Injured: Micheal Luck. Photo / Getty Images
The Warriors are about to find out if you really can put a price on experience.
The squad that begins its season against Manly at Eden Park next Sunday will be over 600 NRL games lighter on experience than the grand final-reaching group of last season. Factor in the absence of injured trio Micheal Luck, Sam Rapira and Jacob Lillyman and that number soars to more than 1000.
While the likes of departed veteran hands Lance Hohaia, Shaun Berrigan and Brett Seymour had been there and done it hundreds of times before, only new hooker Nathan Friend (135 games) boasts any kind of NRL experience among the players brought in this season.
The result is that Warriors will be heavily dependent on untested rookies plugging gaps as the season wears on.
It's not a situation that unduly concerns captain Simon Mannering, who is backing the club's production line of emerging talent to more than compensate for any losses.
"Yeah, we did lose some pretty experienced guys but during the trials the young boys that have come up have been unreal," Mannering said. "They haven't looked out of place. I guess that's because they've been in the Warriors system for a few years. They've slotted in no trouble at all."
Back-to-back Toyota Cup-winning seasons suggest the club's faith in its youth movement is well-placed.
The likes of untested rookies Konrad Hurrell and Ben Henry have impressed in pre-season trials, while there is a tier of players such as Glen Fisiiahi and Sione Lousi who have tasted first grade action and appear ready to step up on a regular basis.
Reigning champions Manly have proved the development route can work.
The Sea Eagles' success last year came despite the club being virtually inactive in the player market. Halves Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry-Evans headed a group of emerging stars and promoted juniors who included Darcy Lussick, Jamie Buhrer, William Hopoate and Vic Mauro.
The blend with cagey veterans, such as the Stewart brothers, Jamie Lyon and Anthony Watmough proved potent and, ultimately, unstoppable.
The Warriors will be hoping for similar results, however the sort of implosion that derailed a Raiders team built largely on youth highlights the perils of placing too great a burden on young shoulders.
The frequent absence through injury of senior hands Terry Campese, David Shillington and Alan Tongue was a significant factor in the Raiders' demise.
The biggest question over the Warriors in 2012 is how well they will cope without the likes of Luck, Lillyman and Rapira in the opening weeks of the season.
"I guess we are missing a couple of real experienced guys in Lucky and Sammy," Mannering said. "You'd like to have those guys on the field. But we get Jerome [Ropati] back. He is a guy that has been around for a long time and he is real eager to get back into it. And there's big Manu [Vatuvei] out on the wing, so we've still got guys who are able to fill those leadership roles.
"The young boys really look up to those guys. They want to prove a point and cement a spot, so they are out there doing everything they can. You find when they come in with that attitude they do a really good job and some of them end up staying in the team."
The signs from an undefeated pre-season trials campaign are promising. Trials, as Mannering well knows, mean very little once the first ball has been kicked off the tee.
"You don't really know how it is going to go until you get into the real stuff," he said. "But so far we have been pretty happy. It's exciting times."