Richie Barnett: Warriors have a winning attitude

The big tests for the Warriors are still to come. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

I'm liking what I'm seeing and hearing out of the Warriors at the moment.

The talk from the players seems to be that they know they still need to get better. It's very easy when you've won a couple of games in a row to fall into the trap of thinking that you are better than you really are. You can easily go through stretches of four or five games thinking you are doing the job well but the fact is you haven't been tested yet.

The big tests for the Warriors are still to come. They're about to come up against sides who are either desperate to make the top four or the playoff cut and will have plenty of motivation. This is where the season starts to heat up. People start to get excited about the big games just around the corner.

From fifth all the way to 11th things are still very tight. The squeeze is starting to go on.

The Raiders have been a strange bunch this season. They seem to drift in and out of games, but when they are on they can really destroy teams. That's exactly what they did to the Dragons in the second half on Monday night.

That win will have been a massive confidence booster for them and they'll come to Auckland thinking they have a good chance of winning. Realistically, the Raiders need to win all of their remaining games to make the eight. That probably won't happen and their players know that. But that also makes them dangerous. It gives them a licence to play with freedom. Their fullback Josh Dugan is a freakish athlete and a proven match-winner, while rising star Josh Papalii is a player to watch.

But I like what the Warriors are doing. Shaun Johnson and Feleti Mateo are providing real X-factor, while James Maloney has been as solid as a rock all season. The Raiders have some massive forwards in Dane Tilse and Brett White, which can be an advantage but also a weakness. A lack of mobility and ability to move laterally in defence is always an issue with a huge pack and the Warriors' speedy little men will back themselves to cause some real havoc right up the middle.