KEY POINTS:
It says much about the Warriors' attack when a man invalided out of the past two games has still hogged all the media attention while sidelined.
Wade McKinnon played 50 minutes against the Roosters with a rolled ankle, the injury that subsequently sidelined him, and it was during that period that the Sydney team rolled back their lead.
When the Warriors lost to the Raiders in Canberra their three tries came from kicks. When they enjoyed a glut of second-half possession they were not able to crack the Raiders' line with a running play. Because there was no McKinnon? Some thought so.
He is undoubtedly one of the best support players in the game because of his timing, elusiveness and tackle-breaking.
McKinnon has the vision to see a play coming and to put himself in the right spot to take a pass that will create an overlap or accept an off-load in mid-field and then turn the chance into a try for himself or a support player.
He scares opposition coaches when he has the ball because he can score or make big breaks from long-range.
After two weeks off, McKinnon said his ankle was almost 100 per cent.
"There's nothing major wrong," he said. X-rays and scans were negative for fractures or ligament ruptures.
And despite the headlines and the broadcast talk he's not feeling pressure to perform. "No weight, not at all. I'll just go out and do what I do. I know we need a win, big time, everyone knows, we've talked about it. You don't win games alone. We need everyone on form, it was a slip-up last week and now we have a chance to turn that around," he said.
"There was a lot of disappointment after the Canberra game but we've forgotten about that, it's all about Manly."
McKinnon had playoff experience with the Parramatta Eels in 2005-06 and has shared some of that with the younger Warriors. "It's exciting for me too, coming across here and pushing for the finals in my first year."
With the benefit of both on-field experience and, for the past two weeks sideline analysis too, McKinnon said the recent games had been played at playoff speed. "The game is getting quicker. It'll take another step up in the coming weeks."
That may be a reason for the errors that have crept into the Warriors' game.
"Everyone has been trying hard. But it's the team that makes the least errors that usually wins. We've spoken about that too."
McKinnon feels they can limit mistakes this weekend and pick up other areas of their game too. "We have heaps of improvement in us. If we can just smooth out some little problems, we've been doing a lot right."
Opposition kicking games have generally been directed away from McKinnon, to wing Manu Vatuvei when he was perceived as shaky under the high ball, to rookie Patrick Ah Van and last week to Michael Crockett.
They might be better kicking it straight to him - at least then you know where he is and he can be "corralled' with the ball. If the wingers are running, with centre and secondrow support, McKinnon could turn up at any time and it's a good bet he'll turn up at the right time.
When that happens, the Mt Smart Stadium crowd will be on its feet.
The fullback is looking forward to such a moment. "I don't know if the crowd realise how much they help, especially in these big games. You can't hear what they're saying but you know they are behind you."
