This time last week, I was looking forward to seeing our NZ Warriors face a stern challenge against the best team in the NRL ... who also happen to be knee deep in a hefty win streak.

Cronulla are a wee bit different to Gold Coast. While I didn't expect the Warriors to win last week and was more concerned with how the Warriors played, hosting Gold Coast at the glorious Mt Smart has me expecting a win. Usually we write stuff so that y'all don't have to put up with the mundane cliches given by players and coaches as we keep it real while they don't.

Allow me - if ya don't mind - to translate my feelings about these last two weeks into coach/player speak...

Last week I was worried more about the process, this week I'm more concerned with the 2 points.

What we saw last week was the foundation of what I'm viewing as a Warriors style of play. I've been screaming for this since, well, since you came along Cappy and while it's taken far too long for the Warriors to play to their strengths and not try copy what other teams are doing, at least we're starting to see it in action.

Note: I still thank Sir Graham Henry for this. I'm no Warriors insider, I'm just connecting the dots here as the Warriors went down this path when Henry really started to get involved.

Warriors Diary is brought to you by CocoSina Coconut Oil. Made in Samoa and supporting local farmers!

Regular readers can skip this bit but newbies pay attention...

Warriors Style 101

Hard and fast through the middle, offloads, quick passes to shift defence, play with confidence out on the edges and try your best on defence.

Warriors Style 101 Buzz-words

Aggressive, flair, power, speed, razzle dazzle, x-factor, skill, aggressive, aggressive, aggressive.

If the Warriors tick most of those boxes against Gold Coast, they'll win. This is why I expect them to win, compare that to last week when the Warriors needed to also tick the 'clutch' box and right now, there is no 'clutch' box to tick (there will be soon enough). The strength of Gold Coast is their forward pack and this will provide an interesting battle through the middle of the field as our Warriors forward pack did a fine job last week in holding their own against a rugged Sharks pack.

Rugged is a great word to describe the Titans forward pack as well. Greg Bird will be up to his usual antics but he also offers a splash of skill, yet the guy I'm most intrigued by is Ryan James and how he goes up against Albert Vete (assuming he starts). Vete was immense last week and gives up a bit of size to James - in fact both Vete and Jacob Lillyman give up some size to James and Luke Douglas - but Vete summed it all up for me last week as he ran with obvious intent to destroy.

James oozes aggression and Vete isn't too far behind in that regard. Hopefully Ben Matulino will come off the bench and enjoy the benefits of Vete's work in the opening stanza; Vete is the young buck laying the platform for the OG.

There'll also be interesting battles on either edge with Ryan Hoffman lining up against Zeb Taia and Bodene Thompson up against Leivaha Pulu. Straight off the top, I'm liking the advantage the Warriors have here as I'd take Hoffman and Thompson over their opponents all day but Taia and Pulu are low key contributors to the Titans. They're both massive and have plenty of skill as well.

We have to expect that Thompson will play at a similar level as he did last week and he was possibly the best player on the park. His battle against Pulu will be awesome to watch if I've got my calculations right and they do line up opposite each other as Thompson started his career as a Titan and Pulu is returning home to Auckland where he'll be playing in front of family and homies.

Last week, a lot of the talk centred around the decision to yank Tuimoala Lolohea from the starting side and give him limited minutes off the bench. Lolohea is back on the wing this week, although lost in all of that talk was David Fusitua's performance at fullback which has effectively shut the gate on Lolohea's immediate career as an NRL fullback. I love both of them and we should be grateful to have such fine young players in our club, plus their both Kelston boys so there's plenty of love to go around; as long as both are in the team, I don't care.

What Fusitua does offer is far more power through the middle than Lolohea, who is more of a skipper. I said earlier this week that Fusitua reminds me of Greg Inglis at fullback when the Rabbitohs won their Premiership and who was playing hooker then? Ah, Mr Bully Luke.

While it's a little frustrating that the combinations keep switching, Luke has had another week of training with Fusitua mainly at fullback this could blow the Titans away through the middle. Fusitua has the unique ability to poke his head through the line and he rarely gets put on his back in a tackle, meaning he usually gets a quick play-the-ball and Luke is the perfect bloke to pounce, darting away down field.

This won't happen when Fusitua is returning a kick, look for Fusitua to be used on the 2nd/3rd tackle when Luke is back in action.

I'd also keep an eye on how the Warriors use Lolohea. Everyone knows that he offers far more than standing out on the wing and I wouldn't be surprised if we see him used in set-plays as an extra fullback for example.

2 points though, for all the little bits of intrigue I've discussed, 2 points against a team living in the same suburb of the NRL ladder as the Warriors is crucial. If the Warriors are somewhat off their game, they need to find a way to hang in their and simply get a win.