You have to give it to master tactician and All Blacks coach Steve Hansen for trying to get inside Gatland's head.
It's all fair in love and war so, I say, let the mind games begin.
Warrenball, for anyone who hasn't caught the drift yet and passed it on, is a mocking reference to Gatland's penchant for using thick-set, mobile centres to provide impetus to carry his Wales team over the gain line supposedly for close to a decade.
I hasten to add Gatland will do himself huge favours the second he stops nibbling at any more baits during his 10-match tour.
By all means he should draw on all the colourful language he desires, if it helps the Lions' cause, but feed humour at the media scrum rather than fire.
When you peel the layers off the heavyweight boxing-type trash talk, you find there isn't anything remarkable or controversial about it.
Gatland is reacting like a bull to a red rag and that, regrettably, puts him mentally in a poor light.
For someone who made a cameo appearance of himself in an episode of the British TV comedy drama, Stella, in 2012, Gatland should treat all his media engagements in that vein.
I can't recall any games of top-level rugby where big blokes weren't used in pivotal positions to break the advantage line or purely as a battering ram to lure more than one defender to help create overlaps.
I like to believe the obsession with beefy blokes is a global hangover from the late Jonah Lomu, the devastating All Black, albeit on the wing. His strength, eventual size and speed was the product of a 120kg, 1.96m frame.
It didn't stop him deserting his post on the wing to pack in behind No 8 Zinzan Brooke if the Black Machine needed more grunt in the scrum.
The school of rugby Gatland attended as an illustrious hooker in his day - where the clanging of cow bells reminded every visiting provincial team they weren't going to be accorded a restful night's sleep in Hamilton - can lay claim to the who's-your-daddy approach to the game.
He played for the Mooloos who smashed the Lions 38-10 in the 1993 tour, adding to the accolades of a provincial side who captured the imagination of this country for decades since their inception in 1921.
Little surprise then that Gatland adopted that mind set to his coaching portfolio.
It's never easy to return to one's country in any capacity in opposition colours - just ask former Wallabies coach Robbie "Dingo" Deans or current England coach and former Wallaby mentor Eddie Jones, never mind a rash of marquee players.
Having the media turn you slowly on the spit roast of conscience comes with the territory.
To suggest the Lions should win every game on tour can be an indicator of dominance and class but also very yesteryear.
Seriously who will remember, let alone care, whether the tourists pipped the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians or the worst of the Super Rugby franchises here.
Beat the Crusaders and, yes, they will wake rugby fans out of a slumber around the world.
It pays to know the Lions played as many matches in between their three tests against the Wallabies in 2013 but, let's face it, the Aussie franchises, bar the 14-12 loss to Brumbies, hardly counted as formidable opponents.
Trying to emulate that feat in New Zealand is simply ridiculous.
Crusaders, Highlanders, Maori All Blacks and Chiefs, before the first test on June 24, is a ritual in tenderising steak. Hurricanes before the remaining two tests will feel almost sane.
Jones, who can't roll out the Sweet Chariot against the ABs until November next year, will no doubt not want Gatland to upstage him so that explains why Hansen has found an ally in the Aussie.
Ask Englishmen here what they think of the Lions and you'll find most of them distance themselves for fear of an impending flogging.
The four-nation Lions, because of their ad-hoc challenges, should put expectations in perspective because tradition gives way to milking the cash cow.
Perhaps in a tangential sort of way, it sheds light on the demands Pacific Island nations face in mustering players scattered around the world to take advantage of windows of opportunity on the international calendar.
There's fat chance the Lions' four-year sojourn is likely to end any time soon because, frankly, there's money to be made from the legions of rugby faithful in the mould of the Barmy Army.
But this may well be Gatland's last chance so why not go out on his terms, as he did in the third Aussie test when he dropped centre Brian O'Driscoll in favour of the Welsh combo of Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies.
