Chris Rattue: McKinnon's 'wow!' factor is missing in action

Warriors fullback Wade McKinnon has lacked his old spark. Photo / Getty Images

The Warriors have lost Brent Tate for the season. Nothing can be done about that, but it would be nice to find the old Wade McKinnon again.

Saturday night's lacklustre loss to an impressive Broncos was also Tate's sad finale for the season.

In one of those innocuous moments that prove once again that the body was never designed to do what footballers ask of it, Tate suffered knee damage that will see him sidelined yet again.

Tate gives the Warriors a lot of heart - he is one of those players who looks as if he believes, in his very soul, that every moment in a game counts. The Warriors don't have an outstanding, ready-made backup in the centres, save for moving Simon Mannering out of the forwards, which isn't overly desirable.

Tate fell a little awkwardly in a tackle, which is all it takes to end a season, or even a career. He is more a rampaging piston than a supple athlete, which might make him more susceptible to injury. Or maybe he is just darned unlucky. Whatever, Tate is faced with another operation, another long and lonely recuperation, a wasted year on the sideline.

He is not a finesse player, and needs his body in prime condition. It is a long way back.

Footy players have sometimes had to change their games, or even positions, after knee reconstructions. Others don't have those options.

McKinnon isn't exactly a rampaging advertisement for knee injury recovery yet, after missing just about the entire 2008 season.

Two years ago, he stormed the NRL in the Warriors No 1 jersey, turning them into long-range try-scoring specialists. He was an explosive force, with a head as hot as his feet.

He could bust or skirt lines of kick chasers, pop up perfectly when an offload was available, and make remarkable saves in defence. It's hard to spot any of this so far in 2009.

The Warriors have three trump cards in their backs - Stacey Jones, Manu Vatuvei and McKinnon.

They are not without their sticking points - Jones is in the twilight years of his fabulous career and out of NRL condition; Vatuvei has off days and moments, and McKinnon is on the comeback trail. These are the players who can make the big difference.

It is tempting to add in here the name of the currently injured Lance Hohaia, because he has been that good over the past year. So I will, to the point that even if coach Ivan Cleary didn't consider him a potential fullback option ahead of McKinnon, some of the rest of us were starting to wonder.

Sacre bleu ...

Hohaia has been impossible to miss, while McKinnon has been quiet by his old standards.

It's what Hohaia does over 10 or 15 metres which counts, and he does it all the time, busting through little holes, putting tacklers off their timing, creating momentum and tries.

Either the knee injury and operation have taken an edge off McKinnon's speed and game or the Warriors have forgotten how to bring him into play.

Or maybe I am missing something in judging him thus. But I recall saying, or thinking, after matches in 2007: "Wow, Wade McKinnon." Not this year though. It's not that McKinnon has done anything particularly wrong, or isn't making a reasonable amount of ground. It's the magic moments that are missing, and they are badly missed.

The Warriors need McKinnon to spark up, even more so now that their injury list is starting to mount.

A home clash against the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Sunday afternoon is as good a place as any for the reconstructed Wade McKinnon to invoke the old Wade McKinnon. It could tell us a lot about where he and the Warriors are at.