KEY POINTS:
As the NRL headed into round four this weekend, the top four teams from last season were sitting outside the eight.
While it is far too early in the season for this to carry too much significance, and Manly and Melbourne in particular will correct this, it is a sign the salary cap is doing its job.
It is a cliche, and a favourite of tired players and coaches, but any team can beat any other on their day. You could hardly say that of English Premiership football.
The pressures of the salary cap place even greater emphasis on depth and, for the Warriors, this is being tested with injuries to Steve Price, Wade McKinnon and Jerome Ropati.
Few teams can cope without three of their best players, least of all the Warriors, and it's hard to believe they would have been thumped 52-6 by Manly last Monday had the trio been on the park.
It's no coincidence that it was the Warriors' heaviest defeat in the Ivan Cleary era, by some margin (the previous worst was the 36-6 defeat to Penrith in 2006).
"Injuries highlight depth and last weekend highlighted that the Warriors are not as strong as they make out to be," former Kiwis captain Hugh McGahan said. "They are OK in one-off situations [when players are missing for one week] but it's whether they can back up week in, week out. Without Price's leadership and metres, Ropati's ball-playing abilities and McKinnon's strike power, they were found wanting."
Depth is something that will improve at Mt Smart Stadium following the arrivals of the under-20 competition and the Auckland Vulcans but it will take time for the benefits to be seen.
In the past there has been too much of a gulf between playing in the likes of the Bartercard Cup and the NRL, which has led to the club's reliance on bringing in Australian talent. Youngsters need to learn about the rigours of top-level competition, which Australian clubs have been doing for years by farming out their youth to tough state competitions.
The Sydney teams are best equipped by sheer weight of numbers.
NSW is the stronghold of the game in Australia and clubs like the Wests Tigers have great success in developing youngsters into first-graders. They might not be stars, but the Tigers have good depth.
The Roosters have also become better at developing players rather than just buying them in as they have traditionally done.
Non-NSW clubs need to identify talent early and try to lure them to Queensland or Melbourne - the Broncos and Storm in particular have had success here. They have good identification and development systems and are better able to cope with injuries and the inevitable departure of high-profile players as they struggle to remain under the salary cap.
Melbourne's empire is already under attack with Israel Folau last week signing with Brisbane from 2009 and there's speculation Cameron Smith, Greg Inglis and coach Craig Bellamy could follow. Cannibalism is alive and well in rugby league.
Brisbane showed last weekend they have good depth when they thrashed the Cowboys despite the absence of players Darren Lockyer, Karmichael Hunt, Joel Clinton and Corey Parker.
As much as the salary cap has evened things up, blowouts like what happened to the Warriors last Monday are commonplace. No team has been immune.
Even Manly and Melbourne, the two most consistent teams of the past two seasons, have been on the wrong end of hidings.
Brisbane lost consecutive games, 68-22 (Eels) and 40-0 (Storm) last season and the Cowboys lost three games by huge margins in 2007 (44-14 to the Eels, 58-12 to the Storm, 54-10 to the Wests Tigers) but still finished the regular season in third.
New Warriors recruit Brent Tate experienced it during his time with Brisbane but hoped it wouldn't happen quite so early in his Warriors career. He says when things start to go wrong in a game, it's hard to arrest.
"I think it has something to do with the salary cap," he says. "It's one of those things that happen, it's not a very nice feeling, but it's a blip on the radar. You don't see it coming. Your preparation is great and then during the game you find yourself digging yourself deeper. Everything we tried [against Manly] turned to custard and the harder we tried, the deeper we got into trouble.
"It's very disappointing because we've let ourselves down, our fans down and the club. We don't want to forget it because it's something that has happened, and you don't ever forget because it cuts pretty deeply. You just have to say, 'look it's happened and you can't do anything about it now' and move on to the next week.
"There's no point watching videos of it because you just relive the nightmare. We watched our videos individually and we will take what we can out of it
"Most teams have gone through it over the last couple of years.
"The real test is how you bounce back from it. That's the great thing; we have a chance to play well, and play at home."
One of the things they will have to do against Newcastle today is improve their completion rate.
They travelled at 47 per cent against Manly (most teams strive for at least 70 per cent) and made nearly 100 more tackles than the opposition.
Few teams win if they spend most of the game tackling and this was common during the Warriors' six-game losing streak last season. Their depth and resolve were tested then, but they now face a bigger challenge.
RECORD LOSSES
The biggest defeat for each NRL club since 2006:
Broncos: 22-68 vs Eels (07)
Bulldogs: 0-30 vs Broncos (06)
Cowboys: 12-58 vs Storm (07)
Dragons: 6-54 vs Knights (06)
Eels: 12-38 vs Raiders (07)
Knights: 6-71 vs Broncos (07)
Panthers: 14-54 vs Warriors (07)
Rabbitohs: 0-66 vs Warriors (06)
Raiders: 4-52 vs Bulldogs (07)
Roosters: 0-56 vs Sea Eagles (07)
Sea Eagles: 0-28 vs Dragons (06)
Sharks: 16-42 vs Tigers (06)
Storm: 8-40 vs Cowboys (06)
Titans: 10-56 vs Raiders (07)
Warriors: 6-52 vs Sea Eagles (08)
Wests Tigers: 4-46 vs Storm (06)
