Mannering has made lots of tackles, which isn't really a good thing.

After an 0-3 start, it's a perfect time to face Newcastle Knights on our home turf. That's not to say that Newcastle won't offer much of a challenge; they have a rugged forward pack, experienced halves and a backline that has enough firepower to provide winger Cory Denniss a double on debut last weekend.

It's the perfect fixture really and I'm excited to see the Warriors in a game they should win, against a team who will definitely challenge the Warriors and with a 17-man team that I like, a lot.

Finally, we have the bench of doom, well at least 3/4's of it. My top-17 for the Warriors includes Charlie Gubb, Sam Lisone and Albert Vete on the bench every day of the week and their presence will ensure some impact, aggression, ruthlessness and a bit of unpredictability which has been lacking, especially in the likes of Jacob Lillyman.

James Gavet's omission is a bit weird as he and Lisone have been the only forwards to offer much in the way of impact. Gavet makes way for Konrad Hurrell and I'd much rather see Gavet play in the forwards than Hurrell come off the bench to probably play in the forwards. This could be part of Andrew McFadden's master plan where he eases Hurrell into the season, bringing him off the bench for a game or two after making him demand selection via reserve grade and then start him at centre should the stars align.

Or maybe McFadden has decided that the Warriors need Hurrell's speed and power through the middle, especially in the last 10-15 minutes of the halves?

Or maybe McFadden will swap Hurrell for Blake Ayshford at some stage? Even a possible backline reshuffle?

I'll be keeping a close eye on how Hurrell is used, especially with the sneaky backdrop of that rumoured move to the Titans. Now who knows what's going to happen - it might be all shit as NRL rumours tend to be - it's just an interesting storyline to follow as everyone is denying any sort of move or rumblings and sooner rather than later we will find out who's been truthful and who's the fibber.

Again, I'd rather Gavet as a forward than Hurrell.

You can't ignore the power of this bench though and they'll need it because the Knights don't lack young forwards of a similar vein; Sam Mataora and Korbin Sims will lead the charge.

I've mentioned the minutes of guys like Gubb, Lisone and Vete in the first three weeks as I haven't seen as much of them as I would like. McFadden might be easing these blokes into their workloads as well (otherwise it's just confusing) and I'd hope that all the bench players get enough minutes to genuinely influence a game; 30-40 minutes instead of 15-20 minutes.
That might mean less minutes for Lillyman, Matulino and Mannering which is fine. They get a bit of a rest and the young blokes switch the style up.

Four big lads on the bench means that there's no dummy half cover and that's simply fabulous. Jazz Tevaga was solid on debut last week, providing starch on defence as well as some slick dummy half work, he'll face a different challenge on Monday though as he'll be asked to play far more minutes. This will likely see other lads jump in to dummy half to give Tevaga a few plays off, Jeff Robson will be the go to man and expect to see Solomone Kata darting out of dummy half a lot as well.

A large reason for my optimism regarding the Warriors - besides the common sense approach of there being a long, long way to go - is that we haven't seen the Warriors' various weapons firing at the same time. That's where the common sense comes in as if this was the case in round 18, we'd certainly have an issue but it's early days and there's many 'excuses' I can give as to why we haven't seen a cohesive team performance just yet.

We haven't seen the Warriors' spine combine with strong individual performances yet, nor have we seen the Warriors' forward pack really dominate the opposing forward pack as a unit. And this will happen, whether or not it happens against the Knights or if we just see another improvement on the week before, it's all good.

All we want right now are improvements folks.

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Two keys for success are Tuimoala Lolohea and the OG/veteran forwards.

Lolohea needs as much ball as he can go sniff out or that the likes of Shaun Johnson and Robson can get him. When the Warriors aren't playing so well, there is no one supporting the ball-carrier which basically allows the defence to dominate that ball-carrier as there's no other threats nearby. I'd love to see Lolohea given the freedom to get off his wing and just buzz around the middle of the field, trailing the ball-carrier along with Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and pouncing on any offload and/or just being present to offer a threat.

You'd need to be blind, deaf and dumb not to notice Lolohea's footy ability and the Warriors need Lolohea heavily involved. Guys like Lolohea make things happen and with Tuivasa-Sheck and Johnson cut from the same cloth, the Warriors will benefit from having a triple-threat that is always involved.

I love the young forwards but the Warriors need their OGs to lead the way. Matulino has been solid without being near the top of the NRL prop rankings and Lillyman hasn't really performed to his Origin level. From Matulino the Warriors need offloads and from Lillyman it's all about quick play-the-balls where he dents the line and lays the platform for the wizards to attack from.

Keep an eye on Mannering as well. He's been making plenty of tackles but hasn't had much impact with the ball after a great season offloading last year . If Matulino (7 offloads) and Mannering (2 offloads) are both offloading, Lillyman cannon-ballin' through the line and the three of them combining for a bit of short passing, the Warriors will be all good.