Do what Fozza says Mason, then do ya thang.

Warriors coach Stephen Kearney sprung a hum-dinger of a surprise in naming his team to face the Cowboys, rolling with Mason Lino at halfback to partner Kieran Foran. I had kinda just assumed that Ata Hingano would get the opportunity, but when you assume you make an ass-of-u-and-me - ya know, and it also makes a fair amount of sense to go with Lino.

When pondering the flaws or failures of Shaun Johnson, a lot of this centres around how much of the workload Johnson is tasked with doing. Johnson has never really had a 50-50 split with his halves partner, where his partner's 50 percent is mainly organisation and getting the team to points on the field where Johnson can then work his magic. Even with Foran alongside Johnson, this wasn't 50-50 for whatever reason and now I'm looking forward to a stylistic shift for the Warriors in terms of how their halves play.

First and foremost, selecting Lino keeps Hingano on the bench in a role that he's relishing. Remember that Hingano is a half who is doing a job for his team at hooker, defending in the middle and adding energy when injected into the game; not too many halves are out here playing middle minutes. Hingano is also a left-sided player, so is Foran and while I was intrigued as to how Foran would go playing on the right with Hingano on the left, it makes sense to maintain some level of familiarity with Hingano keeping his bench role and Foran sticking to his left where he's building a defensive combo with Bunty Afoa and Solomone Kata.

Lino is limited in what he can do, he is not Shaun Johnson, nor is he Ata Hingano. But those limitations are what makes me excited as this is likely to see the Warriors switch their style up, simplify their game and play with clarity. There have been too many moments this season when for no reason at all, a lack of organisation would result in the wrong players getting the footy at key moments, or when the best teams would form a probing backline move on the third or fourth tackle, the Warriors would be scrambling to set up, let alone pose a threat.

How many sweeping backline moves have worked for the Warriors this season?

Have we seen the Warriors pull of a similar play that Penrith did around the ruck for Nathan Cleary to score?

We sure as heck didn't see the Kiwis do any of the above with the same spine did we? In fact the Kiwis looked rather crap in attack against Australia.

This isn't because Foran and Johnson are bad players, the balance of what they offer just isn't quite working. Lino definitely isn't any sort of saviour, he's just different and Lino's limitations should allow Foran to play how I'd want Johnson to play. Johnson and Foran are best when the organisation and first-receiver work is taken care of, allowing them to 'play what they see in front of them'.

Foran will call the shots, Foran will dictate where the Warriors need to get to on the field and what plays to execute in 'good ball'. Well he should, this is also why I'm excited as - to keep it 1hunnit - Foran has pretty much been a passenger for most of this season, allowing Johnson to do at least 65 percent of the work. Now it's Foran's responsibility as the senior play-maker to stand up, to play like the Foran who looked so lethal in limited opportunities for Parramatta.

Foran will stand up and has to call shots, dictate the game. It's Lino who is responsible for the dirty work though and ideally Lino will focus on each play, getting the ball to a big bopper or sparking a shift to an edge. This is what Lino is good at, this is why Lino has been selected as he has shown this skill-set in reserve grade and the best way to think of this is to view Foran as the big-dawg boss and Lino as the manager. Foran needs to command the bigger picture and takes over in key moments, while Lino handles each tackle to get the team to where Foran wants them.

What we don't want is for Foran to take over everything. Then we'd simply be sliding back into the hole that we were in with Johnson; Lino has been selected to be the halfback and do the halfback job. Lino has not been selected to play second fiddle as Foran and Johnson's previous halves partners have, Lino has a job to do and that will free up Foran to live up expectations.

This has nothing to do with the abilities of Johnson, Foran, Lino or Hingano. It's merely about balance and playing style, which for whatever reason hasn't worked this season for Johnson and Foran - Anzac Test included. Now we have a different look, a different style and at this point there's not a whole lot to lose given some reasonably mediocre attack. I just hope Lino is given responsibility to play as a legit halfback, to control and organise, because we've never really seen a halfback like that since Johnson emerged.

None of this could matter though as the Cowboys have an immensely beastly forward pack and the Warriors forwards looks like Jigglypuffs compared to Jason Taumalolo and friends....

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