Comment: The real deal Warriors have been a long-time in the making

Issac Luke celebrates as the Warriors beat the Dragons on Friday night. Photo / Getty Images

Last night's win over the Dragons was the gutsiest performance I've seen from a Warriors side.

They're the real deal this year.

It was a long way from being clinical and it was a long way off their best football but it had as much heart, intensity and effort as I've seen in my time covering the side. They shouldn't have won that game – the Dragons had so much possession, frankly they had a more talented line-up especially considering the Warriors' injury list and they had a lop-sided penalty count in their favour.

But here's the thing – games aren't played in stat windows. This is not fantasy football – it is a real game, played by real people. There are intangible qualities that can't be measured or counted in statistics and those were the areas the Warriors dominated last night.

This turnaround in form in 2018 hasn't been thanks to a remarkable off-season or the appointment of new personnel to the club like CEO Cameron George or trainer Alex Corvo. The improvements have been a long time coming. George, Corvo and co have certainly helped but the real people that need praise in all of this are coach Stephen Kearney and former managing director Jim Doyle. This is their work coming to the fore.

Let's start with Doyle. He arrived at the Warriors having under-estimated what was needed to make the club successful. I believe he thought a couple of key signings in the spine, the right appointment here, a change of focus there and the Warriors would be title contenders. He was wrong. But he was smart enough to figure it out and clever enough to take a step back and re-think things.

The appointment of Kearney as coach was key. That appointment was for the long-haul not a quick fix. The rebuild started then with a measured coach who was prepared to go through tough times to eventually assemble the side he wanted and get them playing a brand of footy that suited them. They already had a crucial signing in skipper Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to build around with some key senior players like Simon Mannering and Shaun Johnson locked in. They changed the culture of the team but letting go some players that didn't fit Kearney's mold – Konrad Hurrell, Manu Vatuvei, Ben Matulino, Bodene Thompson etc – that actually had a bad influence on the group. They brought in players with strong work ethic and influential players that could encourage younger players to follow their lead. Blake Green, Adam Blair, Tohu Harris aren't players that stuff the stat sheet as much as they do the fundamental things that make a team play better.

Doyle and Kearney locked in Harris before the 2017 season started while they had secured the services of Blair and head trainer Corvo long before they were announced publicly and had worked on getting them to Mt Smart as part of their master plan.

Kearney copped all sorts of criticism during the side's losing season of 2017 but he never let it get to him. Unlike those firing the shots he could see the big picture and was clearly focused on implementing his plans. Sure, there were a few tweaks along the way but Kearney and Doyle have been building what we all witnessed last night for 18 months or more.

The Warriors are far from the finished product. They missed a heap of tackles against the Dragons, they lost the battle of the ruck and were ill-disciplined but they found a way to win with attitude. I still think they are short a big metre-eating prop but they have improved quicker than expected in other areas to help cover that. I imagine the plan is to rectify that this next off-season.

A couple of months back the school of thought with the Warriors was that they couldn't start the season well, they couldn't win in Perth, they couldn't win without Shaun Johnson and success against a Dragons side was unlikely. In seven weeks they have dispelled all of those things as myth.

It is way too soon to be talking about playoffs or whether they can win a maiden premiership or not but one thing is very clear – this Warriors side has something special about them.

Get on board the bandwagon and enjoy the ride.