KEY POINTS:
If the Warriors are not just to make the playoffs but to push on into them with momentum and a real chance of going further they must beat the Roosters in Sydney tomorrow.
The home team are missing major strike weapon Anthony Minichiello at fullback and highly-rated teenager Mitchell Pearce at halfback, and Kiwis centre Iosia Soliola must pass a medical after suffering a fractured cheekbone three weekends ago.
The Sydney club, celebrating its centenary year and one of the foundation clubs of Australian league, had won just five of 16 games when coach Chris Anderson threw in the towel after losing 56-0 to Manly in round 17.
Now, after appointing favoured son Brad Fittler as caretaker coach, the Roosters have won three straight - beating Cronulla 23-12 at home, Newcastle 20-17 away and Melbourne 26-16 at home - and they are on a high.
Today they host a fan day, trying to engender more support for the rest of the season because just one loss could end their playoff chances.
The Warriors hold an 11-9 all-up record over the Sydney City club and won both games between the sides last season, so the trip will hold no horrors for them.
They have beaten the Dragons 44-16, the Tigers 28-16 and the Knights 52-10 in their last three games, all matches they should have won because the opposition in each case were weakened by injury. This is another, though not so easy.
Stability is good at any time of year and especially at the business end of the season and the Warriors have it, an unchanged line-up for four games. It pays off especially in defence - in communicating to provide defensive structure, in trusting the man beside you to make a tackle. The Warriors now have the best defensive unit in the NRL; their forward pack missed just three tackles against the Knights.
They also have the most effective long-range attack, scoring 18 tries from beyond the halfway line. And they are effective near their opponents' line, thanks to both forward power and the kicking game from Michael Witt, Grant Rovelli and Nathan Fien, notching 32 of their 76 tries from within 10 metres.
The Roosters are weak there, conceding 39 of the 87 tries scored against them from movements beginning in their own 10 metres.
The visitors should enjoy a better metreage-gain from their props and from that they should take control of this game. A key for them will be maintaining the discipline of recent weeks - limiting the penalties, keeping 13 players on the field, eliminating handling errors.
Craig Wing's work off the scrums and around the ruck will be one worry for the Warriors. He has great acceleration and good vision for the gap so the Warriors' marker defence will have to be good. If they can cut the time and space given to Wing and Braith Anasta at five-eighth they will be half-way home.
There is interest also in the battle of the coaches, former team-mates Ivan Cleary and Fittler. After several seasons together in the Roosters jersey in the late 1990s the pair will know each other's thinking and game preparation well. Cleary has an edge in the coaching stakes, with a full season already behind him. And he knows his plan works, having turned around a six-game losing streak. His players also will have confidence in the knowledge his plan works.
Curiously, Cleary holds the record of top points scorer in one season for both clubs: 13 tries and 116 goals for 284 points for the Roosters in 1998; and eight tries and 105 goals for 242 points for the Warriors in their grandfinal run in 2002.
This does not offer the points-scoring splurges of recent weeks but a one-point victory will be enough to hold the Warriors in fourth and to cement their huge points differential.
* Two former Warriors appear for the Newtown Jets in the premier league contest against the Auckland Lions, wing Vince Mellars and prop Frank-Paul Nuuausala. Among those unlikely to make the NRL team again other than because of injury are the Lions' and Warriors' regulars Tony Martin and Louis Anderson, who have both signed to play in Super League next year, Todd Byrne, who has been released, and wing Patrick Ah Van.
Roosters
Aussie Stadium, tomorrow 4pm
Sam Perrett
Amos Roberts
Mitchell Aubusson
Joel Monaghan
John Williams
Braith Anasta
Craig Wing
David Shillington
Heath L'Strange
Lopini Paea
Anthony Tupou
Craig Fitzgibbon (c)
Ashley Harrison
Warriors
Wade McKinnon
Michael Crockett
Jerome Ropati
Simon Mannering
Manu Vatuvei
Micheal Witt
Grant Rovelli
Sam Rapira
George Gatis
Steve Price (c)
Ruben Wiki
Logan Swann
Micheal Luck
Interchange:
Roosters: (from) Danny Nutley, Nate Myles, Setiamta Sa, Shane Shakleton, Iosia Soliola.
Warriors: Wairangi Koopu, Evarn Tuimavave, Epalahame Lauaki, Nathan Fien, 18th man Lance Hohaia.
