The Warriors are back in Perth, a place where they play the Rabbitohs each year, a game which gets everyone excited. The kiwis in Perth get out in force to support the Warriors and both teams put on a great show, but the Warriors generally always come up in short in Perth.

This week they face a Rabbitohs side that isn't on fire, but they are warming up, they are nearing their usual standards despite a rotating cast of players. They will, well they should be much better than the Sharks, the Eels and the Knights, all of whom have fallen victim to the Warriors recently. All of whom are in the bottom half of the NRL.

The same squad will be used, understandably they have also taken Dominique Peyroux and Ken Maumalo along for the ride as 18th and 19th man. Last week we saw Saliva Havili start with Nathan Friend come off the bench and while Friend has been named to start, don't be surprised to see Havili run out on to the field for kick of.

Two blokes need to step up against the Rabbitohs; Havili and Sam Tomkins. Havili started off alright against the Knights but late in the game he wasn't able to simply do his job and with question marks over him already as he couldn't convince Andrew McFadden to give him a run earlier in the season, Havili quickly needs to find his feet in the NRL.

Tomkins was weak carrying the footy last week and while there are outside backs who make plenty of metres early in the set, notably Manu Vatuvei (not Jonathan Wright), Tomkins always seems to get whacked on the first carry. Or, he doesn't take that first carry.

The Rabbitohs are big and they are rugged through the middle and having Tomkins hit the ball up without much regard for his own safety will not only get sets going with some momentum, but it'll also inspire. 

Through the middle the Warriors will be tested. There's Issac Luke who will make metres scooting out of dummy half, the Burgess boys will be a handful while the rest of their forward pack like Jason Clark, Nathan Brown, Chris McQueen and Chris Grevsmuhl are all a bit smaller but extremely mobile. Then there's Greg Inglis who will lurk around the play the ball area and support any eager ball carrier.

Metres will be hard to come by for the Warriors and it'll be hard to stop the Rabbitohs forwards, their wrestling and ability to slow down the play the ball will be severely tested. It's a bit of a chicken or the egg situation as the Rabbits are able to make quick metres thanks to their strong forwards and the work of Luke at dummy half. Getting the Rabbitohs on their backs, making them take tough carries and not missing many tackles will slow them up.

I reckon that the Warriors need to be patient and keep the pressure on the Rabbitohs which means that Chad Townsend and Shaun Johnson need to be on point with their kicking game. It's something that the Warriors are poor at; consistently making their opposition come off their own try line and with so many strong ball carriers in the Rabbitohs, they need to make it as hard as possible. 

It's a chance to directly compare our halves in Townsend and Johnson to a halves pairing who are above average. While John Sutton and Luke Keary aren't the first choice, they are still a top shelf combination who stick to their gameplan and are able to do what is required. Can our halves do that? If not, it's hard to see the Warriors winning.

There's a reason this game is always anticipated as the Warriors always get up for it, they show what they can do but then they ultimately can't keep it going for the whole game. That's why the Rabbitohs usually win this game as they play for 80 minutes and pounce as soon as the Warriors start to fall off. 

The one constant of the Warriors last three wins has been their inability to maintain control through the whole game. They dominate and then they let their opposition back in only to pull something out of their backsides late in the game, which won't be good enough against the Rabbitohs.

Expect Inglis to target our centres, get out a bit wider especially on their left side which is his strongest side and where he'll be up against Tui Lolohea.

The door is slightly open for our forwards to dominate with the Rabbits not quite as big as they have been. Look for Ryan Hoffman and Bodene Thompson given plenty of ball as they match up well with the edge back rowers of South Sydney. A quick play the ball or an offload out on the edges would be ideal. 

Ben Matulino vs George/Tom Burgess? Yes please. 

Forwards and halves, 80 minutes, grind it out.