Martin Devlin: Tonight's Warriors game could define season

I might have said this once already this year, but tonight's game at Penrith could well define the Warriors' whole season.

OR - Or it might be just another round robin match that would be great to win, but not a total calamity if they don't.

I'd prefer to stick with option one and insist that, once again, it's one of those 'only one thing counts' type of encounters and that's the result. The W, the two points, the win.

Last week's daylight robbery loss to Cronulla was and still is an utter gut-punch. The festering boil of the bunker's own rules being idiotically unable to enforce the game's actual rules won't be entirely lanced with a win at Penrith, but it'd sure help the healing process.

And let's not be silly here. Let's not continue to pretend not to be thinking finals footy.

This year's Warriors aren't sitting on 10 & 5 by chance. They thoroughly deserve to be top six.

But, with 9 games left nothing is guaranteed, we all know how quickly this comp can bite your backside, how three or four defeats can kill a whole campaign.

A Panthers side minus their halves on Origin duty is there for the taking. History tells us to make the top six and host a playoff you need at least 14 wins. With the Broncos, Storm and Dragons in three of the next four games, a win tonight would bring that top six within just about, very nearly, oh so close, without the pressure and stress of what ifs and if buts.

If the sporting Gods can turn the world upside down by smiling on the English, then surely it's not too much to ask for a victory over Penrith.