There is no better sight than folks from all cultures and pockets of society coming together in happiness at Daniel Anderson Stadium. Many want to drive a wedge between plebs and election time is the peak of divisive antics, yet we as the common folk can be happy together. Happiness at Daniel Anderson Stadium means a NZ Warriors winning and the gritty performance against Manly Sea Eagles highlights all we love about the 2023 Aotearoa Warriors.

Friday night started in different fashion though. Sea Eagles dominated the NSW Cup Warriors with an aggressive and niggly win. The young Warriors were poked, prodded and baited into a tough encounter that set the tone for how Sea Eagles would show up for the NRL game. The 12-32 loss will be a fabulous learning opportunity for the NSW Cup team, as will the finals for Fox Memorial and then the NZRL National Premiership which will both feature NZ Warriors SG Ball players.

The NRL Warriors are not youngsters on the rise, the are a group of professionals who take accountability and lead the team's performance. Coach Andrew Webster has offered insights such as the leaders taking ownership of the golden point period against Raiders and while Warriors were down 16-22 at half-time against Sea Eagles, coach Webster shared that the leaders wanted to slowly cook Sea Eagles in the boil up grind.

And that's exactly what happened. Not that this was easy grit-and-grind mahi for Warriors as Sea Eagles were lingering in tackles as the referee allowed them to. Warriors struggled to generate tempo and while Sea Eagles did dominate enough tackles, especially early in the set against Marcelo Montoya, Sea Eagles continued their niggly mahi by laying all up in the ruck over and over again.

Warriors don't have a big forward pack and with Bunty Afoa still getting limited game time (17mins vs Sea Eagles), Addin Fonua-Blake was the only lad consistently poking through the defensive line. Speed, footwork and shifting the footy helps Warriors earn quick play the balls, yet the aggressive Sea Eagles defence also stifled those tempo-generating options.

All of which increased the level of difficulty in the Warriors grind. They needed to be patient, as well as tough and gritty. Kick long, chase hard, win tackles and do it all again. Eventually that paid off and Warriors were able to break down the Sea Eagles with another shift to Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, as well as Marata Niukore bursting through the Sea Eagles defence.

Both tries feature layers of funk. Watene-Zelezniak is an exceptional finisher and he sprinkled his own magic on the Warriors performance for one of his tries. All three of Watene-Zelezniak's tries came from a different passer with Shaun Johnson throwing the final pass for Watene-Zelezniak's barnstorming run, but the tip on from Rocco Berry and last pass from Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad were clinical.

That's the variety of Warriors attack. Watene-Zelezniak does the same finishing move from two different plays and the right edge offered a different look for Niukore's try. Berry and Watene-Zelezniak are sitting deep as Johnson slides across field and his only legit option is Niukore. As soon as Kelma Tuilagi bites on Johnson, Niukore is through the gap...

Last week Warriors showed their precision in attacking the middle third against Tigers with Mitchell Barnett's linebreak followed by tries to Tohu Harris and Fonua-Blake. Harris scored again against Sea Eagles, scoring a try for the third game in a row and this offers another gem of how Warriors attack. As Warriors execute their shape, it's difficult to know who will get the footy and when. This holds defenders in the middle to open up space out wide and also provides gaps in the middle. As Harris runs, Sean Keppie is stuck in the mud and doesn't know where the footy will go...

Updating the Harris/Fonua-Blake yin-yang note from the preview. The played the same amount of game time and their stats vs Sea Eagles again fit like a jigsaw...

• Tohu Harris: 71mins, 18 runs - 133m @ 7.3m/run, 5 tb, 36 tackles @ 92.3%

• Addin Fonua-Blake: 71mins, 24 runs - 193m @ 8m/run, 1 tb, 3 offloads, 20 tackles @ 80%

Also, big up Bayley Sironen. Last week Sironen played 58mins at hooker and this week his 28mins came in the forwards, mainly in the middle. Sironen can also plug a hole at edge forward and this versatility is why Sironen has been on the bench for 20 games this season.

Once again, Warriors were below their best. 10 different players made errors and Warriors had patches of mediocre defence. Warriors also won despite those pesky negatives and continue to win despite not playing their best footy. Six wins in a row and nine wins in their last 10 games. Enjoy ya weekend.

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Peace and love.