League: Ben Matulino fired up to avenge Warriors horror show

Ben Matulino believes the Warriors can still make the NRL playoffs. Photo / photosport.nz

Ben Matulino is keeping the faith.

The Warriors prop believes they are ready for a charge at the NRL playoffs, despite the task getting more difficult with each passing week.

The Warriors are on the verge of entering familiar now or never territory and need to put together a significant run to make the finals.

They sit four points out of the top eight. That has been beyond them in each of the past five seasons, as the Warriors have either stumbled, or nosedived, in the post-Origin period.

From this point in 2015 they lost eight consecutive matches, with Shaun Johnson's ankle injury one of the catalysts for the slump, to go from the cusp of the top four to 13th in two months.

Last year was possibly worse, in the circumstances, as they lost six of their last eight matches, including home defeats to the Rabbitohs, Eels and Tigers, who were all below them on the ladder.

In 2014, the Warriors won only three of their last eight games, slipping from fourth in mid-July to ninth by early September. That run included losses to the lowly Knights and Raiders and an awful surrender at Penrith in the last game of the season when they could afford to lose by nine points or less and still sneak into the top eight.

Their best post-Origin run came in 2013 (four wins from eight matches) but ultimately narrow home defeats to the Sharks and the Panthers, combined with a meek last round defeat to St George Illawarra at Wollongong proved terminal.

This year the Warriors, who face Penrith tomorrow night, will need to win five of their last eight games to cement a place in the playoffs. It's an intimidating ratio, especially with away games against the Cowboys, Rabbitohs and Tigers to come, but Matulino feels it is possible.

"I definitely think so," said Matulino. "We are playing a lot better than we were. We are completing a lot more and putting ourselves in a position to win games. I guess we are just turning off in lapses and teams come in and score easy points. We just need to fix that part and we should be okay."

That is the crux of the matter. While it feels like the Warriors are a better, more solid, team than seasons past, and their average completion rate (79 per cent) is superior to any team in the competition, that isn't yet reflected on the table.

They've thrown away at least three matches this season they should have won, which would put a vastly different complexion on the NRL ladder. The worst of those was against the Panthers in round 10, when the Warriors gave up a 28-6 second half lead to lose 36-28, the biggest turnaround in the club's history.

"The last time we played them it definitely hurt us," said Matulino. "I know in the back of our minds they are thinking of that game so it will be good to get one back on them. We'll be pretty fired up."