KEY POINTS:
The Warriors face a very tough ask against Parramatta this weekend, one made much tougher by the loss of Steve Price through injury.
If he is out for any length of time that will severely dent their chances of staying in the top eight at the start of the season and it could taint their whole season.
The Warriors result against the Storm on Monday night was not unexpected given last year's form from both sides. The premiers were always going to have 12 points on them.
The disturbing things for me were first and foremost the injury to Price and secondly the lack of any playing form from new fullback Aidan Kirk and from old stager Logan Swann.
Price was without equal last year as a prop and as a captain and if there is anyone the Warriors simply could not afford to lose it is Steve Price. He is irreplaceable.
Aidan Kirk did nothing, he is certainly not the next shining light. He was nothing more than adequate in defence and offered nothing on attack.
Logan on his day is a very good player and you would have thought that in the opening game against the premiers you would want to showcase your best.
Instead he played an adequate game, which is not good enough for a senior player, against the best team in the competition, and after your captain has gone off at quarter-time. I believe that after that performance he should have been dropped. They still have Wairangi Koopu waiting in the wings, no mean replacement.
The old description of a dark cloud with a silver lining fits perfectly with Manu Vatuvei. At his best under the high ball he was horrendous and his blunders on Monday night will ensure that whenever he is named in the team the opposition game plan will include peppering him with all manner of kicking attack. Unless he can improve that facet of his game his season is destined to be a painfully long one - or a selectorially short one.
It was against the Eels last season that he had a shocker accepting kicks.
When like that he is a complete liability. When he fell apart in that game, the floodgates opened.
To his credit he pulled himself together and later in the season became an asset to the team.
The first of his two tries on Monday night showed why he is selected. He has exceptional power and ability to get over the line.
His problem under the kicks is obviously psychological because he overcame it last season, his coaches have been working on that area of his game, he has done the practice. He showed last year that he can tighten up his game - it may take the same guy with the skills of Sigmund Freud that helped him last year to pick him up again but I would not be dropping Vatuvei, he offers too much on attack.
Ruben Wiki's performance on Monday night was heartening. He was willing both on attack and defence and he made plenty of impact in both. I'm sure he will relish the extra responsibility in the role of captain.
The one slice of good out of Price's injury is that Sonny Fai gets a run off the bench. I can't wait to see this very large, very strong and very fast and mobile forward let loose. By all reports he is dynamite on attack and at 192cm and 109kg he has the size to be equally damaging on defence too.
There has been a lot of talk about the "prowler" tackle after Riley Brown came into a tackle with a shoulder charge and dislocated Craig Wing's shoulder while Wing was already held by two other defenders. Last year it was the "crusher", the year before the "grapple".
I don't believe the NRL needs to look specifically at this tackle or to legislate against it. It's an anomaly. It would be impossible to the point of ridiculous to try and set someone up like that regularly in a game.
Wing was still making ground and so remained a tackle target. It was a freak occurrence and should be dismissed as such. For me, Epalahame Lauaki's shot on Billy Slater when Slater was already grounded and covered was of much more concern.
