KEY POINTS:
Being dropped is not the most pleasant experience for any player but, looking back, Grant Rovelli thinks it was the best thing that happened to him last season.
A lot was expected of the livewire 24-year-old last year after his breakthrough season in 2006 when he was the Warriors' Young Player of the Year and a finalist for the prestigious Dally M Rookie of the Year.
But it all went a bit pear-shaped in the early rounds of 2007. Rovelli was a casualty of not only his own poor form but also the side's and was dropped to the Auckland Lions for three games.
"I laid a good foundation the year before and wanted to go to another level but I don't think I did that," Rovelli says. "I was trying too hard, making bad decisions, like early kicks that didn't come off, and my communication with other players in the team wasn't that good.
"I got dropped, which was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. It was a big kick up the arse to play a bit more positively. I think I was getting into a negative frame of mind and it impacted on everyone. It's a bit of a cancer.
"I came back and we made the top four, which was a really good achievement from where we came from."
Rovelli returned to the side for the narrow 4-2 loss to Melbourne.
While it was still a defeat, this was seen as something of a turning point and they then kicked on to win nine and draw another of their last 12 games.
In one stretch, he scored seven tries in four games as the Warriors became an irresistible force finally subdued by the Eels and Cowboys in the playoffs.
The jury is still out, however, on whether Rovelli and his halves partner Michael Witt have what it takes to lead the Warriors to a title.
Together with a quality hooker, the halves are seen as the most crucial positions in terms of directing a team around a park and last-play options. Witt and Rovelli would best be described as steady rather than dynamic.
Many commentators even felt the club were better off throwing cash at a top-drawer halfback rather than centre Brent Tate.
Good halves, though, are not only expensive but also hard to find and when they are discovered clubs tend to lock them in to long-term deals.
Incredibly, 14 of the past 20 winners of the Dally M Medal for the NRL's best player have been halves. Included in that list are the likes of Johnathan Thurston (twice), Darren Lockyer, Andrew Johns (three times), Alfie Langer and Peter Sterling (twice).
Interestingly, however, only in the case of Langer in 1992 has the Dally M winner also led his side to the first-grade title in the past 20 years and Warriors coach Ivan Cleary thinks too much pressure is put on halves to come up with the big plays.
"Our focus hasn't changed in that we don't want the halves to do everything but they certainly have a clear role," Cleary says. "Ravs is in a position where he can build his game and be more confident and decisive about how the team is run, and I think he's on the right path.
"The pressure on the halves is unfair and unnecessary. Unfortunately you've got guys like Andrew Johns who have set such a high benchmark that everyone wants their half to be Andrew Johns. He's a once-in-a-generation type guy.
"There are a lot of halves that get brushed aside too early. I spoke to Stacey Jones about this not long ago and he reckons it wasn't until he was about 25 that he understood how to run a team and he was lucky to have senior guys around him when he was young."
Jones has been added to the Warriors coaching staff this year with his main brief to work with the halves.
The Little General has introduced Witt and Rovelli - Warriors team-mates call the pair Rod and Todd after the children of The Simpsons character Ned Flanders - to a number of kick variations, some of which they tried in last weekend's 24-16 trial loss to Manly on the Sunshine Coast.
"He's been a great help for me," Rovelli says. "We have been working on little things that halfbacks know.
"I want to be able to control a team and improve my communication throughout the whole game. Communication is a big thing."
He can only do that if he's on the park and Rovelli has no intention of being dropped again this year.
