KEY POINTS:
Wade McKinnon's return after six months sidelined with injury and a little fine-tuning by coach Ivan Cleary add significant attacking power to the Warriors for their game against Brisbane at Mt Smart on Saturday.
McKinnon may have to be forgiven some errors before he finds full match fitness, but is capable of making the crucial breaks that can turn a game.
His return allows Cleary to inject Lance Hohaia from the bench and his acceleration from dummy half and valuable support in traffic will be another advantage in attack when he comes on fresh against tiring forwards.
"We've been thrilled with the job Lance has done taking on the fullback's job until now," Cleary said. "He's been our fix-it man."
Consistent performer Aidan Kirk is ruled out with a hamstring injury. Rookie Malo Solomona returns on the right outside Brent Tate, who plays against his old club for the first time.
Sonny Fai, who opened the scoring in three games before last Saturday's loss to Souths where he made an error, is dropped in the "rest and rotation" of the newly introduced under-20s. This allows Jerome Ropati to reunite with Manu Vatuvei in the left field attack, which should lead to more understanding in defence.
Epalahame Lauaki comes back to the bench after three weeks with the Auckland Vulcans and Evarn Tuimavave, who had the perfect last chance to steal the game against Souths but dropped a pass with the line open, gets a wake-up call, pushed off the bench.
Meanwhile, the Broncos go to the judiciary in Sydney tonight to fight a grade-one contrary conduct charge laid against test centre Justin Hodges for "offensive or derogatory action towards an official". Hodges gave referee Tony Archer a fingerless salute behind his back after Archer ruled against the Broncos.
It was Hodges' second game back after a six-week ban for a dangerous tackle and he will miss the Warriors game and their subsequent match against the Dragons if found guilty.
The Broncos have also lost lock Tonie Carroll to a leg injury, replaced by David Stagg. David Taylor comes to the bench and Joel Moon travels as 18th man.
The team arrive in Auckland tomorrow.
While the Broncos are in Auckland, North Queensland will use Suncorp Stadium to host a trial "home" game against the Bulldogs.
But star halfback Johnathan Thurston is not expected to be cleared fit after knee surgery and with Sonny Bill Williams gone, the game is not expected to draw a big crowd.
Sharks forwards Isaac De Gois and Kade Snowden were charged with a lifting tackle on Dragons wing Jason Nightingale and the former misses this weekend, while Snowden has demerit points that will take him out of the game against the Warriors at Mt Smart the following week.
Titans five-eighths Mat Rogers faces a grapple tackle charge and will miss the game against the Knights next Monday.
Warriors
Wade McKinnon, Malo Solomona, Brent Tate, Jerome Ropati, Manu Vatuvei, Michael Witt, Nathan Fien, Ruben Wiki, Ian Henderson, Steve Price (capt), Simon Mannering, Logan Swann, Micheal Luck. Interchange: Lance Hohaia, Ben Matulino, Epalahame Lauaki, Sam Rapira
Broncos
Karmichael Hunt, Denan Kemp, Darius Boyd, Justin Hodges, Kaine Manihera, Darren Lockyer (capt), Peter Wallace, Ben Hannant, Michael Ennis, Joel Clinton, Corey Parker, Sam Thaiday, David Stagg. Interchange: Ashton Sims, Greg Eastwood, Nick Kenny, David Taylor, Joel Moon (one to be omitted)
