NRL: Next set of six crucial for Warriors

Lewis Brown of the Warriors (R) celebrates with Manu Vatuvei (L) on full time during the round 10 NRL match between the New Zealand Warriors and the Sydney Roosters. Photo / Getty Images.

Coaches are usually loathe to look too far ahead, preferring to say they are only focusing on the next game, but Warriors coach Brian McClennan is patently aware of how important the next six games are for his side.

They tackle competition leaders Melbourne in Auckland on Sunday before Penrith, Cronulla, North Queensland, Gold Coast and Brisbane. Three of the six are against the top three sides and four are also away from the safety of Mt Smart Stadium.

"This is a really important six games," McClennan said.

"We had a meeting about it all and set some goals. I think it's an exciting group of games. This could be the group of games when we start to get some real traction."

They had hoped they had achieved it with consecutive wins over the Broncos and Roosters but let things slip with an agonising 24-22 defeat to the Wests Tigers a fortnight ago. They have been stewing over that defeat, when they led 10-0 at halftime and were in the box seat, even more than usual because they had the bye and presently sit ninth on the competition ladder.

The Warriors under McClennan are still a work in progress. For every two steps forward they make, they seem to take one backwards. They have done a lot of things well, particularly up through the middle with their good forward pack, but let themselves down with costly individual errors and poor defensive reads.

Melbourne are the masters of taking advantage of even the smallest slip-ups, especially through their highly influential spine of Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater. They did that against the Warriors on Anzac day, when the Warriors threatened for 65 minutes to inflict the first defeat of the season on the Storm, but romped away to win 32-14.

"We did some things well against Melbourne, especially around that ruck and collision area," McClennan said. "We were pretty strong. We had some challenges in terms of our shape and defence on the edges.

"[Melbourne can] do that against most teams. They were very good against Brisbane and made them pay. We just have to stay strong for that full 80 ... [and] do a lot of things really well."

McClennan has named the same 17 to play Melbourne that featured against the Tigers. He had hoped Kevin Locke would be fit enough to return to fullback but Locke, who is still struggling with leg and sternum injuries, needs to prove he can last 80 minutes and will turn out for the Vulcans instead.

Glen Fisiiahi will start his fourth game of the season and second on the bounce in the No 1 jersey and is a dangerous player, particularly from broken play.

Centre Konrad Hurrell is in a good spell of form and has scored four tries in his last two games as well as running for more , using his pace and power. He has made rapid progress in his first season in the NRL and has helped solve the issue of what was a lack of depth in the centres.

But much like the team he plays for, there's still a lot more improvement to make.

Warriors: Glen Fisiiahii; Bill Tupou, Ben Henry, Konrad Hurrell, Manu Vatuvei, James Maloney, Shaun Johnson, Russell Packer, Alehana Mara, Ben Matulino, Elijah Taylor, Simon Mannering (c), Feleti Mateo. Interchange: Lewis Brown, Sam Rapira, Sione Lousi, Jacob Lillyman.