bit of light reading for my Manly friends..
Steve Price says the tight-knit, beard-growing Warriors are in a superb mental and physical state and are now able to win big games they would previously have lost.
The Warriors skipper said the 30-13 semi-final romp over the Roosters on Friday night, where they turned around a 13-6 halftime deficit to rattle up 24 unanswered points, was a sign the club of the club's new-found confidence and mental toughness.
It's netted them 10 wins from their last 12 starts, the best record in that period of any team in the National Rugby League, and propelled them from eighth spot in the playoffs to the verge of the grand final on October 5.
"That's the best thing about our team, particularly over the last 12 weeks, we've been dealt with different scenarios and we've been able to overcome most of them," Price says.
"It just adds another string to the team's bow to face another situation and have the confidence to be able to get through it."
The Warriors entered the opening round of the playoffs massive underdogs against Melbourne but were warm favourites to beat the Roosters, and handled that burden.
None of the panel experts on yesterday's
Sunday Footy Show picked the Warriors to beat Manly in Saturday night's preliminary final at the Sydney Football Stadium but Price said the club was genuinely able to block out external pressures.
"It doesn't bother us. The great thing about this team is we're not worried about things from outside affecting us.
"Going over to Melbourne, if we went on what's happened in the past then we shouldn't have won and playing against the Roosters, in our last home game [against them] they beat us by 30."
Though the Sea Eagles boast a strong recent record against the Warriors, losing just one of their last five encounters and beating them twice this year, they will be wary of the momentum gained by the finals bolters.
Manly, with the second best regular season record, cooled their heels at the weekend after thrashing St George-Illawarra in week one, and Price said he was unsure whether it was more desirable to freshen up or keep on playing.
"I've never been in that situation to be honest. In '04 with the Bulldogs we lost in the first week of the semis so I've had to play every week and we went on and won the comp that year.
"It depends on your group, it depends on momentum, it depends on confidence and it depends on who you're actually playing."
Quizzed for reasons why the Warriors had struggled against Manly, Price put the 52-6 hiding in round three down to a heavy injury toll, while poor ball control had hurt them in a 20-14 loss in round 15.
"We had a lead with 10 minutes to go and blew it, turned over too much ball and made it too easy for them.
"They are a very good football team and if you're going to do that it's going to make it a very difficult afternoon with the amount of good players that they do have.
"We certainly learned some lessons from that."
Coach Ivan Cleary is expect to reinstate suspended fullback Wade McKinnon when the team is announced tomorrow, dropping in-form utility Lance Hohaia back to the bench and forcing Grant Rovelli out.
McKinnon's return means the Warriors have all of their 25 fulltime squad fit and available, a rare luxury in what is ranked by many as the world's most physically demanding professional sporting competition.
"You're able to build confidence and combinations, it's a real bonus," Price said.
The fairytale finals run has widened the grin of Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah, who said the club would make various financial gains, including prize money for each step taken in the playoffs.
"You get a bit of traction, obviously you're able to retain sponsors and get some new ones, additional merchandise and hopefully we increase our sales and memberships for next year's games," Scurrah said.
The only dampener from Friday night's festivities was complaints from Roosters players that they had been targeted by fans throwing full beer bottles.
Scurrah said five bottle throwers had been evicted and served with trespassing notices by stadium management, but disputed players had been in the firing line.
"From what we've gauged we don't think there was any deliberate bottle throwing at players ... we hope there was nothing intentional in terms of trying to hurt anyone."
NRL preliminary finals
Friday: Cronulla v Melbourne, Sydney Football Stadium
Saturday: Manly v Warriors, Sydney Football Stadium.
TAB odds to win NRL
$1.95 Melbourne, $3 Manly, $5.50 Warriors, $8 Cronulla.
WARRIORS WEEK
Today: Video review, strength session, massage
Tomorrow: Team named, media session, field training
Wednesday: Day off
Thursday: Fly to Sydney at 4pm
Friday: Training session
Saturday: Gameday
www.stuff.co.nz
