I'll start with the most glaringly obvious negative aspect about the Warriors at the moment; they keep letting teams in the back door.

On the one hand it's a real shame. They did a great job against the Newcastle Knights in getting a lead, playing some nice footy only to let the Knights back in the game. The Warriors had more errors and more penalties than the Knights which gives them a free pass back into the game.

The Warriors weren't four points better than the Knights, especially as the Knights lost Tyrone Roberts early on in their game effectively leaving them with two playmakers who wouldn't have done a whole lot together before. The Warriors should have won by 10, at least and that's allowing for Dane Gagai's magic which largely kept the Knights in the mix.

On the other hand, it's a win. The Warriors aren't putting anything that resembles an 80 minute performance together, but they are riding the wave and emerging from it with two points which is crucial at the moment.

It would just be much nicer if they didn't fall off so much, I get the momentum swings but the Warriors aren't doing much to limit the impact of that swing. They seem to just turn to custard a bit and then find their feet again.

Our forwards were once again very impressive and this is shaping up as one of the best forward packs the Warriors have ever assembled. Jacob Lillyman and Ryan Hoffman were all heart and effort backing up from Origin. Hoffman even put on a very similar play to what he did for New South Wales, poking his head through the line and getting an offload out behind the tacklers back, only it went forward to Solomone Kata.

As you would come to expect, Ben Matulino was again fabulous while Bodene Thompson and Simon Mannering just get to work. This forward pack came up against a rugged group of Knights and held their own, especially in defence where they made and missed more tackles but kept showing up.

We're starting to see Chad Townsend and Shaun Johnson play together, which was helped greatly by Sam Tomkins. They look so much better linking with each other as opposed to being stuck on a side of the field each and the passing game of Tomkins can help build that link.

I did wonder a bit about Tomkins though, there wasn't much to his running game and with fullbacks around the NRL going well over 200 metres with plenty of carries (Gagai had 20 carries for 203 metres), Tomkins served up eight carries for 48 metres. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt as it was his first game back, but he didn't seem to be lurking around the ball as much as we need him to and he never gets any metres or a quick play the ball carting the ball back from a kick.

Which is perhaps why we saw Tui Lolohea drop back for kicks despite playing at centre, his kick returns are much better.

Lolohea went pretty well in the centres as well, I like him there.

The other major inclusion for this game was Saliva Havili who was a bit up and down. He played a hand in the Warriors first try and it's something that is a bit of a signature for Havili; his subtle movements and fakes at dummy half. This time he scooted in-field to draw the markers that way and passed back the opposite way which gave the Warriors short side a bit of space

But late in the game, Havili didn't offer any direction and almost fluffed it for the Warriors as he couldn't just simply get the ball to the right guy at the right time. Case and point of overplaying your hand and Nathan Friend was swiftly off the bench to play out the last few minutes.

I talk about Sam Lisone and Albert Vete every week because they deserve it. The key thing about bench forwards is that they lift the team and if you can't see how Lisone and Vete give everyone a boost when they come on, you're dumb. They'll get put in the rookie basket, but I can't overstate how important these two are to the Warriors at the moment.

I'm still slightly confused with the make up of the 17 and it seems like Andrew McFadden is equally as confused and has been all season. This week we saw Sebastine Ikahihifo come on to the bench only to play 15 minutes and the combination of carrying two hookers and having three 80 minute back rowers means that 3/4 of the bench are direct prop replacements and at dummy half. If we've got 17 blokes, we might as well get the most out of them. I just don't know who or how to use that fourth bench spot, especially with McFadden's 80 minute ploy for Thompson, Mannering and Hoffman.

A win, but a win against another reasonably average side. The Knights had won four to start the season and now have five wins in total, you do the math. They were ravaged by injury as well and the Warriors just managed to get home.

I say this because it seems that everyone who talks about the Warriors seems to sit at opposite ends of the spectrum; 'the Warriors won!' ... 'omg the Warriors are so shit'. That's mainly aimed at dumb kiwi media.

The Warriors are battling, they are currently performing at like a, 5.5/10 level. But they are winning, I don't think I've seen a Warriors side perform so badly but win.

Winning is great, but it's even better if the team are growing and learning each week because they are far from a contender.