KEY POINTS:
Warriors - Bulldogs games are usually close and high-scoring and tomorrow's encounter at Mt Smart should be no exception.
The team that loses will have to win about three-quarters of its remaining matches to retain any hope of playing finals football, given that around 28 points has been the cut-off for the top-eight in recent seasons.
Desperation will be on show for sure. The team that limits errors and maintains discipline should be the winner.
The pattern throughout the NRL this year is that the majority of tries follow either a mistake or a penalty - last Monday's Warriors-Eels game was a good demonstration.
The Warriors, the third-most penalised team in the competition, cannot afford to gift goal shots to Hazem El Masri, who shoots with 88 per cent accuracy.
With defences as impenetrable as they are, many tries are coming from kicks. The Warriors are not good at defusing either high kicks or grubbering chips.
In their recent games, the Warriors have lost the field-kicking game, beaten by halves who can kick longer and with better accuracy. The Dogs do not enjoy that advantage.
Their best weapon is probably Sonny Bill Williams, the game's top off-loader. Given a licence to roam from lock, he could be the game-breaker.
Willie Mason is out with a hamstring strain so New Zealander Lee Te Maari gets his first start and Andrew Emelio has a knee problem. The Warriors have swapped Manu Vatuvei for Michael Crockett on the left wing.
The Dogs have lost three in a row, the Warriors four.
In early games when they were winning, with Grant Rovelli at halfback, there was better cohesion in the side. But he appeared to lose his way, was dropped to premier league and since then the side has lacked the efficiency and accuracy that breaks defensive lines and brings tries. Suspensions to fullback Wade McKinnon and half Michael Witt, players in key positions, have not helped.
There is no doubt coach Ivan Cleary sees Rovelli as the long-term option at halfback, given he was re-signed to 2009. Jerome Ropati has looked strong running with the ball and defensively sound at five-eighth after returning from injury. But errors mar his game, he needs to develop his kicking attack and take more control of running the options.
The Warriors have not been creating as many opportunities as they should from midfield and to the flanks, partly because the backrowers have not been producing off-loads.
In Micheal Luck they have a tackling machine but he, Logan Swann, Evarn Tuimavave and Corey Lawrie have been playing all-too-predictable games in attack. Wairangi Koopu should be better for one game back and will hopefully offer breaks out wide.
If Steve Price and Ruben Wiki can deliver some go-forward the Warriors' chances will lie with the smaller guys - Nathan Fien, the halves Witt and Ropati, McKinnon and Lance Hohaia.
