lost back-rower Marata Niukore to the sin bin early in the second half for a dangerous tackle and the Dragons capitalised almost immediately through Zane Musgrove, who took an inside pass from Jacob Liddle to score from close range. It took the Warriors just three minutes to hit back when Watene-Zelezniak made it a double with a flying finish into the right corner to make it 24-12.

Come the 54th minute and Johnson had a try of his own courtesy of a neat offload from Fonua-Blake and the score blew out to 30-12. Rocco Berry was next to score in the 57th minute as the Warriors went into overdrive before the Dragons twice lost the ball on the first tackle to cruel any chance of a comeback. Errors from both sides then crept into the game before Francis Molo grabbed a rare try off a Jayden Sullivan grubber to make it 36-18. With nine minutes to play Watene-Zelezniak grabbed his hat-trick with another spectacular finish before crossing for his fourth as the margin hit 30 points. Source: NRL.Com