KEY POINTS:
The critical factor for the Warriors at Penrith on Sunday is to get a good roll-on early, to get points and to play on a level field instead of conceding points and trying to come from behind.
Crucial to that is the work of hooker Nathan Fien -
and he knows it.
"Away from home this year we just haven't given ourselves a chance because of poor discipline and silly errors early on in the game," Fien said. "If we address those things early we'll be all right.
"We are refreshed after the bye and feeling confident. We really want to get the monkey off our back," he said of their four losses in Australia.
The bye had given them the opportunity for plenty of assessment.
"They were tough trips to Manly, Melbourne, Townsville and the Gold Coast but we beat ourselves in every one, we never gave ourselves a chance. We have to win away if we want to be playing in September," Fien said, of the top-eight playoffs.
"I think every individual has some improvement in them and we all have to step up a bit." The Warriors have a win ratio of just one-third in all games against the Panthers. This one, as usual, will be won up front and both teams possess similar-sized packs with similar representative experience.
Despite all the talk in Australia of the "huge" Warriors pack, almost all NRL clubs now also field big Polynesians and the one that doesn't, North Queensland, fronts the second-biggest man in the game in Ray Cashmere who is 195cm and 115kg, the same weight as Willie Mason and just 1cm shorter.
The Panthers lose considerable grunt without prop Petero Civoniceva, who is away with the Queensland State of Origin team. His replacement, Matthew Bell, has less NRL experience than does Sam Rapira and has not played test football.
Rapira and Evarn Tuimavave, who played well against the Raiders, both need to take charge of this game early in terms of metres gained so as to give the halves Grant Rovelli and Michael Witt a chance to run things.
The Warriors lose little in firepower in the centres, with Jerome Ropati replacing Brent Tate, also away with the Queensland team.
With Ruben Wiki also returning from injury and coming off the bench to ensure a cover of leadership through the interchange there can be no excuses for losing their way.
Stand-in captain Micheal Luck, third in the stats list for tackles, averaging about 40 per game, admitted he was still finding his way as a leader but enjoying doing it.
"I'll make a good fist of it until Pricey [Steve Price] gets back." Price is making good progress in recovery from his hamstring injury.
Luck said their aim at Penrith was to replicate the 80 per cent completion rate they achieved in the win over Canberra at Mt Smart.