Mara says Friend encouraged him to start a new regime and work a lot harder off the field. The 10-year NRL veteran pushed Mara, helping him to find new limits.
"He used to tell me, 'Bring your lunch mate, let's have a shake together'," says Mara. "Watching how he trained and worked and learning from all his habits has helped me a lot."
Mara reports feeling fitter and faster since a heavy pre-season, making him well placed to push Friend as hard as he can.
The former Wellingtonian has long been noted for his running out of dummy half but can't yet match Friend's prowess in terms of pure workrate.
Before his jaw injury against the Broncos in round nine, Friend had spent an average of 76 minutes on the field per match, as well as clocking up more than 40 tackles a game. Mara is thus far hitting just under 40 minutes on the field, for a return of 18 tackles each outing.
"He hasn't even had 60 minutes," says coach Brian McClennan, "let alone us talking about 80. Doing 80 minutes in the NRL is a verydifferent story than doing a full game for the Vulcans or in the [Toyota Cup] and you have to work players up to that, like we did with Konrad Hurrell. I wanted to get him on for longer minutes [against Melbourne] but it was hard for me to get him back out there."
Mara knows he has to strive harder every week.
"I play as hard as I can and I hope to play as many minutes as I can," says Mara. "I think I bring more of a running game and plenty of energy. We have got the pack for it and I want to expose the defensive line."
Mara looked up to Aaron Heremaia when he first arrived at Mt Smart ("I liked his game, he was a good ball player") while earlier heroes had been Lance Hohaia and Stacey Jones and "all the other quick little guys".
Mara, who was a panelbeater when he came into the Warriors under-20 system, came from the same Wellington representative team as Ben Matulino and Mose Masoe but has yet to reach the heights of his former teammates.
He carries several nicknames including 'The Prince' - Mara is half-Vanuatan through his father and his teammates like to joke that he is the prince of Vanuatu.
Tomorrow night is another opportunity for Mara to make an impact and it comes against Ivan Cleary, who handed him his Warriors debut at the end of 2010.
Despite their struggles this year, Penrith have one of the most fearsome packs in the competition, including giant Kiwis prop Sam McKendry, though they are missing key strike players Michael Jennings, Tim Grant and Luke Lewis through Origin commitments.
"It would be good to have something over him [Cleary] at the end of the day," says Warriors prop Jacob Lillyman. "He has got them going pretty well. They are defending really well as a team and have improved a lot in that area."
Omens may be good for the Warriors - they have won their last three clashes against the Panthers, including the two at the foot of the Blue Mountains.
