With the season winding down, I'm low key loving these last few weeks for the Warriors. Sure, we'd all want to be enjoying success and it would be better if the season was just sparking into action ahead of Finals footy instead of winding down, but there's plenty of long-term intrigue in how the Warriors roll through these remaining games. 

There's scope for the Warriors to show up and beat the Rabbitohs over in Sydney, especially if the Warriors embrace the speed they have available to them and pepper the ruck area. Let's not dwell on that though as we keep our expectations low and hope for the best, I'm more concerned with how some players perform over these next few weeks and how that fits into the overhaul that is currently taking place.

This is led by Ata Hingano, who most people will know I am excited about settling into a halves combination with Shaun Johnson. I wasn't mad when Hingano wasn't given Shaun Johnson's halves spot as a bonus consequence of this was that we got to see Hingano play dummy half, where his physical style of play got given a serious test and as expected, Hingano held his own defending in the middle and scooting out of dummy half. 

Mason Lino didn't quite take his opportunity and as I reckon Kearney already knew that he'd roll with Johnson/Hingano next season, fair play to Kearney for giving Lino a crack at making a good impression. Hingano has more upside though and at this stage of the season I couldn't really give two hoots about Kieran Foran, so I'm far more interested in what Hingano offers and this is amplified if Foran is a late withdrawal, as conveniently happens with low key regularity. 

I want to see Hingano take control, with or without Foran there and the best case scenario here would be that Hingano demonstrates why Warriors fans shouldn't be too down in the dumps. I can express my opinion and tell y'all that Hingano's gonna be Johnson's long-term halves partner and they'll form a lovely combo, but y'all are skeptical of any positivity at the moment so Hingano's gotta demand that attention. 

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is also simmering away quietly and he put in his best statistical performance of the year last week against Canberra; 23 carries, 262m, 1 line break and 1 offload. That's the most metres Tuivasa-Sheck has run for in a game this season and even better than that, he ran for those metres without taking the most carries per-game of his season. Tuivasa-Sheck has had two games with 24 carries, so he had more metres from less carries than his previous best outings. 

This signals a brief return to the crazy efficiency that made Tuivasa-Sheck such a lethal fullback and Tuivasa-Sheck has still been above average this season, just not quite at the 20+ carries/200m+ level of his very best. Much of this comes around the ruck area, which suits this match up against the Rabbitohs perfectly and I'm eager to see if Tuivasa-Sheck can go back to back with monster games, especially with very little to play for. We want the skipper to be turnin' up the most in this sort of scenario.

Look for Tuivasa-Sheck getting into dummy half; he had two dummy half runs last week, just his 7th game with 2+ dummy half runs this season (20 games).

And then keep tabs on Tuivasa-Sheck drifting out to the edges when the Warriors get into 'good ball'. Tuivasa-Sheck scored a try by getting early ball, one vs one out on an edge where not too many centres are going to be able to match his speed, footwork and power, let alone processing the decoy runners etc. The Rabbitohs have Aaron Gray and Tyrell Fuimaono playing centres, so Tuivasa-Sheck will relish these match ups and I can see Fuimaono being targeted with bodies in motion and Tuivasa-Sheck licking his lips.

David Fusitua averages 12.9 carries and 123.8m/carry.

Ken Maumalo averages 16.7 carries and 152.9m/carry.

This Bunnies pack is big and while that offers a weakness that the best NRL teams expose, our Warriors forward pack for this game, or the middle men specifically, are young. That lends itself to low expectations, it also makes for a funky gauge of what Sam Lisone, Tevita Satae and/or Isaiah Papalii can offer. Papalii could play more edge than middle, so there's less of a focus on him (Bunty Afoa will defend against John Sutton which will be a huge test) and Charlie Gubb's out the door, so I'm not fussed by him.

Lisone starts and without Ben Matulino, Lisone is thrusted into a position of responsibility and he will be tasked with leading the enthusiasm and aggression of the Warrior middle. Based on Lisone's previous offerings, I'm not confident that Lisone will stand up and embrace that challenge, but there's no better chance for Lisone to impress Kearney than a battle against the Burgess bros. Lisone's performance could genuinely go either way and consistency isn't exactly in his repertoire, so who knows what will go down?

The process for Satae is clear to me and this appears to be some nice coaching from Kearney as he's drip-feeding Satae NRL footy. Satae has the potential to be James Gavet-like and the thought of a forward pack with Gavet, Satae and Leivaha Pulu excites me, hence I initially found it frustrating that Satae was held back by Kearney. Satae has played 10 minutes in both of his appearances this season and as Satae has risen from park footy in Auckland, through reserve grade to the NRL, he's being eased into life as a prop in the NRL.

So I don't expect Satae to play big minutes in this game either, although a natural progression could see him given 15-20 minutes. What Satae does against the Bunnies in limited game time will be must-watch as the stars are aligning in Satae's favour given Matulino's suspension this week opening the door for more Satae minutes and the departures of Matulino, Gubb and possibly Jacob Lillyman, opening the door for a consistent game time next season.

Peace and love 27.

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