KEY POINTS:
Wade Mckinnon doesn't look like the type of guy who suffers from arachnophobia but Warriors coach Ivan Cleary might do well to leave a few spiders lying around McKinnon's locker.
The Warriors fullback was in dynamic form in Friday night's 54-14 shellacking of Penrith, scoring two tries and having a major hand in two others. He ran superb lines, wove his way around countless defenders and gobbled up a series of offloads from his teammates, who had a field day attacking Penrith up the middle of the park.
"It would be good if he was like that every week, which he is close to doing, but it was like he had spiders on him," Cleary said. "He was just fantastic. I thought he was great last week in difficult conditions and he backed it up [against Penrith].
"It was a different sort of game for him [from last weekend] and he had a lot more free space every time he got it."
He had 223m of free space, to be precise, easily his best return of a topsy-turvy season.
It was a difficult proposition taking over from the popular Brent Webb - McKinnon has understandably tired of the comparisons - but he hit the ground running with a series of good performances until a run-in, literally, with a referee against Souths ground his season to a halt. His form dipped on his return from a two-match suspension, although he was not the only Warrior that happened to, but in the past two weeks he has shown his full repertoire.
Last weekend against the Sharks, McKinnon showed his value in keeping his line intact. He was impervious under the high ball in difficult conditions, read the game well and defended like someone was trying to break into his house.
On Friday, against a dreadful Penrith side, he went on the attack. Only the naysayers would still question his worth after his 65m run, which left nearly 10,000 fans at Mt Smart Stadium glad they endured the stormy weather.
McKinnon was downplaying his role in the win, borrowing a number of lines out of the rugby league manual of cliches.
"My form comes off the back of the boys," he deadpanned. "If they're going well, it opens up so many opportunities for me to play. When they do that, that's when I'm going to pop up and play my best.
"There are definitely days when you're feeling good, and [that] was one of them. things were feeling right. The last few weeks I haven't been getting those short balls off the forwards but they were giving them to me and it was working out right."
The night was right for five-eighth Michael Witt. The 23-year-old has been unconvincing at times this season but, like McKinnon, has rediscovered his form in the past two weeks.
He, too, scored a double, adding to the one he scored against Cronulla last weekend. He's also proved his value with the boot, kicking a perfect 11 from 11 shots at goal in the absence of the injured Tony Martin.
Witt was aware of the criticism flying his way during the Warriors' run of six straight losses.
"There's always pressure when you're losing but this is our business and we're paid to win," he said.
"When any team is losing, people are always going to look at the halves to see if it's their fault. It's a pivotal position."
Witt isn't the strongest defender in the world, and Cleary will have a tough decision ahead of him in the next week with the imminent return from injury of Jerome Ropati. But with news that Martin is likely to be sidelined with damaged ribs for up to three weeks, Cleary might be tempted to slot the versatile Ropati into the centres.
The team have clearly refound their confidence and are playing are more expansive game, leading to suggestions they might have turned the corner after their run of losses.
"You'd hope to think so," Witt said. "Our confidence is high. We'll just be looking to build a few wins in a row. But we have a tough couple of games coming up away so it will certainly test us."
The Warriors travel to the Gold Coast next Saturday night to face a Titans side that have forged an impressive home record.
They then journey further north the following week to tackle a mercurial Cowboys outfit. The team will stay in Queensland between games.
Their position on the table is starting to look a lot healthier but with a short distance to both third and last, they don't want to be tangled in a spider's web and miss out on the eight.
