So the NRL Nines aye? Good fun and all but it holds very little importance to the NRL season proper, which is probably a good thing for our lads from Mt Smart.

The first and most glaringly obvious question from the Nines is how do we fit Solomone Kata in to the team? Kata was very good at last year's NRL Nines but that was with Mathew Elliot at the helm and Kata was subsequently used at dummy half. This time around he roamed out wide and showed the sort of pace that blokes as thick as him shouldn't have ... unless their Olympic sprinters.

They're comparing Kata to Manu Vatuvei, but for mine Kata is a lot more similar to Konrad Hurrell who has shown on many occasions how quick he is, so has Manu but Kata is now a triplet along with Hurrell and Ngani Laumape. But how on earth does he fit in!?

Centres? Well yeah if Hurrell or Laumape can't play. Wing? I'd rather have Daivd Fusitua or Glenn Fisi'ahi'i thanks to their height and all to give some balance to our kicking game, but again Kata can be an option with injury clouds hovering around all over the show.

At the very least we've got Kata and Tuimoala Lolohea offering some handy back line depth.

The other youngin' who looked good was Sam Lisone and if he continues to impress in the upcoming trials, he should get a spot in the top 17. Suaia Matagi, Ben Matulino and Sam Rapira should all be on notice with Lisone lurking. It's not that those three were shit in the Nines, it's just that Lisone is good and he's gunning for a spot. That can only be positive though as it should raise the level of the three incumbents or else we get a good young prop in the mix.

That actually raises an important about the trials as they'll give us a much better idea about the make up of the team. As per the Warriors website, they'll play the Gold Coast in Toowoomba this weekend with a fringe-non-Nines-playing squad. They'll then play the Panthers in Rotovegas with a strong squad in mind there.

We'll all be pretty chuffed with how Ryan Hoffman and Bodene Thompson performed over the weekend but I'll be keeping close tabs on Thompson as he tries to find his niche with the Warriors. We know what to expect of Hoffman, but Thompson hasn't been able to consistently impress at previous clubs and we simply don't know whether he'll continue to offer the same enthusiasm and some athletic forward play we saw this weekend.

Both Hoffman and Simon Mannering can pump out 80 high quality minutes, which Thompson's never really done. Which isn't a bad thing as we've got a few nice edge back rowers as well as a certain Matulino man who could find himself out there. It'll be interesting to see how the forward pack lines up over the next few weeks, there's spots up for grabs and there's high level competition which we've struggled for recently.

We're still unsure about the club's mission to sign Kieran Foran. Once again, I'm doubtful and with our centre stocks looking healthy as well as bloody powerful is there any real need to break the bank on Steve Matai? It's worrying though, the Warriors have this vibe of them being in the hunt for many expensive players and it feels like they think they need to get someone. This has also come about thanks to the media talking it all up, it seems that they need the Warriors to sign a big name as well.

It's all gone quiet on Trent Merrin also.

Fuck it, right now I don't want the Warriors to sign anyone. Let's see what these lads have got.