During the Aotearoa Warriors vs Canberra Raiders game, I have the same gut-feel that delighted my belly during the win over Gold Coast Titans last week. What was going on in the game at the time didn't really matter, I just felt as though the Warriors would win. I wouldn't go as far as saying I knew the Warriors would win, I just had a feeling that if the Warriors could stay there with the Raiders and get some momentum back, they'd roll over the Raiders.

Keep in mind that this isn't based on the ease with which the Raiders collapse when the game is on the line. This is solely about our Warriors because after the Raiders had jumped out to an early lead, with Adam Blair in the bin and absolutely everything going in favour of the Raiders, the Warriors strolled down the field and scored a try with their first set in 'good ball'.

The right edge for the Warriors has been on fire this season and that first try to Peta Hiku was the start of the dismantling down that edge. First real attacking move there, try and you'll see in my observations below just how brutal the Warriors were down the right. Shout out to my loyal readers; if you've read these over the past two weeks you will know all about my observations regarding Shaun Johnson and Tohu Harris on the right, so this was nothing new.

The second half started in similar fashion and for 10-15 minutes, Canberra hit Nick Cotric on repeat to dominant that phase of the game. In either instance (start of first half and second) the Warriors didn't have much ball, largely thanks to their own doing with errors and conceded a fair amount of penalties. That is to say that the Warriors weren't close to their best in this game and that Canberra's good patches came when the Warriors had none of the footy. When the Warriors got some footy, they did good things.

Before the last few minutes, our Warriors engaged their opposition in a set for set grind. Canberra scored a field goal, converted try and penalty around half-time, then Tohu Harris scored down that right edge and then both teams consistently start sets on their own 10m lines, heck the Warriors even conceded a 7-tackle restart or two.

The beauty is that this grind resulted in the Warriors scoring a try (Issac Luke) and then strolling down-field for two field goals. Our Warriors (love saying that) were fresher, more energetic and more potent after the grind period and even just generally in the last few minutes of the game.

This wasn't a great performance from the Warriors, yet it was a great effort and they found a way to win. Our Warriors were the team that rallied to score all the points in the last quarter, that's pretty bloody cool.

Bunty Afoa is has been a revelation through the middle; 50mins, 12runs/157m.

My theory on Jazz Tevaga being used as an agile middle forward to counter Canberra's big boppers seemed to be legit; Tevaga played 57mins and had 13runs/117m with 7 passes which was because Tevaga was used to shift the footy to the edges, thus moving Canberra's middle forwards.

Tevaga played 57mins, compared to James Gavet who played 38mins. Gavet averaged over 10m/carry yet again though (9runs/102m).

Tohu Harris (the freak); 1try, 11runs/119m, 2offloads, 1LB, 2TB.

Blake Green ran the footy more than Shaun Johnson; 3runs/24m vs 2runs/14m.

No dramas with that, as we are all seeing how many weapons the Warriors have and there isn't a reliance on Johnson anymore.

No 200m for Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, another casually monumental performance though; 17runs/184m, 4offloads, 1LB, 1LBA, 1TA, 2TS (try saver), 4TB.

And here's some more thoughts from my snaps...

Wtf is up with these profile snaps?

Early move to lay foundations of working over Shannon Boyd:

Canberra didn't really get Josh Papalii much footy during the rest of the game, Shaun Johnson was up to the challenges early:

RTS try-saver on Aidan Sezer:

Different angle, RTS the try-saving monster:

Adam Blair's sin bin offence, but I'm interested in Solomone Kata and Ken Maumalo. The Warriors jam their edges and Kata makes a nice decision, Maumalo quickly follows:

Warriors right edge shape for Peta Hiku's try. Green to Johnson with Paasi as a decoy, Johnson to RTS with Tohu as decoy, RTS as last-passer:

All it takes is for RTS to get to the outside of Sam Williams, Jarrod Croker has to suss out RTS and RTS is amazing so he quickly passes:

Gavet offloads to Luke:

Luke runs 15m before offloading while getting smashed:

This time Luke gets out of dummy half. Siliva Havili marks where Luke started his run and I like how the whole Warriors line is up in support of Luke, they know he is likely to get an offload out or pass before the line:

Green to Johnson shift mid-set. 1st trend is the intention to shift right, 2nd trend is Canberra's defence sitting back while Johnson is running and I'd also suggest that it's glorious for Johnson to receive the footy in such positions, borderline undefend-able:

Johnson jamming up on Blake Austin:

Peta Hiku had a really bad miss on Cotric at some stage and again missed a bunch of tackles, although he did spot up Jack Wighton nicely here and put him into touch:

Luke started on 40m line, centre-field and scoots all the way out to the edge before luring in Joey Leilua (accepting a hit) and passing to Leivaha Pulu to break:

Sam Lisone's get off me:

Are we sure RTS is human? Those calves don't look normal:

Another excursion down the right edge. Mad respect to Green because without him none of this happens, think about the players involved though (Johnson, RTS, Tohu, Hiku, Fusitu'a) and wowza:

RTS try saver rua:

Jesse Bromwich has the best footwork of any middle forward, Tohu has the best footwork of any edge forward and shout out Ligi Sao for the offload that sparked this:

Adam Blair finished the game playing left edge. This gave Leivaha Pulu a spell and also allowed the Warriors to play with Blair, Tevaga and Sao who are nimble offloaders:

Luke defending at left wing (!!) making a try saver on Jordan Rapana, with help from Kata:

The grind period featured numerous massive defensive plays/efforts like Luke's above and Blair's below - efforts that played as big a role in the Warriors winning as anything else. Look where Blair starts his effort:

Blair chases the play all the way over to the sideline and to help shut it down on a last tackle:

Cheeky Bully prepares for a scoot by pulling Soliola back:

Then Luke scoots right past him lol:

Here is another huge Blair effort, starting with a big hit on Austin:

Blair makes the hit on Austin, then chases back to shut down Leilua on the same play:

Blair helps force an error from Leilua and he is very happy:

Johnson throws a forward pass to Tevaga, after Luke is telling him exactly what to do:

Austin offloads to Soliola and it's well, guess who!? It's Adam Blair who chases Soliola down to make the tackle:

Terrible defensive play from Canberra and Luke takes advantage, love Luke playing what he sees:

Here is the shift to the right edge for the first droppie. Canberra's left edge that got fucked over in the first Warriors attacking move, is doing the worst possible thing a defensive line could do at this moment:

How the Warriors got the first droppie was bonkers. Tevaga had an extremely slow play-the-ball (look at the Raiders marker waiting) and then look at Johnson and Green, who haven't even set up yet. The lack of Warriors blockers has me thinking this wasn't planned so annother hugeshout out to Green to swiftly moves into a blocker position:

Warriors go right edge again before the second droppie and words can not explain how terrible Canberra's defence is here:

Big churs to Lisone for getting a quickie for the second drop goal but this sums up Canberra as the tacklers don't even try put Lisone to ground, they let him stand in the tackle. Weird shit:

Some offloading numbers to finish with...

Raiders had 9 offloads, Warriors had 17.

Tuivasa-Sheck had 4, Hiku and Tohu had 2, Sao had 3.

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Peace and love 27.