NZ Warriors coach Nathan Brown has defended rookie winger Edward Kosi, after his horror showing in the record defeat to Melbourne Storm on Anzac Day.
Trailling just 16-10 at halftime, the Auckland side completely capitulated over the final half hour, conceding nine unanswered tries to succumb 70-10 in the traditional clash against the NRL powerhouse.
Kosi, 23, had a particularly forgettable night and is the only player actually dropped from the line-up to face Canberra Raiders on Saturday. Other changes to the team have resulted from injury (Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Josh Curran) and suspension (Aaron Pene).
After the match, Brown accused some of his players of simply giving up during the second half - perhaps the worst accusation a coach can level at his personnel - but he has stopped far short of condemning his youngster in his darkest hour.
"It was a tough day for him," said Brown. "He's only a young developing player - he's probably only played 7-8 first-grade games, and when things go bad for you out there on the wing or fullback, it's a pretty lonely place.
"He was obviously very disappointed after the game, and I had a chat to him the next day and he was still very disappointed.
"Being a young player and with social media these days... from what I understand, social media was very nasty to him. They're not so nice in those areas and I'd be lying if I said he wasn't knocked around a little bit.
"This is a part of Ed's journey to be an NRL player. Not too many of us play NRL without performances that we get a kick up the backside from the coach - we all have some setbacks along the way and this is a little one for Ed.
"We're quite mindful our job is to help him move forward - it was a tough day for him, there's no doubt about that."
Brown himself knows similar humiliation as a coach and player, and was part of a St George Dragons outfit that lost to the Storm by an identical scoreline at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2000.
If Kosi needs any inspiration to move forward, he need only look as far as now-fallen Warriors icon Manu Vatuvei, who experienced a similar nightmare against Parramatta Eels in 2007, but went on to become the club's leading tryscorer and the first NRL player to score 10 tries in 10 consecutive seasons.
Kosi made his first-grade debut against North Queensland last year and his appearance against Melbourne was his ninth for the club, with two tries to his name, most recently in last week's loss to Sydney Roosters.
"People need to be mindful that some of these boys are young and while being in a high-performing sport comes with responsibility... it's fair to be critical of some of these younger boys, but just be mindful they are still learning their trade.
"In Ed Kosi's case, he's far from the first person that Melbourne Storm have put to task, I'll give you that tip."
While Brown continues to stand by his post-match comments, he has refrained from swinging the axe through his roster, preferring to step back and take a wider view of his team's development.
"If I'm being honest, we'd just gone down three tries to two against the Roosters and won three games on the bounce before that," he said. "We certainly felt like we were heading in the right direction and then we got to halftime.
"After halftime, we had numbers of people that weren't so good, but we can't make mass changes on the back of one half of footy. There were some things that happened from an effort point of view and some small areas of the game that we're extremely disappointed with.
"Those individuals have been made aware of that and will be made aware of that. It's not something we want in our club or want to accept, but mass changes all the time are probably not the answer.
"In Ed's case, he had a really tough day that knocked him around a bit, so giving him a week off is probably the best thing for us, as a footy team, but also Ed himself to get his head around and get himself going again."
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