NRL: Warriors focus on basics to stay on task

Powerful defence is key to the Warriors' hopes this season. Photo / Getty Images

Team to stick with strategy that took them from low on ladder to finals calculations.

A straight and honest team discussion two months ago helped the Warriors to reassess their goals and provided the catalyst for their surge up the ladder and into the top four for the first time since 2011.

With the Warriors sitting towards the bottom of the NRL ladder, coach Andrew McFadden and his players spoke about the areas where they were letting themselves down and identified aspects of their play that needed improving if they were to match it with the competition heavyweights.

The messages sank in, with the Warriors winning seven of their last nine games to roar into finals calculations, but McFadden says the task now is to continue meeting their own standards and go on with the job through the back end of the year.

"Eight weeks ago we were sitting in 13th and we had a good honest discussion about what we needed to do, what changes we needed to make to turn our season around," said McFadden.

"Now we've got ourselves into position, we don't want to change that. We want to stick with it and keep challenging ourselves, keeping each other accountable and just making sure that we don't slip in the key areas."

Ahead of Sunday's big showdown against the third-placed Roosters in Sydney, McFadden says his side need to ignore the building hype and expectations around their good form and maintain their desperation to win.

He stresses it's the effort they put in each day at training that will determine how effective they are on game day.

"That's the trap - to get caught up in all this," he said.

"It really is about staying grounded and just focusing on what worked to get us here.

"The players realised that too. We had talked about that for a long time, that what we do from day to day means more than what we do on the weekend - that's the result, that's the outcome.

"But it's the way we conduct ourselves, the standards we have that really matters, so we've just got to continue to uphold those standards.

"There's no doubt that our confidence is high at the moment. We're very comfortable with our game but we need to keep challenging ourselves to get better."

Last month's heart-breaking 25-21 last-minute home defeat to the Roosters had taught them an important lesson about maintaining their intensity on defence for the full 80 minutes.

Against Melbourne, the Warriors confidently repelled numerous waves of attack on their own goal line and more of the same is needed at Allianz Stadium on Sunday.

"We did enough offensively to really win the [round 14] game but our defence really let us down at crucial times so it's going to take a much better defensive effort to get the points this time.

"Against the Roosters, who are the best defensive team in the competition, we are going to have to play our best football. We want to build our own pressure and we do that with quality defence."

The forward challenge will again be crucial but McFadden knows the Tri-Colours have strike power right across the board. "They are a formidable pack. They're big, they're aggressive. They won a comp two years ago so they're one of those consistent top four sides.

"You look across their squad and it's chock full of quality so it's going to take a team effort to really get over the top of them."