After following the Panthers to Christchurch, the Warriors host Canberra in New Plymouth on Saturday night. Any time the New Zealand Warriors can get to take their circus outside of Auckland and around Aotearoa, is fabulous, especially as we all know how popular the NRL is throughout Aotearoa.

We saw that last week, even though the Warriors aren't really too much of a draw card at the moment, they played in front of a full house in Christchurch. That was a Penrith home game, so shout out to them and I think we're only going to see more and more games taken around Aotearoa by Australian clubs and the Warriors.

Canberra are a very similar team to Penrith in that it's extremely difficult to get a gauge on them. They could show up, Josh Hodgson could play out of his skin and they could still get beat rather badly. Alternatively, Hodgson could be on fire playing behind a huge forward pack that is rolling forward with ease and the Raiders could quite possibly dismantle the Warriors.

It's important then they we take a bit of a common sense reality check and ponder that the Warriors could play alright and still lose. Such is the NRL, it's okay, there's plenty of time left in the season folks.

You can't really argue with the starting 13 named by Andrew McFadden as he's got the strongest group of players lined up to start. I quite liked having Issac Luke and Ben Matulino come off the bench as Jazz Tevaga and James Gavet had been doing a solid job, but Luke and Matulino will start which won't change too much; Tevaga will come on and playing alongside Luke etc.

Simon Mannering's return pushes John Palavi back to the bench, while Mathew Allwood replaces Solomone Kata at centre. The silly folk will worry themselves with Konrad Hurrell, but Allwood has been sniffing around this team for a number of weeks just waiting for an opportunity and this week he gets it. Allwood was signed as a centre, not a winger, not a bench player so I'm eager to see how he goes, probably lining up against Joey Leilua who is offloading/busting tackles with ease.

What irks me about this team is that Confusing Cappy is back at his best, having dropped Charlie Gubb and replacing him with Sam Lisone. I love Lisone, it's just that Gubb hasn't done a whole lot wrong and Andrew McFadden could have really stamped his authority down by making Lisone demand selection in reserve grade for a few more weeks.

I think I kinda understand though as Palavi and Gavet are quite similar in style to Gubb, while Lisone is more of impact player. Understandable, what confuses me is that McFadden has only picked the same bench for multiple games once this season, 18 different players have been used off the bench. That's an NRL squad that has come off the bench for the Warriors this season and it's pretty shocking, as you have to wonder how we expect this team to win when a new combination is being rolled out each week.

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I've said this in reference to the halves and the spine of this Warriors team; while other NRL teams have settled on combinations or are rolling out long-term combinations, the Warriors led by McFadden's chopping and changing are still trying to figure out what their best 17 is.

That's incredibly frustrating and minor tweaks are just annoying. As always it's important not to be overly dramatic and put the Warriors' performances into context as they are still mid-ladder, within touching distance of the top-8 despite constant change and fresh combinations/rotations each week.

Two areas of the Warriors performance concern me this weekend and they possibly tell you all you need to know as to why the Warriors aren't doing better than they are. First we have Matulino and Lillyman starting, two representative props who have been playing as such which has been fantastic. This week they will face off against Shannon Boyd and Paul Vaughan who will start from the Raiders and they are two props who, if given a chance will happily dominate the middle of the field. They aren't perfect though and there's every chance that they don't quite show up in the 'Naki, leaving the door open for Lillyman and Matulino to really stamp their mark on this game.

Both Lillyman and Matulino have been playing great footy, the Warriors desperately need them to continue that form in tandem here. Everything starts up front and if our best props are the best forwards on the park, then Luke can get up to his antics and so on.

And so on ... Thomas Leuluai and Shaun Johnson can get up to their antics. Leuluai and Johnson will line up against Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer, a halves combo that could tear the Warriors apart but hasn't quite been able to consistently showcase their class.

Leuluai was low key impressive last week, headlined by his slick combination with Tuimoala Lolohea and I view this as the product of time spent together. You probably didn't notice Leuluai last week though, which is the next development for him #LevelUp as he needs to starting easing the burden on SJ7. More kicking from Leuluai, getting in at first-receiver and bossing any play down the Warriors left edge - watch out for Leuluai.

Once again, I finish on SJ7. Last week wasn't the best for SJ7 as he got taught a lesson by Jamie Soward and left his running boots - that would have been highly handy in windy conditions - at home. The Warriors need SJ7 running the footy, which starts with the forwards and Luke through the middle and I reckon the Raiders are ripe for picking in that regard.

SJ7 running the footy depends on the forwards, his control of a footy game depends on him. I just wanna see SJ7 be the best player out there, the boss of proceedings, the director who calls upon Leuluai, Lolohea and Luke to do a job and then adds his own magic on top. Johnson has the guys around him to ease the workload, which hasn't always been the case and hopefully they can step up to allow Johnson to dictate how and where this game is played.
Combinations. Our key players, our spine, they're still building towards a fluid combination.

Look around the NRL and you will see key combinations that have been in place for 18 months, or at least all season while our spine is trying to win footy games with just a few games together. We'll get there folks, let's hope the Warriors take another small step forward this weekend.