The Warriors' loss to the Sea Eagles last Sunday showed just how vital explosive winger Manu Vatuvei is to the team's fortunes.
It's hard to over-state how much the Warriors are missing Manu Vatuvei at the moment.
Any time a team loses its star player it has a massive effect. When I was at the Roosters, if Brad Fittler was sidelined we really struggled. All of the plays revolved around Freddie and there was no other player that could do what he did. So it had a huge effect on us when we played without him. We really struggled.
The Warriors are in the same position without Manu. Sure, Manu is a totally different player to Freddie. As a winger he doesn't run the Warriors' plays, but I think at times people underestimate what he brings to the side.
If a game is in the balance, Manu is often the difference between a win and a loss. Bill Tupou had an outstanding debut against Manly last Sunday, but I still felt that if Manu had been playing the Warriors would have won.
Tupou carried the ball 180m and made one of just three line breaks during what was a really tight match - a great effort for a kid on debut. When you look at Tupou, he seems a big, chunky guy. But he looked small out there because we are used to seeing Manu with his fearsome size. But Manu is more than just big.
If anything, Manly's winger Tony Williams is even bigger than Manu, but he's not the same quality of player. He has got the size but he doesn't run like Manu. Manu runs with aggression and pace. Williams is nowhere near it.
Manu makes about three or four breaks a game and is near unstoppable close to the line. He is The Man, and he could have made the difference against Manly.
It's strange for a winger to be such a vital player, but that just shows the game is changing. When you look around the competition, the fullbacks are doing a lot of the damage and the back three have become extremely important - more so than they were in my day.
Listening to the post match interviews, the Warriors mentioned a lot how tired they were from the previous week's effort in Brisbane. That's fair enough, but then you look at how the Tigers played against the Eels in round three following a four-day turnaround. They turned up for that game, played exceptionally well and pulled out the result.
There's a lesson in that for the Warriors. They may have been tired after piling a lot of points on the Broncos but they have got to learn to back-up and win the tough ones the following week.
What I did like about the Warriors' performance is that, while they may have been down on energy, they stayed in the game. In the end it took a pathetic try decision from the video ref to finish them off.
That decision was absurd. It's not basketball - and Steve Matai bounced that ball.
As a player a decision like that, when you are really hanging in, can kill you. To their credit the Warriors did try hard to fight back.
With the very good NRL sides, the difference between their best and worst performances is minimal. Last year you certainly couldn't say that about the Warriors - when they were good they were very good but when they were bad they were awful. This year the Warriors are really closing that gap.
Despite Sunday's loss they still look to be in a really good space at the moment. It is still early in the season and they have a lot of key players to return from injury.
The rash of hamstring injuries at the club will be messing with the trainers' heads. We had a similar situation at London Broncos and you really start to second guess yourself. The trainers will be wondering if it is a training issue but it won't be. It's just one of those fluke things.
The worrying thing is that, from my experience, recurring hamstring injuries often take a long time to heal. If a player is out for six weeks the first time then it usually takes that long again to come back a second time. And the club's medical staff will be even more cautious the second time around.
That means Manu and Simon Mannering could be out for a while.
So Steve Price can't come back soon enough. Price will give the side a real lift. His decision to announce his retirement will have been a relief to his teammates. Now at least they all know what is going on.
Price will want to finish well. He is focused on performance and getting the best out of himself and that can only be good for the Warriors.
