Richie Barnett: Warriors deserved their rest - now the work starts again

Manu Vatuvei. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

The Warriors needed a break, but the question is whether the rest from the bye week will have broken their momentum. They may have been struggling physically - there were players strapped up all over the place in their last couple of games - but on the field they had a good thing going.

A bye can work two ways. On the positive side it provides valuable rest and allows players to get over niggling injuries. But it can also interrupt a team's flow.

We'll just have to wait and see how it affects a Warriors side that had won five in a row. After a brutal 11 or 12 weeks they earned their rest. It's just a matter of where their head space will be at tomorrow night.

The Warriors will be focusing on the positives. Big Manu Vatuvei is one player in particular who should benefit from the bye.

He has been playing at about 50 per cent of his capacity since coming back from his knee injury. Apparently the knee isn't the problem. Rather, Manu had blisters on his feet that were so severe he had had to have local anaesthetic injections before matches.

The story goes that he gave his regular training boots to a young kid and the ones he used to replace them gave him blisters. Watching him over recent weeks that certainly makes sense. You could see that something just wasn't right.

Hopefully the time off has helped his feet heal and he will be back to his old self. That would be a big boost for the team.

The fact that Manu and plenty of others have played and trained through the pain shows you the make-up of this Warriors team. They've gone through the hard times together. That's a great sign.

There haven't been too many positives for the Roosters this season. It's hard to put your finger on what has gone wrong for a team that made the grand final last season. They've certainly had a heap of injuries. Then there's Todd Carney going through his "who am I?" phase. Carney is a key player, so his issues would definitely have affected the team.

Apparently, the Roosters have been having a lot of team meetings of late. You tend to do that when you are losing. You get everyone around a table and discuss how everyone is feeling and how you can get back on track.

When teams start assessing where they are at like that, you just feel that something might happen.

I think the Roosters haven't been that bad of late. They've been defending their line well, they just can't score points. They've been creating opportunities, but just not finishing.

That sort of situation can change quickly. Sometimes one win is enough to turn things around, and the Roosters will be hoping that tomorrow night is the night they start to get it right.

If they can get the best out of Carney and Shaun Kenny-Dowall then they will definitely fancy their chances.

* Richie Barnett played 12 tests for the Kiwis.