KEY POINTS:
Things don't get any easier for the Warriors.
After seeing off bogey team Parramatta Eels and defending premiers Brisbane Broncos, they face three more top eight sides from last year in succession, starting with the Melbourne Storm away tomorrow.
With the visit to the undefeated minor premiers followed
by match-ups with Manly and North Queensland - who have yet to lose this season - the Warriors have been handed a tough start to their campaign this year.
"It has been a tough start to the year but a start that you probably want," said skipper Steve Price.
"You really want to get an indication of how you are going and you like to be challenged by the best players. And we are certainly in that position with the teams we are playing early on in the season."
Of the three encounters, tomorrow's looms as the most challenging.
The Warriors scraped a 24-20 victory at Olympic Park in round 24 to give the Storm their only home defeat last season, but by then the Storm had already run away with the minor premiership and would have had one eye on the finals.
"Last year they were definitely the outstanding side of the competition," acknowledges Price.
"You've got to come up with a pretty polished performance to not only match them but get the two points off them. We are looking forward to that challenge, but we know it's going to be a very tough afternoon."
The match pits two exciting young backs, Greg Inglis and Billy Slater, against two tough veteran props, Price and Ruben Wiki.
The Warriors warhorses will almost certainly win the middle ground when they are on the park, but for their side to win, they will have to shut down Slater and Inglis.
The Storm have dropped only two games in their last 18 at home, so it is a feat not many visiting teams accomplish.
"We won't do anything special but we certainly won't want to be giving him [Inglis] a lot of football and a lot of space," said Price of the plan to combat the player many rate as the best young talent in the game, and who looks to be making a successful switch from the outside backs to five-eighth.
"Given time and space he can really make you pay."
Optimism might be too strong a word, but there are reasons to believe the Warriors might just shut down the potent Storm offence.
Last year - their first under coach Ivan Cleary - the Warriors had the third-best defensive record in the competition despite posting only a modest 12-12 record to finish outside the top eight.
This season they are already among the frontrunners defensively, having conceded 32 points in their first two games.
"When I came to the club we let a lot of points in," Price said, perhaps understating the case.
"But if you can get that area right, it certainly gives you confidence when you have got the ball. And it can diminish the opposition's confidence as well when you are stopping them from scoring tries and not allowing them to play the way they want to play.
"We haven't got it 100 per cent right yet - you haven't until you keep a team to zero - but certainly, to keep the teams that we've played so far to the points that we have is a real testament to how we've improved."
Another crumb of comfort can be found in the Warriors' record against the Storm - 17 games, eight wins each and one draw.
In terms of winning percentage, the Warriors have a better record against only South Sydney, North Queensland and Sydney Roosters.
Meanwhile, the Auckland Lions face an equally tough test when the fledgling New South Wales Premier League club makes its first trip to Sydney to take on Canterbury Bulldogs.
The Lions will be boosted by the presence of Warriors wing Patrick Ah Van, but will have to do without the injured Cooper Vuna and Todd Byrne, who travelled with the Warriors as 18th man.
The Bulldogs have named a strong line-up for the match.
Premiership-winning halfback Brent Sherwin and Kiwis international Matt Utai are among 10 players with first grade experience.
