Fourteen rounds have gone in the NRL and with 12 to go it's a good time to deliver a mid-season report on the men from Penrose.
The New Zealand Warriors are perched just one win outside the top eight, but could just as easily fall from contention with three or four losses.
What would you give Bluey and his boys out of ten?
I give them 7/10.
That might seem too generous given the high expectations around this team but, considering who has been injured, they have done pretty well.
Simon Mannering, Michael Luck and Jacob Lillyman were the cornerstone of the forward pack last year and provided the foundation for the stellar backs.
So without these two tough nuts the team has been lacking organisation in defence.
Nathan Friend has provided some of that glue, but he's still getting to know his new team mates, and finding his feet after spending most of 2011 out with injury.
The Warriors have the fourth worst defensive record this year so I expect this to quickly be rectified with Luck returning.
They also have had to rely on not just one, but two rookie centres, so it's no surprise the edge defence has been leaking like a rusty old sieve.
But despite the relative inexperience in the centres, at halfback and in the second row the Warriors have scored the fourth highest amount of points.
Ben Henry and Konrad Hurrell have been outstanding on attack in an area the Warriors were severely lacking last year, and both players would be in the running for the rookie of the year award.
The one dark patch has been the outside backs. Manu Vatuvei has cost the team at least one, possibly two matches with his sloppy errors.
But he's not alone, Glen Fisiiahi and former Warrior-cum-Bulldog Krisnan Inu have also made their fair share of errors which have contributed to some of our losses. With Inu gone and Ropati out for the season, suddenly the fullback depth looks very thin at the club.
Bluey has taken a while to come to grips with the NRL and you can see his strategies have been tweaked as the season has gone on.
But one positive difference from last year is that the team's overall error rate seems lower this year and while they are sixth for mistakes made, if you took away Vatuvei's 28 errors, the club's total would be closer to Melbourne's.
In my opinion the club is in a good position to make a charge at the top four if the return of Luck and Friend solves their defensive issues. But if they can't plug the gaps, then I think they still have the firepower to sneak into the top eight.
Player of the season so far: Ben Matalino has been immense and has stepped up from last year, closely followed by Konrad Hurrell, who's scoring exploits are covering up a multitude of defensive sins.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/blogs/back-chat/7104354/Warriors-could-be-in-a-worse-place