KEY POINTS:
Ivan Cleary is not a man given to wild statements or the display of strong emotions - not in my admittedly very limited experience of observing him at close hand.
But it's doubtful if the phlegmatic Warriors coach, the ultimate professional as a player in that he made
the utmost of his straightforward abilities, has felt more despair than during his team's Monday mauling by Manly.
If this outwardly measured character - dreary Cleary in comparison to many of his many predecessors - ever felt like shedding a public tear or a few expletives, this would surely be the time.
At times, you would hardly know that Cleary is around, but behind the wall I suspect that his professional pride was severely hurt by events on Monday night.
Manly, the beaten 2007 grand finalists, went through their drills and won by nearly 50 points. As easy as that.
Australian rugby league is full of Cleary types, men who have hauled themselves above the rank of journeymen through guts and guile.
There are only so many Darren Lockyers, Billy Slaters, Israel Folaus and Andrew Johns out there. A decent number, to be sure, but they are outnumbered by the brave workhorses, the men who give no quarter, whose flagbearers are the Shane Webcke's, Steven Prices and Ruben Wikis of this world. Among their qualities is an almost ridiculous ability to deal with the injuries and pain.
You may not always be faced with an avalanche of brilliant attackers in the NRL to remotely match the superlatives dished out by Australian television commentators who find silk purses in every set of six. But step into that cauldron and you will be up against coaches and teams who really know how to play their game and know all about yours.
Rule one is that league is now a game of momentum which requires teams to hang on to the ball. A couple of errors, or even a bad bounce of the ball, can suddenly turn the game an opponent's way. Once the tide turns, it can be awfully hard to stop, at least before you've been swamped on the scoreboard.
But in many years of watching the Australian rugby league competitions in their various guises, it is hard to recall a side giving away the ball as easily as these Warriors did on Monday night, often and crucially early in the tackle counts.
And don't anyone bang on about Manu Vatuvei on this score. The enormous wing has become a lightning rod for criticism, his ability under the high ball a topic to equal Richard Hadlee's run-up and Justin Marshall's pass as objects of national attention.
But no, leave Vatuvei-fever out of it this time, because they were all at it at Brookvale - Brent Tate, Michael Witt, Simon Mannering et al.
It became as fascinating as it was incomprehensible.
Manly, for their part, were terrific, but not to the tune of 50 points. The question now is can the Warriors bounce back? You also have to wonder if some bonds between coach and players were stretched on an absolutely miserable Monday night, and whether Cleary has suddenly been forced to question whether he has got his selection and development radar right.
Three games into the season, and the Warriors turned it up big time. No coach is perfect, but no coach is responsible for that.
There is one obvious and giant hole in Cleary's immediate plans. Lance Hohaia is not a fullback - apart from a dearth of the required attacking gifts the little utility lacks the speed and instincts to scramble on defence.
Vatuvei will not only be attacked in the air, but a general lack of agility, speed and nous around the Warriors three quarters and at fullback means they look like lame ducks against the grubbers and short kicks. Fullback options, unfortunately, are thin on the ground.
Which introduces the bigger picture to consider when you look at the Hohaia situation. It's not an excuse for what happened on Monday night, but years of mismanagement and a failure to produce players in the key positions - the brilliant Stacey Jones aside - is haunting the club again.
The Warriors were set up to rival the one-team-one-town behemoths Brisbane, but you need players in the same ballpark as Lockyer to buck like the Broncos.
Why can't our football flair hotbed present a better fullback option than Hohaia, or homegrown hookers and halves for that matter.
There are a few mitigating factors, but until the Warriors find a way to deal with them, they will remain mid-table disappointments.
It's great to see a booming talent like Sonny Fai step into first grade, but talented Polynesian athletes the size of the family freezer are a dime a dozen - and that's just at my local shops.
Numbers nine, seven, six and one are the spine of a rugby league team. The Warriors beat the odds in luring fullbacks Brent Webb and Wade McKinnon across the Tasman but in the other key positions their imports are only adequate by NRL standards. They are playing with fire - and without spark - relying on this policy.
It would also be so much more exciting for the fans, and the town, if they could produce superstar operators of their own. That, after all, is what the Warriors were supposed to be all about yet the situation has actually gone backwards over the past 14 seasons.
Cleary has brought a much-needed stability to the club, and rode a run of injury luck last year to take the Warriors into fourth place. But it took only a couple of injuries to derail them in the playoffs and remove any high sense of optimism over the 2008 season.
The Cleary move which has disappointed me the most was the switching of Jerome Ropati from stand-off to centre.
It smacked of an Australian's lack of faith in a homegrown product, the belief that the Warriors had to be guided and inspired by whoever they signed from across the Tasman.
Backing Ropati, who is as good a footballer if not clearly better than Grant Rovelli and Michael Witt for my money, would have flown the flag for the local game. It would have encouraged all the schemers and the dreamers, the potential halves and hookers, to believe the Warriors had faith that there was more to New Zealand league than brute strength.
Ropati has been a leader in his teams since younger days. He had rough edges and a propensity for big errors, but he can really play. This is to state the obvious, but local gifts will never flower if they aren't given the chance.
None of this, however, explains Monday night. The Warriors won't play that badly again, and the NRL is full of dramatic bounce backs. It was a performance to make you fear what lies ahead though, especially while the extraordinary Price is sidelined.
