League: Slow-starting Warriors looking to throw first punch

Lance Hohaia of the Warriors makes a break during the NRL Trial match between the Warriors and the Melbourne Storm. Photo / Getty Images

The New Zealand Warriors want to "throw the first punch" against Melbourne tomorrow night as they look to turn around their slow starts in the National Rugby League.

Utility Lance Hohaia said the Warriors had talked about the need to hit the ground running away to the Storm at Olympic Park.

"We spoke about being a bit more pro-active in the way we start our matches and not waiting to see what other sides do - throwing the first punch, you could say," he said.

"It's hard if you let any team be two or three tries ahead at halftime."

The Warriors have fallen behind early in four of the six rounds so far.

In two of those matches, they have managed to complete notable late comebacks - against Manly in round two and against the Sydney Roosters last weekend.

The 17-16 home victory over the Roosters featured a particularly remarkable turnaround, with the Warriors down 16-0 at halftime before winning in extra time.

Hohaia said it was difficult to say why the Warriors had let others sides get the jump on them.

One reason could be the injury toll, which hadn't allowed for settled team selections.

Against the Roosters, Hohaia was himself returning from a spell on the sidelines to replace injured fullback Wade McKinnon.

He turned in a busy performance, making 23 runs, gaining 179m and playing a crucial hand at the death.

It was a break from near his own goal-line that gave the Warriors the field position from which veteran halfback Stacey Jones slotted the golden-point field goal.

The Warriors have happy memories about Olympic Park, their last trip there having turned out to be an historic one.

Their dramatic 18-15 victory over Melbourne last September marked the first time since the present playoff format was adopted that the bottom-ranked qualifiers had beaten the minor premiers.

Hohaia said the events of that afternoon hadn't really been brought up in preparations this week.

Both the Melbourne and the Warriors, who sit seventh and eighth on the table, had made changes to their roster since then and it was also a new competition.

"So it's hard to go back an re-live those sorts of things," he said.

"But we can take confidence out of having played well there."

Hohaia was again named at fullback for McKinnon when the 17 to face Melbourne were announced on Tuesday.

However, McKinnon travelled to Australia with the squad yesterday, although coach Ivan Cleary said it was unlikely he would be a late call-up against the Storm.

"He's training with team and that's pretty much where he's at," he said.

"At this stage he should be fine for next week, but he would have to improve significantly if we were going to consider him [for tomorrow]. He's certainly not likely."

While Cleary was dampening down McKinnon's prospects, he was expecting Melbourne to make a late change to their published line-up by fielding new-signing Brett Finch.

"I think he's probably a good chance," he said of the former Parramatta half.

"They've bought him and they haven't bought him to sit and watch. I guess it's going to be pretty soon, and it wouldn't surprise me if he plays."

- NZPA