Warriors coach Stephen Kearney - in tandem with boss-dawg Jim Doyle - has already swung his sword to make rather hefty changes to the Warriors squad heading into 2018. This was to be expected as Kearney builds a squad that he wants, not a squad that he inherits and we are now approaching crunch time for a gang of high-highish profile players who will either be part of Kearney's Warriors or will be offloaded elsewhere.

So far we've had Manaia Cherrington and Zac Santo join the club mid-season, while Leivaha Pulu and Tohu Harris will arrive next season. That's a pretty nice haul of signings if you ask me, especially when you chuck in re-signings of Blake Ayshford, James Gavet, Ata Hingano, Shaun Johnson, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Ligi Sao, Patrick Sipley and Mason Lino. 

Kearney has brought in an international forward in Harris and the super mobile/skillful Pulu, both of whom can play edge and middle. Then he's brought in two battlin' reserve graders to offer depth, allowing the Warriors to ease up on their habit of relying on youngsters to fill holes. Everyone who has been re-signed (apart from Sao who hasn't really done a whole lot) deserved to be re-signed and it's easy to see why Kearney kept them; most of them offer great value for money.

We'll ignore Kieran Foran in the departures group, leaving us with Tuimoala Lolohea, Ben Matulino, Erin Clark and Toafofoa Sipley. The Warriors effectively chose to roll with the older Sipley brother and that's cool as Patrick appears to be play in a similar fashion to Gavet.

There's no need to keep Clark around as Cherrington and Nathaniel Roache cover hooker.

Lolohea wasn't playing NRL and Hingano's a better half, with Lino as the next in line.

Matulino is hard to replace, although Pulu will like play through the middle and along with Gavet, Sipley, Chris Satae, Sam Lisone and even someone like Daniel Palavi, or James Bell, or Isaiah Papalii, there is enough depth that won't cost nearly as much as Matulino. 

The Warriors also have Jacob Lillyman, Charlie Gubb and Albert Vete as middle forwards; off-contract middle forwards. This leads us to the funk as Kearney has to decide who he wants to keep around, or who offers the best value for money. My gut feel is that Lillyman is the best of those three, in terms of both what he does on the field and in terms of the 'best fit'. 

I doubt Lillyman is asking for a massive deal but it will be a notable deal and assuming the Warriors have cap space (I WANT TO DISSECT SALARY CAPS LIKE THE NBA BUT CAN'T *sad face*) they would be wise to pay Lillyman to guide those younger forwards. Lillyman simply isn't an Origin-calibre prop anymore, he just needs to be solid and play decent minutes as the rock of the middle forwards, allowing for power and x-factor to come from Gavet, Pulu and Lisone.

That's not good news for Vete and Gubb.

Although Gubb has been given a new gig, which may or may not give him a Warriors lifeline...

Gavet, Sao and Sipley were snapped up for at least next season while Vete and Gubb are still without a deal. If Kearney was a big fan of Vete and/or Gubb, he would have offered them a contract pretty quickly - one of these two might have been re-signed or signed elsewhere by the time y'all read this. Gubb's battling injury and Vete's suffered an un-timely broken arm, so that's less than ideal for those two and also working against them is that they'd want whatever contracts they are on now upgraded.

Regardless of the size of any upgrade, it's simply better business to develop Sipley, Satae, Palavi, Papalii, Bell and Bunty Afoa (see below) than to put more money towards Vete and Gubb. Or if there's space in the cap, use that to chase a top-tier NRL prop instead of upgrading Vete and/or Gubb.

Roache needs to be re-signed and one would assume that he is re-signed, although the arrival of Manaia Cherrington makes things a bit weird. Maybe Kearney brought Cherrington across the ditch because he views him as a better all-round hooker than Roache? That doesn't really fit with Kearney giving Roache ample game time, so I'm gonna roll with Roache re-signing but it's not 1-hunnit.

We know Ryan Hoffman's gotta go to make way for Harris, leaving Bodene Thompson equal with Lillyman as the most intriguing off-contract players. Thompson is among the Warriors best players most weeks and should really be re-signed if the Warriors can afford it, although it's not like the Warriors have zero depth in that position. Re-signing Thompson will likely force Afoa to spend time as a middle forward next season as Harris and Thompson both play 80 minutes, further bolstering the stocks of robust middle forwards.

Afoa is being groomed to fill an edge spot and would be the immediate benefactor of Thompson not re-signing, while Papalii would be next in line. 

Much of this depends on Kearney's perception of the Warriors Premiership window. I talked a lot last weekend about Manly Sea Eagles being 18 months into their rebuild, or pivot, under Trent Barrett and while last season sucked for them, they are contenders this season. The Warriors are in pivot-mode and re-signing Thompson will give them an experienced, grizzly and dynamic vibe, again moving further away from the past we've come to know where we've got an abundance of youngsters. 

Gimme the GM cap and I'd re-sign Lillyman, Thompson and Roache. Thompson would get a decent two-year deal, Lillyman on a one-year deal (we can keep signing him on one-year deals assuming things go well) and I'd offer Roache the least money/years needed to keep him.

We all heard how the Warriors were stacked this season and silly buggers anointed them as Premiership hopefuls based on their squad list for this season. I'd strongly suggest that the top-17 and depth options named below is better, perhaps not in terms of 'big names' but it's better suited to the speed and power required in the NRL: 

Tuivasa-Sheck (Santo)

Fusitua, Ayshford, Kata, Maumalo (Nicoll-Klokstad)

Johnson, Hingano (Lino)

Gavet, Luke, Lillyman

Harris, Mannering, Thompson

Bench: Roache, Lisone, Pulu, Afoa.

Forwards Depth: Cherrington, Sipley, Satate, Sao, Papalii, Tevaga, Bell, Palavi.

Maybe Kearney and Doyle have another signing in store for us? Hmm...

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