Kiwis coaching legend Graham Lowe advocates an old-school, fire-and-brimstone approach, while former Kiwis skipper Hugh McGahan is more new age in his thinking. Both agree it comes down to the players' mental attitude at kick-off, but the question remains which attitude is the correct one.
"It's not a small problem, but it's definitely a fixable one," says Lowe. "Brian will be able to address it and I'm sure he will this week.
"He's probably expected more from some players than they've provided, and he's now found himself in a position where he'll have to put words in their mouths and actions in their deeds.
"It's not a matter of pointing fingers. If you look at last week's game, the forwards got absolutely smashed by the Roosters forwards and if I was them, I'd feel embarrassed."
Lowe maintains the opening quarter sets a tone for the rest of the game and the Warriors simply haven't been aggressive enough in those initial exchanges.
"Traditionally, the first 20 minutes of any game have been crucial - that's when both sides take each other's measure. Not only do you have to protect the scoreboard, but you're also protecting your reputation and unfortunately, the Warriors have failed at both.
"They'll have to up their aggression in that period more than at any stage of any game this year. If they don't do it, the Canberra Raiders will kick their arses this weekend."
Meanwhile, former Kiwis captain McGahan believes there's no quick fix, just time. In fact, the harder you try to overcome it, the more damage you risk.
"The short answer is I don't think anyone knows the answer," he shrugs. "The only way to get out of it is to just keep playing, not concentrate too much on it and it'll sort itself out."
While the Warriors might fret about their slow start, they'd be wrong to try starting faster, says McGahan.
"Then you just encounter other problems. If you try rushing too many things, especially at the start of a game when the opposition is already rushing you defensively, you begin snatching at the ball and dropping it.
"How else can you comprehend players like Simon Mannering and Elijah Taylor with three drops each, when they're the safest hands out there?
"You just need a solid start. The best way to describe it is 'rhythm'. Once you find it, everything else just seems to flow." McClennan hears all the advice and agrees with both Lowe and MGahan.
"I don't think it's any one thing," he says. "It's a multitude of things - we do need to be physical and stamp our mark on the game defensively. We also need to get ourselves into that nice rhythm on offence.
"But, in the first instance, we've not translated our preparation into performance, so we've looked at that in terms of our warm-up into the game."
McClennan points to a lack of talk as a key weakness, further exacerbated by the absence of injured veterans like Micheal Luck and Sam Rapira.
"We're quite a quiet team, so we're working hard on communication," he says. "There are five players in our leadership group and Micheal and Sam are a big part of it. We've had long periods where there are just three of that group on the field and sometimes just two. "When we get five of them out there, the communication will be much better."
Perhaps the key work-on, though, is securing an early share of the ball.
"In all our games, the opposition has had 50 per cent of the possession or more. It's the hardest part of the game and we've been doing all the defending."
