Warriors v Raiders
Mt Smart Stadium, 2pm tomorrow
The Warriors are hoping to pick themselves up off the carpet and produce at least one decent performance in front of their home fans before the season ends.
Coach Ivan Clearly admitted the team's last home game - a passionless 30-10 defeat by the Gold Coast Titans - had been
well below par.
Attendances have remained steady, above the 10,000 mark, but the club will be conscious that continued poor performances will start to eat into next year's season ticket sales.
"We are under no illusions that we have let the fans down this year," Clearly said. "Our last game at home was pretty poor."
So was their last away effort, a 40-4 thumping at the hands of the Eels.
Tomorrow's opponent, the Raiders, may also be out of the playoff picture but they have at least produced a morale-boosting late surge, upsetting pace setters the Dragons last week and thrashing the Broncos by a record margin a fortnight earlier.
"It doesn't really get any easier but I think the point is about how we play," Cleary said.
"We just have to be much better. I guess you could say that as an organisation, starting from me, everyone has got to lift their game a bit.
"A lot of players haven't really had their best seasons but I guess it is right through the club."
The funereal feeling at the club's training base this week did little to suggest any reversal in fortunes was imminent.
Steve Price's return to the side should provide a boost but the captain knows it will take more than some cute mindgames to change the tone of the current campaign.
"It is not like we are starting a new season, that is 'bullshit'. We are at the end of a season that has been really tough but you want to make sure you play as well as you can every time you go out on that field," said Price.
"There are a lot of pressures from everywhere, the fans are upset, the players are disappointed.
"When you don't win it is not as bouncy at training and there is not as much enthusiasm or confidence. So it is going to be very hard. But we are professionals, we have to challenge ourselves.
"There are no excuses. We send 17 blokes out on the field every week like every other club and at the end of the year you are judged on where you finish."
WARRIORS v RAIDERS
Warriors
Wade McKinnon
Kevin Locke
Jerome Ropati
Joel Moon
Manu Vatuvei
Aaron Heremaia
Stacey Jones
Sam Rapira
Ian Henderson
Steve Price (c)
Simon Mannering
Ukuma Ta'ai
Micheal Luck
Interchange: Lance Hohaia, Evarn Tuimavave, Russell Packer, Jacob Lillyman, Lewis Brown (one to be omitted).
Raiders
Josh Dugan
Daniel Vidot
Jarrod Croker
Joel Monaghan
Phil Graham
Terry Campese
Josh McCrone
Dane Tilse
Alan Tongue (c)
Tom Learoyd-Lars
Joel Thompson
Bronson Harrison
Josh Miller
Interchange: Trevor Thurling, Travis Waddell, Troy Thompson, Joe Pickername.
