Before going any further, we need to address some poor and very lazy comments from that Blocker Roach fellow, borderline racist even. During the Warriors loss to Manly over in Perth, Roach highlighted how tired the Warriors were, three times in the 10 minutes before half-time and then offered that super insightful analysis again a few more times during the second half.

Y'all already know how I feel about people who judge how tired a team is by the number of forwards who are off-side, or not behind the ruck while their team works their way down field.

Every team does this and there's no effort from these forwards to quickly get back on-side because they have no desire to and that's 100 percent all good. Every team is trying to get a moment of rest, hence scrums take so long to set.

Why rush back on-side when you know that your backs are always going to take the first three hit ups and again, that's not just the Warriors, that's every NRL team.

The Warriors were so blatantly tired that they were hunting for a victory in the final 10 minutes, they were so tired that they were firing potential game-winning shots at Manly with their last possession. The Warriors were soooooo tired, that instead of crumbling under fatigue with the game on the line, they ensured that this was a contest right up to the final whistle.

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Point being; if you are judging the Warriors based on these sorts of comments from such silly folk, you're just as silly as they are. Whether it's believing that the Warriors are tired because Roach says they're tired, despite that being different to what you're seeing with your own eyes, or if it's hating on the Warriors for being inconsistent because Tony Veitch said so; base your opinions on what you see and facts.

Facts from the Warriors loss to Manly Sea Eagles:

They were playing in Perth (where they lose most of the time) against a Manly team who are top-four and look excessively slick with their speed, power and skill.

Four of the Warriors top-17 were not playing. Issac Luke, Solomone Kata and Ryan Hoffman are certain starters while Sam Lisone is a certainty on the bench each week.

The Warriors missed less tackles than Manly (20 vs 27).

The Warriors made fewer errors (6 vs 8).

The Warriors were without four of their top-17 players and lost by 4 points against a team who currently sit third on the ladder.

Hence I was rather impressed by what went down in Perth as an under-strength Warriors team fought valiantly against a full-strength Manly team. The idea that the Warriors gave up another lead needs some context as well and you can only really judge how a game is looking when both teams get their hands on the footy.

Manly scored their first try in the 22nd minute, after the Warriors had run in three tries. Up to that point the Warriors had 13 sets with the footy and Manly had eight sets. After the Warriors had scored two tries, Manly had only completed one set and then gave the footy back to the Warriors in the other. When possession leveled out, the score leveled out just as you would expect and if we flip the narrative around, it was great to see the Warriors score points and make the most of that possession.

The speed of Manly was their major advantage with Apisai Koroisau, Dylan Walker, Brian Kelly, Tom Trbojevic and Daly Cherry-Evans shining. That speed saw Manly play an up-tempo style, which when combined with the skill of those players is a recipe for success and the Warriors only real hope was gonna come in slowing things down a wee bit. They kinda instead opted to engage Manly in a gun-slinging shootout and Manly won.

Most of my insights into what didn't quite work for the Warriors comes back to not having their very best resources available. Bunty Afoa was found out a few times in defence, not scrambling back from marker and Manly pumped a few plays at him and Kieran Foran which produced a 'no try' and a try. Afoa is a promising player, he's not Ryan Hoffman though and with Foran clearly hindered by a niggle, the Afoa/Foran defensive combination leaked a few points.

I've come to see David Fusitua as being a far better winger than centre. Fusitua didn't do a whole lot wrong, there's just a better look to the Warriors when Solomone Kata joins Hoffman and Foran on that left edge, with Blake Ayshford inside Fusitua on the right.

Albert Vete and Ligi Sao just simply aren't as good as Lisone. We were just starting to see the Lisone/James Gavet punch really start to establish itself and there was a visible drop off this week. Gavet was typically awesome, there needs to be more firepower off the bench however for the Warriors to beat better teams.

There's a blessing in disguise coming as Vete broke his arm in this game and while that's terrible news for him as he tries to get a contract (after falling out of favour), it's going to open the door for a more robust middle forward to get a sniff. Lisone will come back and then lads like Patrick Sipley, Chris Satae and Isaiah Papalii will come into contention.

Compare Vete's 12 minutes to Lloyd Perrett's 15 minutes and yeah...

Vete: 2 carries, 12m (6m/carry), 1 tackle bust, 12 tackles, 1 error, 1 missed tackle.

Perrett: 5 carries, 53m (10.6m/carry), 9 tackles, 1 offload.

As I suspected, the loss of Luke was felt in the all-round skill of Luke. Nathaniel Roache was super dynamic scooting out of dummy half and his speed demands attention (fans and opposing defence's attention), but he didn't kick in this game while Ata Hingano did manage to squeeze a low kick out for territory. This isn't a major negative for Roache, just something that a young dummy half has to develop; Luke averages 1.2 kicks a game this season and kicked at least once in his last eight games, with 2+ kicks in three of those games.

Of course Hingano was gonna get a kick in because he's a half and that's what halves do. What most halves don't do is swap in at hooker and defend through the middle, making 17 tackles in 22 minutes (he missed 1 tackle) against a reasonably brutal Manly pack. That's what I've come to expect from Hingano as I've highlighted how physical he is in defence as a half and how he runs the footy as a half as well.

Let me put it this way: would Shaun Johnson have been a capable middle defender in his first season of NRL footy? Hmm.

Special praise has to go to Johnson, Foran, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Simon Mannering who shouldered much of the burden and then chuck in Gavet's 112m off 12 carries in just 36 minutes. But it's that Johnson/Foran/Tuivasa-Sheck/Mannering quartet that really interests me as they led this Warriros team as well as they could and it's a vastly different proposition when that four are playing at their usual level and then you sprinkle Luke, Hoffman, Kata and Lisone into that pot as well.

Johnson's kicking game was back to his beautiful best. That means he was curving grubbers into the in-goal for repeat sets and kicking long to pin Manly down their end. Johnson posed a threat with his running game (91m off 7 carries, 4 tackle busts) and with Foran also offering a balance of ball-playing, running and kicking, this gave the Warriors threats on either edge. Foran's kick for Tuivasa-Sheck's try was lovely, but it started with Foran looking left, then looking back inside, kinda dummying to pass to Tuivasa-Sheck and then kicking.

Tuivasa-Sheck was also superb and these three (Foran, Johnson, Tuivasa-Sheck) have been building nicely towards a game like this. Tuivasa-Sheck not only made his standard 24 carries/204m but he delivered the exact pass that should have Warriors frothing with excitement. Up to this point we'd only really seen Tuivasa-Sheck run into a cul-de-sac when getting the footy on the right edge, so to see him straighten slightly and fire a bullet cut-out for Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad was fab.

And what do ya reckon about Simon Mannering's 18 carries for 179m with 54 tackles?

The work with with the footy is what we need to judge Mannering on as he's gonna make 50 tackles every game but when he's really firing, he's an offensive menace as well. Mannering had 8 passes in his usual fashion and this is his second straight game running over 150m. I'll leave you with stats from Mannering's last two games...

vs Bulldogs: 80 minutes, 15 carries, 155m (10.33m/carry), 60 tackles, 1 offload.

vs Sea Eagles: 80 minutes, 18 carries, 179m (9.94m/carry), 54 tackles, 1 offload.

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