Niche Cache homies know the drill, newbies may not so note this disclaimer: we're positive about the Aotearoa Warriors. We don't buzz about the doom and gloom, instead we spread positive vibrations.

So if you're after the negative vibes, there's plenty of sillyness in the mainstream media to keep you occupied. If you read on, we'll just assume that you're happy to approach Warriors discussion with a positive mind frame.

How do I maintain a positive vibration regarding the Warriors?

Well, you know how everyone loves to put the Warriors culture on blast? That's been the case for many years, over a decade I'd say and at this stage we can safely say that a losing culture has been ingrained in the steel of Mt Smart. This is deeply rooted and as such, we can use words like 'systematic' to describe the lack of professionalism, work ethic, skill and just pure winningness.

We all know this and it's a mandatory talking point for the spreaders of negativity. Such issues don't get fixed overnight and the more we come to really understand these issues, the longer it takes to fix them and the more patience needs to be applied. This is a club that has gone through eight coaches in 10 seasons, which is not a recipe for success and I'm more than happy to play the long game - we really have no choice here folks.

There are many examples of this losing culture at Mt Smart and I was thinking about Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Issac Luke over the weekend, two signings who many folk automatically assumed would make the Warriors contenders; I was and still am highly optimistic about Tuivasa-Sheck for example.

What do these two have in common? They arrived at Mt Smart from the Roosters and Rabbitohs, they left two teams who were knee deep in the NRL's upper echelon. Yes Tuivasa-Sheck came to the Warriors as Mr 200m and the hottest fullback in the NRL, but he was a complimentary piece in the best footy team of those few seasons. Luke's doing much of the same stuff he did with the Rabbitohs, he just doesn't have Sam Burgess, Ben Te'o, Greg Inglis, Adam Reynolds, John Sutton, Dylan Walker and the once-was-great George Burgess around him.

They both enjoyed success as pieces of the NRL's best teams, place them in a Warriors team that doesn't resemble anything close to the Roosters or Rabbitohs of that period and neither is going to offer instant success. I don't think Tuivasa-Sheck and Luke have gone backwards or fell victims to that horrible Warriors culture, they are simply not in the same ideal situation as they were previously.

Tuivasa-Sheck can't be Mr 200m if his forward pack kinda sucks. Of course Luke's 2014 averages of 11.2 carries for 104.9m, per-game are going to dip to 7 carries/65m because he's not getting Burgess and Inglis taking consecutive hit ups around the ruck.

Point being; we know there's systematic cultural problems at the Warriors so let's be patient and allow them to be fixed properly.

This all came to mind because the Warriors lost to a slick Cronulla Sharks team on Friday night. Shane Flanagan took over as head coach in 2010 and the Sharks endured a fair amount of shit to eventually win a Premiership in 2016, the result of a slow-cooked process that was amplified by dramas. For those who aren't quite aware, Kearney is in the spot where Flanagan was in 2010 - his first year as coach of this footy team.

Cronulla were simply better on the night and are a better footy team than the Warriors. A point which is most evident in the fact that they may not have the 'big names' that the Warriors have, yet they have established their way of playing footy and everyone knows what to do in that system. A system built over five/six seasons. The Warriors are what, seven or eight months into their system?

Funnily enough, the positives from this game - who have been impressive for much of the season - are youngsters who have their best years ahead of them and will only get better. David Fusitua's work in conjunction with Ken Maumalo in carting the footy up-field was a standout, while Solomone Kata is a handful to defend against and is settling into a similar level of consistency to last season. Bunty Afoa is brewing nicely as well, most notably it's the improvement these youngsters have shown under Kearney that is impressive.

We've even got a young half who looks at home in the middle of the park and I'm excited to see how Ata Hingano looks when playing consistently in the halves, after experiencing this 'are you tough enough? test at dummy half.

Ben Matulino's been immense and was in vintage form against Cronulla, but he's off to the Tigers and the same goes for Kieran Foran - who is dynamic in his running but isn't really taking control of this footy team.

Yes I definitely found it weird that Tevita Satae wasn't selected and that James Bell got that bench spot, it's weird that Ligi Sao played 11 minutes. I don't know what Kearney's thinking here, but I'm much more concerned by the players who haven't shown improvement or have failed to take their opportunities, than I am by Kearney's selections.

Sam Lisone was promoted to start and played 42 minutes, running for 30m from 7 carries, chuck in 2 errors and 2 penalties conceded. That's borderline terrible and a string of losses has coincided with Lisone not only being a non-factor, but also a liability given his fondness for errors and penalties conceded.

By now, Lisone should genuinely be putting pressure on the veteran props or at least showing that we're not gonna lose too much when Matulino departs. Unfortunately for Lisone he's doing the opposite.

Perhaps we're just seeing how different the Warriors forward pack could look next season; Tohu Harris and Leivaha Pulu would waltz into the top-17 while Satae, James Gavet, Albert Vete, maybe Charlie Gubb and Patrick Sipley will be out for Lisone's spot.

Mason Lino hasn't exactly taken his opportunity either and you can whinge and moan about all sorts of stuff but no team is winning games of footy when their halfback is making 3 errors in a game, let alone 6 errors in a couple of games.

Lino has offered some nice touches and I've enjoyed aspects of his kicking game and his Foran-like desire to run, however an error down Cronulla's end early in the game was compounded by an error deep in Warriors territory and a Cronulla try. We often see players enjoy the opportunity and the phrase 'don't give a sucker an even break' comes to mind; Lino is currently an example of how a player can crumble when such an opportunity is presented.

I won't act like Simon Mannering's passes were in Lino's bread-basket and he was the bloke passing the footy to Lino for both of those errors, hence Mannering was visibly filthy with himself. You'd back an NRL halfback to catch almost anything and if they do drop a ball, they ain't dropping two.

Remain hopeful of how the Warriors finish their season because their last four losses have come against teams that were all ahead of them on the ladder after round 16 (Manly, Penrith, North Queensland, Cronulla). That's a tough run that gets easier in the last five rounds with games against Newcastle, Canberra, South Sydney, Manly and Wests Tigers.

Away trips to the Knights, Rabbitohs and Tigers are niggly but they are good match ups for our Warriors while games that will in theory be 'tougher' against Canberra and Manly are at Mt Smart.

I'm enjoying this period because I reckon we are seeing a bit of a sorting process unfold before us. A group of youngsters continue to impress and some are making it difficult for Kearney to stick with them as he himself figures out how to shape this Warriors team moving forward.

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