KEY POINTS:
Right from their inaugural year in 1995, everyone wanted top-level consistency from the Warriors. But they delivered top-class performances only sporadically.
That's all about to change - next year they can be expected to produce those top performances regularly.
If the top side beat Manly at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday, they will go to the October 5 grand final at the 82,500-seat Sydney Olympic Stadium to meet the winner of Friday night's Cronulla-Melbourne game.
But regardless of what happens from here, with the squads they have and the experience being gathered, they will be a formidable force in 2009.
The drive of the Warriors Juniors, who play Brisbane in the curtainraiser on Saturday, through the new under-20s playoff series, and of both sides to the second-to-last week of the NRL competition is compelling evidence of the turnaround achieved at the club after the change of management.
Both Warriors sides contest knockout games in Sydney next Saturday and if they win they go to the last contest of 2008. Silverware - or a brass statue of two guys hugging - would be great but possibly more important is maintaining the newfound credibility by ensuring they compete well and are in it to the end.
The end can be dramatic, as we have seen twice already in this series, when the Warriors overturned all odds and Melbourne and on Saturday when the Storm turned defeat to victory with 46 seconds left on the clock.
So defeat to Manly at the Sydney Football Stadium next weekend would not be ignominious.
What would be is the sort of loss suffered by the Eagles at the hands of the Storm last year, a 38-4 defeat in which Manly never ever threatened.
That would mean opposition sides start 2009 thinking as they did through much of 2008, that the Warriors don't travel well, that they can be run down in the dying stages.
That's the sort of hammering that inflicts head damage - the Sea Eagles have been driven all year as a result. There is an old saying "you have to lose a grand final in order to win one".
The Warriors top side's run of 10 wins in 12 games at the right end of the season shows the sort of resolve that does win titles.
The team are mostly young and signed on for more. The buys add a new dimension, especially the young Broncos Joel Moon and Denan Kemp. Coach Ivan Cleary has extended his contract. And if the emotion of Ruben Wiki's retirement and the repeated celebrations of his career after he achieved the 300-mark two months ago have been a motivator, so too will be the retirement of Steve Price after next season. You can bet Price, who has been a great buy for the club, will want to go away a winner.
The Juniors have already produced three players who have been elevated to top grade: Sonny Fai, Russell Packer and Ben Matulino, now a regular starter. All three have what it takes to forge long-term careers.
The only under-20s players who will not be available for the Toyota Cup side next season are Fai, Patrick Ah Van, Scott Jones and captain Daniel O'Regan. They started with a run of losses and draws this year; next season they will be a formidable force.
With that conveyer belt of talent coming through, the Warriors will be in better shape all round and especially in the key positions - fullback, five-eighths, halfback and hooker. The people in those positions in the Juniors have been outstanding all year. The Juniors perhaps have more chance of success this weekend than do the Warriors, who will not be favourites. If they can achieve a victory like last Friday's in blowing away Penrith, it will again give their big bro a big lift.
The senior side have two out of three of the ingredients that all long-term coaches rate as the most critical: momentum and a stable, injury-free team playing with cohesion.
They do not yet have the third, a dominant halfback or five-eighths of the nature of an Andrew Johns or Ricky Stuart, a Darren Lockyer or Brad Fittler, all of whom won more than one premiership title ring.
The man who might have done that for the Warriors, Stacey Jones, never had the required personnel balance around him.
Now there is the opportunity to inject a new Jones into a team already firing and a squad with depth.
