Shiver me timbers, here's hoping we don't hear much more about Shaun Johnson's new deal now that week is over. I get the feeling that this win over the Roosters will be remembered for Johnson's deal and Johnson's winning goal, but look past your irrational expectations and subsequent disdain for Johnson when he doesn't meet those expectations and you'll find a Warriors win built solely around defence and all the minor details we've never really associated with the Warriors.

This win stemmed from defence. That was fairly obvious, yet it's amplified by some fairly poor attack from the Warriors that restricted them to just two tries. There's absolutely no dramas here and just because I'm rippin' on the attack, doesn't mean I'm rippin' on Johnson or Kieran Foran; we're watching a team that is still developing their attacking instincts.

Perhaps if the Warriors defence wasn't so good, I'd take a less favourable view of the Warriors attack although I've seen signs throughout the season that bits and pieces are being added to how the Warriors attack. The concern against the Roosters was the number of times that either Foran or Johnson scrambled to get to first-receiver, or failed to set up an attacking structure quickly and efficiently.

Those who have read this illustrious diary this season will note that I've highlighted how potent the Warriors can be when they roll through a structured set-play. Whether it was the diamond formation against the Titans, the set-play to put Simon Mannering over against the Eels, or Foran passing to Johnson who passes to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck which produced a try to David Fusitua last week; these set-plays work.

Johnson and Foran ran sideways a lot against the Roosters and the control, organisation wasn't quite there. Again, this is all good because we've seen encouraging signs and there's absolutely no reason to think that incremental improvements won't be made every week. Need I remind everyone that while this is the Kiwis spine, other NRL teams can suss out video footage of Tuivasa-Sheck, Foran, Johnson and Luke and identify areas to pressure. So not only are they working on their combination, they must adjust to adjustments that opposition defences are making.

I love Johnson's kicking game though. We know Foran can land them on a dime, but Johnson's range of kicks (long/short, high/low) is a thing of beauty and this is something crucial to watch over the course of the season.

Also, it's not as though the Warriors dominated the middle of the field. Simon Mannering was the only forward to run over 100m (Mannering was epic), but the 100m-mark is a pretty dumb way to judge how effective forwards (or backs) are. Mannering's 129m came off 17 carries, meaning he only averaged 7.58m/pc while the rest of the forwards weren't exactly up around the dominant 10m/pc mark:

James Gavet - 8.6m/pc.
Jacob Lillyman - 8.09m/pc.
Bodene Thompson - 7.2m/pc.
Ryan Hoffman - 7.3m/pc.
Ligi Sao - 8.75m/pc.
Sam Lisone - 9m/pc.
Ben Matulino - 8.83m/pc.

This is a dip in efficiency from previous weeks and while the outside backs were strong in their work, none of them were particularly dominant. Even Tuivasa-Sheck was well below his 10m/pc mark (8.11m/pc) - the Chooks understand his threat better than any other team - and while Ken Maumalo once again made big metres, he averaged 8.25m/pc.

Again, none of this is overly horrible, it's just an example of the challenge offered by the Roosters as they limited the punch of the Warriors in rolling down the field. This has obvious ramifications on how effective Foran, Johnson, Luke and Tuivasa-Sheck could be as they weren't graced with a high tempo through the middle and were often sitting 30-40m out from the Roosters line on the last tackle. Add 5m to most carries and the Warriors have the time to set up an attacking play via the speed of the play-the-ball, but more importantly they are 10m out and we have seen how potent the Warriors are in 'good ball'.

But damn, that Warriors defence.

Stephen Kearney is known as a defensive coach and you can't argue with the Warriors sorting out their defence, possibly at the expense of their attack. Would you rather the Warriors spend the opening stanza of the season establishing a super-solid defence and then build the attack on top of that, or show glorious attacking signs and hope the defence is sussed by season's end?

Gimme that defence and I know that with the attacking weapons in this team, points will come.

A few notes on the defence:

The edges fly up and pile pressure on who ever has the footy or who ever will get the footy. I love how this is borderline automatic and as soon as the ball moves out to an edge, the Warriors just go for it and as long as there's pressure on the ball, it forces the opposition to make a swift decision.

Many poo-poo'd Tuivasa-Sheck's defence but he's showing that he can save a try or two every game. Boyd Cordner kinda fluffed his pass to Jake Friend, but I'd suggest that Tuivasa-Sheck influenced this by backing off, trusting his speed and timing, then as soon as Cordner passed it to Friend, Tuivasa-Sheck boosted over and his man.

The Warriors have now mastered the art of defusing bombs, via the protecting wall. Understandably, the Chooks kicked high to Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad but Tuivasa-Sheck helped his debutant out immensely by being position on that side and claiming the kicks. Tuivasa-Sheck consistently had a clear catch because there was a line of Warriors in front of him and when the Roosters decided to hit Ken Maumalo with a few bombs, the same thing happened.

Joseph Manu did manage to score down the Warriors left edge but even this needs to be put in context because like Will Chambers' break last week, Manu enjoyed a mis-match against Ryan Hoffman. It was a replica of what happened last week and Hoffman was never going to be able to handle Manu's footwork/lanky fend. For whatever reason Blake Ayshford was defending inside Hoffman and if Ayshford as lined up at centre, I reckon he would have stopped Manu.

Believe in the scramble folks. The edges can fly up and put pressure on because the blokes inside them always scramble to protect the space in behind them and also, when a break is made there's a gang of Warriors sprinting back to keep the pressure on. This is simply down to effort and desire, so to see a Warriors team scramble like this should be reason to sink a few Lion Reds.

Lastly on the defence; there's niggle. There are knees on blokes faces in the ruck, there's bodies in the ruck, there's big shots and there's just an immensely physical vibe to how the Warriors defend. It feels like opposition teams are going to know that they've played the Warriors, especially at Mt Smart, as they are going to be whacked in every tackle and then forced to do it all again thanks to a slick kicking game.

Mannering's effort in this game led me to my over-arching vibe to take forward into the coming weeks as he played at a similar level to his previous outing at Mt Smart. Take Mannering as a microcosm of the Warriors because when Mannering's playing at home, he goes to a level that reminds you why he is currently a legend of the club and will go down as one of the best ever.

We know Mannering will tackle his heart out and wrap up any loose-ends and he won the Warriors MVP last year pretty much based solely around the number of tackles he made. Mannering had 17 carries in this game, only Tuivasa-Sheck had more and obviously Mannering made the most tackles (48). When the Roosters were a man down, it was another one of those Mannering passes that put Johnson in a position to take advantage down their right edge where the Roosters were without Daniel Tupou.

So not only is Mannering 1st in tackles for the Warriors, 4th in metres and tied-1st in offloads this season, but he's throwing passes that put the play-makers in a position to score or work their magic.

Mannering is currently nothing short of pure class, but there's a small difference in his involvement when the Warriors play at home and when they are away. We can draw faith from this because if the Warriors are near-unbeatable at home, they'll quite easily make the top-eight and if they can pick up a few wins away from home, they'll be well positioned to creep into the mid-top-eight bracket.

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