Some people out there still slide into a New Zealand Warriors stereotype about their big forwards and how they are so tough to come up against. This was true at some point, it's just that it has been a myth for quite a number of seasons now and was perhaps the most notable reason as to why the Warriors struggled this season.

You just can't do a whole lot when your forward pack ain't rollin' down field or in the case of the Warriors, is being dominated more often than not. This always starts with the props, the big boppers who are tasked with making metres as well as adding something different in the modern NRL whether that comes in the form of footwork, offloads or slick passing at the line.

To paint a bit of a picture, the Warriors finished the season in 12th for both running metres and offloads which isn't solely down to the props, yet a when you compare the numbers of our four main props used this season, you can see why the Warriors struggled.

James Graham had the most metres of any 'prop' this season with 4,177m off 503 carries.

Andrew Fifita led the NRL's props in offloads with 69.

Compare that to these Warriors props...

Ben Matulino: 308 carries, 2,686m, 22 offloads.

Jacob Lillyman: 264 carries, 2,333m, 3 offloads.

Sam Lisone: 196 carries, 1,716m, 7 offloads.

Albert Vete: 140 carries, 1,257m, 26 offloads.

Just let that simmer for a second before reading any further.

Ben Matulino

One of the more interesting storylines to follow since the end of the season, has been the possible departure of Matulino. It appears as though Manly are his biggest suitor although it sounds as though there are a few Sydney clubs after his services, what intrigues me though is if Matulino is being pushed out the door or if it's Matulino who is appreciating the interest shown in him by other clubs and what's a breath of fresh air.

This is all very interesting because Matulino was our best prop this season by quite some margin and the vibe I'm getting is that the Warriors are pushing him out the door. Don't you find it weird that despite taking the most carries and making the most metres of any Warriors player this season, Matulino is on the outer? He also finished the season 3rd in offloads and was often the only Warriors forward to run over 100m in various games.

I view Matulino as being crucial to the Warriors moving forward as he's big and athletic, always capable of getting a quick play-the-ball and offloading. For whatever reason though - possibly something behind the scenes - Matulino appears to be destined to leave and similar to Tuimoala Lolohea's situation, I reckon it's probably within Matulino's best interests to move onwards and upwards.

If Matulino does leave, it will create a vacuum in one of the main prop positions. Judging by the work of Lillyman, Lisone and Vete this season, there's no one there who is primed to take over from Matulino and that's a bit of a worry.

Ben Matulino was 1st in runs (308), run metres (2,686m) and 3rd in offloads for NZ Warriors this season ... so he's gotta go right!?
— The Niche Cache (@thenichecache) September 21, 2016

Jacob Lillyman

The only way we can judge Lillyman's work this season is to hold him to an Origin standard, he is an Origin player after all. Despite being called up for Queensland, Lillyman only had 10 games in which he ran over 100m (10 of 24 games, compared to Matulino's 16 100m+ games) and after a bit of a purple patch between rounds 7-14, when it mattered most in the back-end of the season, Lillyman only had two 100m+ games in his last nine games.

We have to assume that Lillyman is on the sort of money that Origin players command and having one of your star props going missing for much of the season was detrimental for the Warriors. At his best, Lillyman steams on to the footy and takes plenty of carries with his cannon-ball frame making him difficult to stop or slow down. There's not much else, even when Lillyman is at his best as he tends to tuck the footy under a wing and look to bulldoze his way through the defensive line. This means that when Lillyman is making big metres off of lots of carries, his limitations are absorbed by his go-forward.

When Lillyman isn't as busy as he should be and isn't offering some ball-playing or offloads, he's a bit of a waste of space to be honest.

It's hard to be overly upset with Matulino this season, even though he wasn't among the NRL's best props because he led the club in runs, metres and offloaded heavily. Not ideal, but acceptable while Lillyman just simply wasn't good enough and we can throw the fact that Lillyman was 5th in missed tackles for club this season, missing 10 more tackles than Matulino.

Neither Matulino or Lillyman were good enough this season.

Albert Vete/Sam Lisone

This is an individual analysis thingy-ma-jig, however Vete and Lisone both suffered from a lack of game time as well as suffering from limitations in their work carting the footy up. Vete played 510 minutes this season while Lisone played 655 minutes, which when Lillyman (1,033 mins) and Matulino (1,204 mins) weren't quite doing the trick was strange and one of my major frustrations with Andrew McFadden.

Vete was mainly used to start games, while Lisone came off the bench for sporadic stints in the middle of games and I would have loved to have seen both Vete and Lisone shown faith, thrown to the wolves because the senior players just weren't good enough.

Both have a funky aspect of their work that helps the Warriors; Vete led the Warriors in offloads with 26 while Lisone featured heavily in a ball-playing role. These are key features that the best props in the NRL possess, again though neither Vete or Lisone were on the field long enough to really make the most of this. In the case of Lisone though it kinda felt as though he was caught in the middle, perhaps worrying himself too much with passing instead of doing what he's best at which is running the footy hard.

Running the footy hard ... but wisely. Watching Vete and Lisone steam on to the footy and run straight with a slight twist at the point of contact is exciting - especially for the Mt Smart faithful - it would have also have served them extremely well in junior footy, even in reserve grade. Given that this is also what Lillyman does with the majority of his carries, the Warriors lacked any sort of footwork with their props as well as any sort of speed to attack the ruck area with a big body.

No angles, no late foot-work at the line and no variety. Vete and Lisone are good prospects but this season showed that they need to adjust to the NRL and if they are to play more minutes, thus taking more carries, they need to switch it up a little or else it's pretty easy to handle for the behemoths of the NRL.

Charlie Gubb

The sort of prop that Warriors fans love, we just didn't see enough of Gubb this season. That came mainly via suspension, although McFadden wasn't overly keen to use Gubb with any sort of consistency either.

I like Gubb because he's different and offers the variety which Lisone and Vete lack, also he's got a bit of mongrel. No one besides Gubb and James Gavet played with an intimidation factor, so it was always a shame to see them sitting on the bench instead of on the field.

James Gavet

What's if I told you that the bloke who averaged the most metres per-carry, also played the least minutes for the Warriors? Yup, Gavet was the only Warriors prop to average over 9m per-carry (9.32m) which is a prime example of how poor the Warriors props were this season as 10m per-carry is amazing and none of our props were close to that mark.

Who knows why Gavet wasn't used a whole lot this season (294 mins in 10 games), I just know that I like what he offers this team.