KEY POINTS:
It's with no great pride that I confess to being one of those blokes who went to school to eat my lunch.
I readily acknowledge that compared with me, Warriors coach Ivan Cleary is a rocket scientist of international standing.
But I did learn a few things growing
up in Otahuhu that may have escaped Ivan in his younger years. For instance, this mathematical equation is still embedded in my brain:
(d) disobedience = (p) pain x the cane.
One of my few visits to the Otahuhu College stage was to receive six of the best for an indiscretion on the school rifle range.
Perhaps the biggest lesson I learned was one that Ivan may care to ponder as he contemplates the accumulating wreckage of a season that started so well, and promised so much.
It goes like this: If you always do what you always did, then you'll always get what you always got.
Now you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand where I'm coming from here.
For the past six rounds of NRL football we have seen the same old, same old from this Warriors outfit and sure enough, each week, they've been getting the same result and have progressively slipped down the ladder into equal last place.
No one sympathises with Cleary's plight more than me. Hell, I coached one mob that was so bad by the end of the season my pre-game team talks had descended to a single line: For God's sake, don't get hurt out there.
Coaches are naturally risk-averse, and from experience you have to be in a pretty bad space before you summon the courage to break the mould and do something different.
Looking up the rear ends of just about every other team in the competition may well lead Cleary to finally look for that something different.
The good news is, I don't think he has to look far.
Because over the past two weeks I have watched a guy who I believe is capable of giving the Warriors exactly what they have been missing for most of this season - flair and spark.
Loyal readers will know I have been banging on about halves with creativity and authority since someone let me loose on these pages.
No NRL team can be successful without a little, smart guy running them round the paddock.
Two weeks ago, against the Bulldogs' Premier League side, the Auckland Lions debuted a kid by the name of Kevin Locke, out of the Northcote club.
At 17, and a dead-set flyweight, he has already been identified by the Warriors as a potential NRL player, with his inclusion in the Allied Workforce elite development squad.
And he played fullback last year for the Junior Kiwis against the NSW Under-18 side.
Locke is small. But so is Preston Campbell.
He's young. But so was Freddie Fittler when he made his NRL debut.
He's inexperienced but hell, even the greatest players started as novices.
What's more important is that he is lightning fast, brave, instinctive and I believe ready to be given a crack at NRL football.
He's got all the flair Cleary is looking for.
So is he too young at 17?
Has anyone asked him whether he'd like a crack at NRL football?
Maybe, just maybe, the Warriors forwards would step up a gear with the challenge of looking after a tyro halfback behind them. I think back to a guy named Shane Varley, who reminds me so much of Locke. Varley was like a mosquito; tiny by international standards, but lightning fast, courageous and with real sting. He never let a club, provincial or Kiwi side down.
Sure, Locke has made a number of mistakes in his two appearances for the Lions.
But I've seen enough to know he could be a superstar provided he doesn't get shackled in a system that might value size more than ability. Repeat after me Ivan: If you always do ...
The arm-wrestle against the Storm last Sunday was another shattering result for Cleary, who must be wondering when the mid-season drought will break. The Warriors certainly had opportunities to win the game, but again it was the skill of a little man, Cooper Cronk, which broke the deadlock.
There's no shortage of effort in the Warriors performances, indeed I thought the forwards produced one of their best displays of the year.
The Warriors programme doesn't seem to get any easier, with tomorrow's match against an improving Cronulla side.
They may well benefit from the intense physicality of the Sharks' Monday night game against the Dragons, when both sides seemed to be on a mission to destroy.
The Sharks have toughened up considerably this year under Ricky Stuart, and their forwards are quite intimidating. With Brett Kimmorley back from Origin duty, it will be a tough challenge for the Warriors, who now simply must get back on a winning streak.
The Auckland Lions showed tons of character last Sunday with a hard-fought victory against Manly at Mt Smart. Warriors squad member Aidan Kirk had his best outing of the year, and the young Lions forwards hammered their more experienced opposites for the full 80 minutes, with the tackling machine Scotty Jones a standout. They go into this weekend's encounter against Cronulla with renewed confidence.
