Changes. Even though there has been constant change in the Warriors squad each week up to this point, tomorrow night's game in Wellington against the Bulldogs signals change. For all the huff and puff about Tuimoala Lolohea's move to the halves, which opens the door for David Fusitua to start on the wing, there's a few other cheeky changes that caught my eye for this game.

The Bulldogs have one of the most dynamic forward packs in the NRL. There's plenty of size and aggression, but there is plenty of skill as well and the Doggies forwards love to take on a large portion of the ball-playing. To counter this, coach Andrew McFadden has opted to start Sam Lisone over Jacob Lillyman and Lisone will offer plenty of enthusiasm, much needed enthusiasm might I add as Lillyman simply hasn't been very good to start the season.

Bodene Thompson returns to the edge, which I want to highlight as a key inclusion. On Monday I compared Ryan Hoffman and Simon Mannering to KFC chips without much chicken salt seasoning #plain and there's not much plain about Thompson, with Thompson being a far more threatening ball-runner and someone who can add some funk to the Warriors on that right edge. This pushes Simon Mannering back into the middle, which neither excites or worries me. Mannering is a tackling machine, especially in the middle but this clearly didn't help the Warriors defensively earlier in the season and all those tackles muffles Mannering's attacking ability as he struggles to make 100m a game and only has 3 offloads this season).
Mannering's a big body though and the Warriors need that size in the middle I guess.

The Warriors need size, aggression, enthusiasm, energy and intent through the middle to beat the Bulldogs, so where's Albert Vete?

Vete's in reserve grade, along with James Gavet and Shaun Lane. 

I don't know about you but I'd rather have Vete on the bench instead of Konrad Hurrell and even Thomas Leuluai, especially as Vete has been one of our best forwards (along with Sam Lisone and Charlie Gubb) all season. Because it's the Bulldogs, I'd take Gavet and Lane over Hurrell and possibly Leuluai, can't go wrong with that much grunt.

Change was needed sure, however there's also got to be some consistency in selection and Vete's demotion to reserve grade is strange. He must have missed his KPI's or something?
Vete's home is through the middle, he's a middle forward and while I love Hurrell as a player and a person, coach McFadden has opted with Hurrell over Vete. Hurrell, who McFadden barely uses off the bench, who hasn't yet settled into any position, yeah he's on that bench instead of one of our best props. 

This is the biggest game of the Warriors' season so far, let's make that crystal clear. The Bulldogs offer the stiffest challenge to the Warriors' forwards that they've come up against so far, which will be combined with our first look at the Shaun Johnson/Tuimoala Lolohea halves combination for 2016.

Many, many 'fans' or observers have expended far too much energy on ripping into Johnson and Jeff Robson, laying a lot of the blame for the Warriors' woes on the halves. Fair enough, but that's a bit dumb; the 'big' Warriors forward pack has led their team to a glorious 8,079 metres run this season which has the Warriors ranked 14th. How are you supposed to do your job as an NRL half when your team is the 3rd worst team at running the footy?

That doesn't make for great reading when you consider that the Bulldogs are in town (Wellington) as they're ranked 5th. Not only am I highly intrigued as to how the Warriors forwards go against the Doggies (without Vete), I'm equally as intrigued regarding the play of our halves, especially Johnson. 

Lolohea only plays footy one way and as I've said numerous times this season; Lolohea is one of the best backyard footy players in the NRL. Lolohea will dart around, he'll play off-the-cuff and produce moments of magic regardless of what jersey he wears, in the No.6 jersey he will this without the weight of guiding his team around the park. Along with Leuluai off the bench, Issac Luke, SJ7 and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, the Warriors could opt to run the Doggies around which could work, possibly.

The weight of steering the Warriors around will fall on the shoulders of Johnson, who I'm not convinced is capable of doing so as I'm yet to see Johnson really grab control of a game where he does all the duties of an NRL halfback and adds some SJ7 magic in as well. 

I've only really seen Johnson play far too conservative, opting to try control the game without that spice, or play all-spice without ticking those halfback boxes. Ponder the Johnson/Robson combo if they were A) playing behind a dominant forward pack and B) each playing at their best ... Robson would control the game, allowing Johnson to be a free spirit who chimes in with his brilliance when opportunities present themselves.

Lolohea is now the free spirit and I love that, there's no better free spirit that Tui. 

Johnson is the conductor, he's the boss and this is un-questionably his team. Can the current version of SJ7 step up to the plate and well, do everything (we're honestly expecting SJ7 to do everything? Ooooooookay)? 

More importantly, can the Warriors forwards simply do their job?

If the Warriors forwards don't do their job and SJ7 doesn't show that he can tick all the halfback boxes, the Bulldogs will win this one rather easily.