Hugh McGahan: Lost chances for Warriors - 20 years on

Simon Mannering can do only so much as a back-rower. Photo / Getty Images

I was in the stands at Mt Smart Stadium in 1995 when the Warriors played their first game.

Like everyone there that day, I was excited about what it meant and assumed rugby league would take off in this country.

It hasn't quite worked out that way and, in truth, the Warriors haven't really gone that far. They might have a good infrastructure, good sponsors and a loyal group of fans but, from a rugby league perspective, they are no further down the track than 20 years ago.

I had expected them to have won a premiership by now. They came closest in 2002 and 2011, when they played in the grand final, but after each occasion went back dramatically.

They should have really kicked on after 2002 but, instead, sacked Daniel Anderson as coach 18 months later.

It was a similar scenario after 2011. Once Ivan Cleary left, the club were left to start again and only now are they showing signs of recovering under Andrew McFadden.

There is more than enough talent in this country to put together a successful side but there has been a continual problem in harnessing it. They have often talked about trying to build a "family" but have never really been able to achieve it.

Even in Cleary's time, which probably marks the most stable time of the club after they sorted out the salary cap debacle, a lot of players were coming and going and it probably took the Warriors longer under him than it should have done to get to the grand final.

Of course, there have been a number of lows along the way. The club went backwards from 1995 and 2000 - and I need to take some of the blame for that having been part of the management team - and there was the salary cap scandal.

I'm not overly optimistic about the future. Like many, I can see there's something happening with this team under McFadden but it's a matter of seeing that from week to week.

What they need is a playmaker who is a leader. Simon Mannering can do only so much as a back-rower. They need Shaun Johnson to take control of this team.

I was a little perturbed to see him say that he will find his groove in his own time and that play didn't seem to be going his way. What?

If he stays on the right side and continues to let the play go to the left, where Chad Townsend is, he's never going to get his groove back.

Chris Sandow is in a similar situation. On Friday, he needed to do something and his answer was to do everything to be involved. The result: the Eels beat the Rabbitohs.

Johnathan Thurston never lets the game pass him by and nor did the likes of Andrew Johns and Darren Lockyer. They weren't restricted to playing on one side - they went looking for the ball.

It's what Johnson has to do and only then, perhaps, will the Warriors fulfil the potential they showed 20 years ago.