I don't want to feel vindicated, yet I feel super-duper vindicated after the Warriors were dismantled by the Cowboys in Townsville on Saturday night. For much of the season, I have preached that our Warriors are nothing more than a mid-table team  in 2015 and while I have always believed this, there were many moments during the season when I pondered a crazy Warriors run in which they stormed home and won the Premiership ... or came close.

However, the Cowboys showed me just how right I was and I feel pretty smug right now. 

Forget their recent form, North Queensland are still my pick for the slickest NRL team in the competition and I'm rocking with them to make the Grand Final. I viewed this game as the perfect opportunity to see gauge our Warriors because I had a feeling that the Cowboys would be coming in hot, looking to avenge a few stumbling performances and how the Warriors responded, would give us a far better idea of exactly what this team is capable of. 

The Cowboys made the Warriors look like the battlin' mid-table team they are.

You would only be disappointed by this result, if you have been paying far too much attention to mainstream media and their hype-beast thoughts on the Warriors. I try to keep it real for y'all - while I am a fan who wants the best, there are legitimately five or six teams who could win the NRL this season which is a sign of how competitive the NRL is and the Warriors have never quite looked in the same class as those contenders. 

I've got no dramas in keeping it real because it's all based on the next few years and 2015 being the launch-pad from which a Premiership window is opened.

Take Roger Tuivasa-Sheck out of this team and we have the David Fusitua vs Tuimoala Lolohea fullback situation, then we lose Issac Luke for a string of must-win games and arguably our best player in Solomone Kata was missing for this contest. If you thought the Warriors had a hope after Tuivasa-Sheck got injured, that's okay but with no Luke or Kata? You'd be crazy to think that the Warriors can kick it with the NRL's best without three certain starters.

No Warriors forward ran over 100m ... no Warriors forward ran over 90m.

The Warriors have two rep-calibre props in Jacob Lillyman and Ben Matulino - Matulino has carried this forward pack all season - while the Cowboys were without Matt Scott, with Scott Bolton joining James Tamou as the starting props. Lillyman had 7 carries for 60m while Matulino had 8 carries for 69m.

Compare those numbers of our two best props, two blokes who would be taking up a fair chunk of the salary cap, to the work of Bolton and Tamou; Bolton had 18 carries for 182m, Tamou had 22 carries for 231m. 

Lillyman played 40 minutes, Matulino played 30 minutes.

Bolton played 49 minutes, Tamou played 46 minutes. 

At this stage of the season, you need your best players firing on all cylinders and we enjoyed Matulino's worst game and another lacklustre effort from Lillyman. Lillyman simply hasn't played like an Origin forward for the Warriors all season and you've got to wonder with a bloke like Lillyman whether the Warriors are genuinely getting value for money. Throw in 4 missed tackles from Lillyman, just for a laugh. 

I could spread all my negative thoughts across a range of issues from this game but I've touched on many of those all season, so instead I found myself wondering about that value for money idea. Scott Bolton isn't a big name, he won't be on good dosh with the Cowboys and was only starting because Matt Scott was out, yet there Bolton was doubling the work of almost every Warriors forward.

Take that further, out to the wing. The Cowboys have Kyle Feldt and Antonio Winterstein, both of whom you would have to assume are on far less money than Manu Vatuvei. I love Manu, but if you ran a club and you were offered Manu on $600,000 a season and Winterstein on $300,000 (rough estimates), who are you taking? 

In the preview I highlighted the contest between Jonathan Thurston and Shaun Johnson, which didn't end up being close to a contest. I was eager to see Johnson in action against the best and unfortunately for Johnson, he was made to look rather average by the best in the business. 

Johnson: 2 carries, 16m, 21 tackles, 1 offload, 1 line break assist, 3 errors.

Thurston: 4 carries, 16m, 2 try assists, 2 tackle busts, 14 tackles, 2 line break assists.

Interestingly ... well, sort of interesting as it's been the case all season, Johnson kicked 11 times to Thurston's 7 kicks (291m vs 142m). Thomas Leuluai had 2 kicks, Bodene Thompson had 1 and Ata Hingano had 1 as well, meaning that once again it was Johnson who was tasked with doing the bulk of the kicking and that's simply never good as it's pretty easy to put pressure on the kicker when the same bloke is kicking all the time.

The Cowboys had Thurston kicking 7 times, Lachlan Coote kicking 8 times, Michael Morgan kicking 4 times while Gavin Cooper and Coen Hess had a kick each. Thurston's a wizard, but he's got blokes around him who are able and given the opportunity to kick, allowing Thurston to work his magic. 

This game not only put the Warriors in their rightful place, it also showed us the gulf between the Warriors and a team who I view as one of two or three teams who are run to near perfection (in every aspect of the club). Whether it's how they play their footy or how they juggle their salary cap - which would be tricky given how much Thurston would take up - the Cowboys are simply far more efficient than the Warriors.

Do you think that Cowboys coach Paul Green would play silly games with one of his players like Andrew McFadden is doing with Tuimoala Lolohea? No, because that's silly.

If you've made it this far, then you deserve some positivity and it's telling of the Warriors situation that this positivity comes with some weird vibes. This game marked our first glimpse of Ata Hingano in the halves for the Warriors and I though he was a stand out for the Warriors, given that he was on debut. I've been extremely excited to see Hingano play because at every opportunity in the lower grades, he has impressed and he's got something to his game that the Warriors have lacked since Stacey Jones retired.

Hingano isn't like Johnson or Lolohea. 

Hingano is a stereotypical half and has a touch of control mixed in with natural footy instincts that get me fizzing with excitement about his future. 

I would go as far as saying that I view Hingano as being more important to the Warriors in the next 10 years than Johnson, or Lolohea. 

Much of my frustration with Johnson, or how Johnson is used is that he does everything. It's obvious that Johnson oozes x-factor, but he's also made to control the game, to organise, to do all the little tasks that a halfback must do, while also doing SJ7-things. I am yet to witness Johnson control a game of NRL footy against quality opposition and all the best NRL teams have balance in their halves with the best example perhaps on show against the Warriors. 

This isn't so much a knock on Johnson, he just needs to play alongside a calm halfback who can dictate proceedings, allowing Johnson to play with the flair that makes him so dangerous.

I though Jeff Robson could do that, maybe Leuluai could have. Robson's gone and Leuluai is on his way out (and has been relegated to a bit-part role, making way for Johnson). Hingano is the bloke who should play halfback with Johnson in the No.6 jersey, Hingano can run the left-edge and his left-boot is an asset, while playing first-receiver when the Warriors go to their right, pushing Johnson out further.

Hingano will organise, he'll do much of the basic halfback duties and allow Johnson to play with freedom

That's Hingano's ceiling, so stay tuned in because I love this Hingano kid.

Now, the weirdness comes with Lolohea's presence. McFadden clearly doesn't know what on Earth's he is doing with Lolohea and if he doesn't know now, he will be struggling to figure out what to do with Lolohea when Tuivasa-Sheck is playing fullback and Hingano is impressing in the halves. 

McFadden has blown Lolohea's confidence to pieces and next season there will be a log-jam to fit Lolohea in, perhaps he could get a look as a winger or something but that's not really making the most of his talents.

Three players into two positions doesn't quite work and believe me when I say that Hingano's debut has started the brewing process here. Confusing Cappy has three blokes in Johnson, Lolohea and Hingano who he must try fit into this Warriors team and given that McFadden hasn't filled me with any confidence in juggling his personnel this season, I'll be interested to see what he's go in store for us.