KEY POINTS:
League fever is back in Auckland and long may it remain.
Semifinals action makes a late kickoff return to the city on Friday night when the Warriors face Parramatta, a team that has limped through the latter stages of the NRL's regular season before thumping injury-hit Brisbane by an extraordinary margin last night.
The Warriors' return to the playoffs has got this city's sporting fraternity, and the wider community, buzzing. For the umpteenth time, writers such as myself can predict - with no confidence at all - that league is set for a glorious future.
It's a strange old beast, league in New Zealand. Just as everything appears rosy in the garden, the manure arrives from a great height. On other occasions, the obituary writers get to work only for the game to roar back to life.
I will say this though. The future good health of league is almost entirely dependant upon the Warriors. International league is a sporadic outburst ill-equipped to provide more than a couple of headlines each season.
The Warriors are where the game is at. As the crowd figures and club profile have shown, the health of the Warriors support is dependant upon them winning. They may have the full house sign up now, but it was a house of cards not long ago.
A frustration in observing the Warriors' run to the finals is the renewed realisation that this type of success and profile is what the club was supposed to consistently achieve when it was set up in the mid-1990s.
Somewhere between the false highs of the first season and the many lows since lies a place for a respected, well run league club that will provide an outstanding sporting alternative in a rugby-dominated land.
Fans have, quite rightly, been left disillusioned by the stupidity at Mt Smart, notwithstanding a 2002 grand final appearance.
The Warriors have advantages over many of their Australian rivals, and have usually wasted them. Like the one-city one-club Broncos, the Warriors should be in contention just about every season.
One of the advantages the Warriors have wasted is local loyalty among a large pool of emerging players. Put it this way: had the Warriors been on top of their game, they might have spotted the young Sonny Bill Williams - who was lurking in a very obvious place - and had the pulling power to sign him. Maybe this trend is about to be reversed.
The Warriors of 2007 are, fingers crossed, getting close to where this club belongs, and where their fans have a right to demand they should be, although I say this without great conviction. Right now they are far too reliant on Steve Price, for one thing. But let's live in hope.
It didn't always look so encouraging. Ivan Cleary and Price - who a Sydney newspaper has already anointed as the NRL player of the season - have done a magnificent job in leading a turnaround after a mid-season losing streak.
Their revival has been superb, with Price producing a monumental and historic effort from the front, and Wade McKinnon running riot at the back. In between, just about everyone has played a strong part, and luck has contributed a low injury count.
The great news for Cleary is that the unconvincing victory over bottom-placed Penrith on Saturday night edged his side into the top four and means they go into the finals with home advantage rights and a double life. They are also favoured in another way. Parramatta, whose fullback Jarryd Hayne is the danger man, will go into the game on just four days' rest plus the travel inconvenience.
Against that though, the Warriors have slipped in the past three weeks. Injuries also have made inroads - Ruben Wiki, Manu Vatuvei and Jerome Ropati have been struck down to various degrees. Wiki does not look quite the playing force of old although his influence is strong.
A loss in Canberra, and substantial periods of average form against Manly and Penrith, are not great portents. Still, the Warriors look good bets this Friday night. It will not only be an occasion to celebrate the Phoenix-like effort of this fascinating club, but for Cleary and his team to storm backinto top form and ignite genuinetitle hopes. Because getting to the big dance should only be one step in the Warriors' game plan. Waltzing away with a title one day must remain the ultimate aim.
