Left, right, up the guts, however you want it.

A quarter of my being wants to regularly highlight to youz how slept on this Aotearoa Warriors team is right now, at 5-0. Whether it's the Australian media who understandably concern themselves with the antics of the 15 other teams or kiwi media who are understandably concerned with a variety of other stuff like the Commonwealth Games, or could be; Warriors are 5-0 and there's such little buzz that they may as well be 2-3.

Chill...

Three quarters of my being doesn't give a fuck and is absolutely loving what is happening. The longer the Warriors fly under the radar, the better and we don't need any external validation to know that this team's a bloody good footy team, to know that our love for this group is real. We see it ourselves, those of you at Mt Smart would feel it and as I could feel the love, respect and community through my laptop screen, I'm sure many of youz watching around the world would feel it too, even though you weren't present.

In beating North Queensland Cowboys, the Warriors showed a slightly different angle to themselves and through the 5-0 start to the season, we have now seen all the angles. At a micro level, we saw the Warriors plow down their left edge and through Solomone Kata's season-best performance and another strong outing from Leivaha Pulu. The first 15 minutes showed that the Warriors are lethal down the left, then we got reminded how sublime their right edge is.

So far this season we have seen the Warriors showcase their attacking abilities down the right, left and up the guts. We've seen Shaun Johnson dominate, we've seen Blake Green dominate, we've seen Roger Tuivasa-Sheck flex all over the place in games. Johnson was solid, Green had his worst outing of the season (still solid) and Tuivasa-Sheck ran for less than 100m (13runs/84m) which means he basically halved his standard usage; yet it was Issac Luke who was the star.

Luke had the most offloads, Luke had the most runs/running metres of the forwards.
I won't go through the whole team other than saying no forward had a dominant game in which they ran for 100m, no forward even came close to averaging 10m/carry. However, the outside backs did and they got the Warriors on the front food.

That is to say that we have seen the different pieces of the Warriors shine in this 5-0 run and I don't think we've seen it all come together perfectly just yet with a full-strength 17. The beauty is that we are 5-0 and right now it's only taking solid base-line performances and different blokes (Luke and the outside backs) playing at a nek level.

The macro is the vibe of the game.

The Warriors weren't that good (relative to their potential). They made errors in the sets following points and there was a patch in the second half, with the game still in the balance where a bunch of weird shit happened; for whatever reason Jazz Tevaga followed through on a kick despite being blatantly offside, a dummy half pass from Luke slipped out and Green kicked out on the full.

Chur to the Warriors defence, but if you're giving any version of Jonathan Thurston that much footy, the Cowboys will score a try of two.

What I loved, was seeing the Warriors deal with how things weren't going their way and still handle their business. They defended as well as they could, their kick-chase was strong and they maintained high energy/enthusiasm to demoralize the Cowboys just as the Cowboys were pondering a comeback.

Hello, World!

Most notably; the Warriors stretched their lead with a couple easy penalties and managed the last 30 minutes. They did what had to be done to win that game and now we've seen the Warriors win in different situations, executing what has to be done in keeping with the vibe of the game.

Here's some observations...

The Warriors left edge started the game on fire with the footy, yet before that, Kata showcased his defensive intent. Here he is leading a kick-chase:

And then Kata gets out of marker to make a repeat effort:

The first of two Agnatius Paasi runs in the opening 20mins. In both, Paasi angles out towards the edge and pokes through the line to earn a quickie, this one is on the left:

Funnily enough, after Paasi's quickie, the Warriors head left and give Kata the footy. Kata bangs off his left, leaving Justin O'Neill tackling Caspar:

Note how Kata stepped as he received the footy, back into the space left by Michael Morgan coming out of the line:

Here is Paasi's second run, the same but on the right edge:

Loved the Warriors defence in this game. This is the first of many examples of the Warriors having good numbers - despite whatever happened inside - and forming a cul de sac on the edge where the Cowboys attack:

Again, not perfect but they have equal numbers and Pulu is chasing hard from the inside to help:

The pass from Johnson for Fusitu'a's try was delightful. The play though is even better as Johnson could also play to Tohu Harris out the back and Harris would have set up Fusitu'a himself:

Johnson's pass literally went over Hiku's shoulder, wtf:

Simon Mannering comes on late in the first half, his first stint was in the middle:

Standard Bully business here as Luke runs behind the Cowboys markers:

The second try down the right edge did feature Hiku's nek level offload, but the play to get Hiku into that space was great. This time it's Green passing to Johnson, with Johnson running out and Harris running in:

Equal numbers again from the Warriors and an easy defensive match up, note that Mannering is now at left edge with Pulu in the middle:

Kata got a touch on this pass from Thurston and while Kata didn't really need to jam (equal numbers) I like the idea of jamming to force something. Kata made a decision that Morgan would receive the footy and he jammed, Thurston went long and Kata was wrong, but he made a play:

After going out the back numerous times, Coen Hess gets a short ball and while Mannering and Green get first contact, Pulu and Blair make a big effort to help out. Pulu has worked hard to stay close to Mannering as the play shifts:

Although Harris is in a position to help, the Warriors are out-numbered. Johnson jams on Thurston and I love this because the simple act of jamming forces Thurston to react, instead of chilling and allowing Thurston to dictate:

Quiet game for Tuivasa-Sheck, still managed offloads in traffic:

Johnson had his first 40/20 in yonks and this play shows how dangerous it is to have Johnson and Green (numerous 40/20s) on either side of the ruck. It's on the 4th tackle, so the wingers are up and with Green and Johnson split, the fullback has to stay in the middle of the field. Tevaga's decoy run is low key crucial as well, you didn't know Johnson was going to kick until he got the footy:

Example of Blair's passing as he hits Harris short and could also play to Johnson out the back:

Luke put a shot on Thurston, which was only possible via Luke following up on the inside after the ball had shifted past him:

Huge tackle by Mannering on John Asiata:

Seemingly out-numbered, but Johnson's speed allows him to recover from helping on the decoy and shut down the attack:

Mannering helps Tevaga tackle Jason Taumalolo, with Paasi coming in. The number of Warriors in this frame, engaged in the play is fab:

The buzz:

Fusitu'a and Ken Maumalo isolated Jake Granville many times and I love this play off a scrum, where Fusitu'a gets the footy with a Harris decoy run to poke his nose through:

More buzz, love the enthusiasm:

Green chasing hard out of marker late in the game, maintaining the intensity and enthusiasm:

Then Green got yanked with a minute to go for Anthony Gelling and Hiku went into the halves, taking Green's spot on the left. This is low key funky as Stephen Kearney gave Gelling game time vs Roosters, with Hiku going to fullback and this is about A) giving Gelling minutes and B) giving Hiku chances to play different roles, which he will have to do at some stage during the season if there's an injury etc. Great planning and forward thinking:

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Peace and love 27.