Everything about last weekend's win on the Gold Coast felt great and besides the impressive performance from the Warriors themselves, much of this wasn't thanks to our Warriors. Sunday afternoon footy is fantastic and we get far too little of it at Mt Smart, then you had an atmosphere that genuinely felt like a Finals fixture thanks to that Hayne bloke. The Warriors usually play Finals footy in Dingoville as well, so it all culminated in just a good Warriors-related footy experience.

As we know - being hardened Warriors fans and all - the Warriors of capable of performing as such in a regular season fixture like that. We've all seen impressive displays of Warriors footy in which there's strong contributions from across the 17-man squad, playing a brand of footy that we can celebrate as our team's signature style. The Warriors have done that before and perhaps it's why we sit here as Warriors fans.

The Warriors also have a tendency to back up those sorts of games with mediocrity.
Not just that, they also have a tendency to fall over in games against average opposition late in the regular season. I don't know how or why, but after getting all the band-wagoners on the trailer, the Warriors often fizzle. This weekend's game against a weird Rabbitohs side has great fizzling potential; consider that a warning.

The Rabbitohs have struggled to contain opposition forward packs through the middle of the field this season. They use to steamroll teams up the guts, now they get steamrolled. This is ideal for the Warriors as they are enjoying a settled combination and rotation of the middle forwards, helped by their health and coach Cappy finally resisting the urge to fidget. Jacob Lillyman is getting through his usual work, Albert Vete is doing a good job of starting games, then Ben Matulino comes on the field and does what Benny-Muts does and Sam Lisone adds a bit of funk to the Warriors when he comes on. With our big outside backs chipping in, there's a pretty fair chance that the Warriors will enjoy plenty of metres through the middle.

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Speed, footwork and power out on the edges should ice the cake after the hard work has been done through the middle.

An interesting battle to keep an eye on will be Simon Mannering up against Sam Burgess in their No.13 jerseys. Both do a fairly similar job for their team, with Burgess a wee bit more dynamic in his work carting the footy up field which is mainly because he's the Rabbitohs go-to option for metres while Mannering has other lads who make the big metres. They'll both make plenty of tackles and flick a few offloads out, not too much difference there but where Mannering does have the advantage is that he's a better passer of the footy - Mannering would be a better rugby union midfielder than Burgess.

Mannering's left to right pass comes in the form of a crisp spiral pass, as opposed to the league-style flick-of-the-wrist pass and as he's throwing it to his right, it's usually landing in Shaun Johnson's bread-basket. Earlier in the week I highlighted Johnson getting a long pass from Thomas Leuluai, which put Johnson into space on the right, don't overlook Mannering setting Johnson up down that right edge though.

Speed, footwork and power out on the edges should ice the cake after the hard work has been done through the middle.

Yup, I repeat that twice for impact. Mannering's ability to carry the ball a few steps, luring a Rabbitohs defence in who are already under the pump and then firing a pass out the back to Johnson or Tuimoala Lolohea will help set up those raids on the Rabbitohs left edge.

Many teams this season have been able to pounce on the Rabbitohs' weakness and there's no reason why the Warriors shouldn't. The Bunnies have however got Greg Inglis back in their spine and with Inglis there alongside Cody Walker and Adam Reynolds, they'll have a few points in them.

I dunno, this just feels like the sort of game that the Warriors lose. Without rhyme or reason, they somehow find a way to stumble and a Rabbitohs side that hasn't been that good this season but is now rolling out a fairly settled side could be a bit of a banana skin.

Those fans who are still holding on to some hope of the Warriors making waves in the Finals will be concerned with the Warriors simply winning this game. I'm slightly more intrigued with the performance of the Warriors after they played one of their best games of the season last week. For me, it's about the Warriors being able to churn out quality performances consistently and the good vibes from last week won't matter a great deal if they can't back it up.