Come one, come all.

Come on, huddle up.

While others worry themselves with rather dramatic overreactions, we need to come together.

After a tough few weeks/start to the season, the Warriors came up against a pretty slick Penrith Panthers side and coughed up the bickies. It wasn't ideal, a loss is never ideal, especially in such a tight NRL competition but I'll leave those dramatic overreactions to silly folk because I saw what I needed to see from the Warriors on Saturday night.

And this is why I need y'all in nice and close, arms wrapped around each other, huddled up.

It's taken a while and I never actually thought it would reach this point as my views have changed a bit since the start of the season, but I'm starting to see small pieces of the puzzle come together.

The Warriors were definitely not near their best, while the Panthers did what they have done for much of the season as they oozed energy, offloaded as often as possible (17 offloads vs 7) and relied on Jamie Soward's wand of a boot to get the win. As we were all told, this Panthers team has lost a lot of their games this season by a point or two which means that they aren't nearly as bad as those losses suggest. 

Despite that, I saw a well-balanced Warriors team who if they are gifted with a similar squad for the next few weeks (I'm looking at you Cappy) could start to build nicely. 

Jazz Tevaga is only 20-years-old and played 67 minutes through the middle of the park for the Warriors, many of those minutes came alongside Issac Luke. Tevaga is the sort of young player who should make every Warriors fan drip with pride and having him start with James Gavet and John Palavi gives the Warriors a mobile, hard-working and aggressive middle presence.

Tevaga, Gavet and Palavi give the Warriors a balance that hasn't always been the case. At the start of the season, I wanted as much power as I could get in this Warriors side but those three lads are cut from a slightly different cloth as they graft, toil and are just there to give their all. 

Having them start the game, allows for Luke and Matulino to come on without having to worry about the first 20 minutes. The grafters set the tone, then we see Luke come on and play as well as I've seen him play this season with 5 carries for 37m, 30 tackles and 2 offloads. Matulino came on and was at his best, busy with 17 carries and 161m which came with Jacob Lillyman playing as we expect him to with 16 carries for 133m.

Our two best props played like representative forwards and we're starting to see Tevaga, Gavet and Palavi gain confidence at the NRL level. I'd consider Tevaga and Palavi to be defensive players and we should see their influence on the Warriors middle start to show as they settle into their NRL work.

The combination between Thomas Leuluai, Shaun Johnson and Tuimoala Lolohea was also impressive. In my preview to this game, I announced my leadership of the Fusitua Fullback Fan Club and I still like that but there was a certain crispness to the passing between Leuluai and Lolohea that really caught my eye.

This led to Jonathan Wright's try (Leuluai to Lolohea, Lolohea throws a long cut-out ball to Wright)  and we need to remember that we are still at the start of the Leuluai/Lolohea/Johnson combination as the spine has been in a constant state of change this season.

Also, remember that the current forward rotation has only been in place for a week or two. Not only do are the Warriors trying to settle into some consistency with their forward rotations, they are doing the same thing with their spine and the best NRL teams have had their forward rotations and their spines set in stone for over six months. 

This game effectively came down to a battle between Jamie Soward and Shaun Johnson; who could control the game better in windy conditions?

Johnson reflects the Warriors at the moment as he, like the Warriors have redonkulous expectations placed on them. I've said many times that Johnson hasn't shown that he can control a game by himself in the NRL just yet. It's not that I hate Johnson, it's just blatantly clear that he is still developing as an NRL half and I'm yet to really see him pull the strings for 80 minutes.

With more game time alongside Leuluai, Leuluai will take on more responsibility and Johnson will benefit greatly but while the best NRL halves combinations have spent a long time together, Johnson is yet to really enjoy a consistent halves partner. 

I have seen Soward win games with his left boot many, many times before. 

Soward is an expert, he loves it, while Johnson is still figuring that side of being an NRL half out. 

Soward was always going to win that battle, hence Penrith won.

Huddle up...

We ride with the Warriors, who have been dealt a pretty shit hand, led by Roger Tuivasa-Sheck's season ending knee injury. Despite that, the Warriors are in 12th spot, only 4 points behind the Bulldogs who are currently 5th, thankfully they have done enough to stay in touch with the top-8 and we are now building towards a finals push.

But that finals push isn't now, we are building towards that finals push. There's still many things, major and minor that need tinkering as we build towards that finals push.

Sure, there's a long way to go but we have time on our side. We must stay positive though, luckily I can keep those positive vibes nice and simple...

• Johnson will benefit from this game, hopefully he learned a few things from Soward and will stack up those learnings for future reference.
• Our two rep props played like rep props.
• We've got a young brigade led by Jazz Tevaga and John Palavi, two blokes who are exactly the type of players who I want representing the Warriors.
• Issac Luke is great off the bench, he comes on with Tevaga still on the field and they both rip in.
• Solomone Kata is a beast and while he'll be the poster boy for the haters, he did run for 143m off 15 carries with 6 tackle busts and scored yet another try. Kata has been our best player on a consistent basis this season.
• The Lolohea/Leuluai/Johnson combo played another game together. That's a huge positive.

Huh? Oh you've got a .... 

"Konrad Hurrell" ....

Alright, huddle up again ...

The same people who dramatically overreact have recently got their knickers in a twist regarding Konrad Hurrell being on the outer. First of all, if you read the shit served up by those silly folk, you're a bit dumb as Hurrell being on the outer is nothing new.

Hurrell was off to the Titans before the season began, last year he was being shopped around to other NRL clubs and recently there were Manly Sea Eagles whispers. These rumours were out in the open, for all to see, I get my news from the same sources that y'all can get it so there's no real news to that headline.

The Warriors can't simply tear up Hurrell's contract, as silly folk in the media are suggesting. 

The Warriors have definitely been shopping around Hurrell, as any NRL club would and they have been for a long time, but at the end of the day, it's not really up to the Warriors or Hurrell. They need a buyer, they need a club who is willing to take on Hurrell's salary at the moment and that's not exactly an easy task.

'Hurrell's on 500k, so the Warriors should let him go to open up salary cap space.'

Opening salary cap space up now, is of no use to the Warriors. Hurrell isn't playing and they have two centres who are doing the job,  there's no real holes that need to be filled so what is that salary cap space going to be spent on? A really good player available mid-season? Dumb, very dumb.

And yeah, the Warriors need to find a club who is keen to take on a portion of Hurrell's salary, mid-season. Not too many clubs will have the wiggle room to do so and of course, the other portion of Hurrell's salary will be paid by the Warriors, counting against their salary cap.

Hurrell is entitled to his contract, the Warriors offered him that contract so it's up to them to either live up to that contract or negotiate with another club to ensure the contract is paid in full.

If you're Hurrell, are you going to agree to a smaller contract? Hell no.

If I were Hurrell, I'd probably be counting my cash ... and I'd be playing the house down in reserve grade in front of other NRL teams. 

Other NRL teams will be much more willing to sign Hurrell if he's in barnstorming form in reserve grade. This shows those clubs that Hurrell is eager to stay in the NRL and that there's some ticker to the lad, he's willing to fight through adversity.