The Warriors are staring down the barrel of a six game run without a win and things don’t get easier for the struggling Kiwi side as they travel to Brisbane to play defending premiers, the Penrith Panthers in the Magic Round of the NRL.
At the start of the season, pundits and fans would have expected the team to be sitting higher than their current 14th position on the NRL ladder at this stage in the season, with 10 completed rounds.
Former player and Fox League analyst Michael Ennis isn’t ruling the Warriors season out just yet.
"We all had great excitement with what the Warriors did last year and hopefully being able to replicate that this year," Ennis told 1News.
"They haven't been as gritty and in that mindset of willing to do whatever it takes for each other like they did last year."
The 2016 premiership winner thinks the Warriors haven’t provided an 80 minute performance since the 34-4 thrashing of South Sydney in round five.
"The Warriors haven’t been awful this year," Ennis notes, "they've just been inconsistent in periods of their game. They’re just a 50 to 60 minute side at the moment and you just can't do that against top sides."
Ennis still believes the Warriors have the potential to make the top eight as it’s still early in the season but said they have to start picking up wins now.
"They need to get going and they need to get going quickly."
"There’s no way I’d put a line through the Warriors at this point in the season given the talent they’ve got in their roster."
Ennis said he is a big fan of players such as Tohu Harris and Mitchell Barnett who have been good this season but have lacked consistency.
Injuries have also plagued the Warriors in key areas of their side with Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad missing for the earlier part of this season with a hamstring injury and Luke Metcalf out for the majority of this season with a leg fracture.
More recently, Shaun Johnson picked up a pectoral injury in the Warriors 38-18 loss to the Roosters and is likely to miss two weeks while Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is sidelined for six weeks with a hamstring strain.
This has forced the Warriors to make some big changes to their side that plays in Brisbane this Sunday.
Ennis thinks the Warriors have a good chance against Penrith this weekend if they take the game to them as well as being at their best defensively to limit the Panthers metres.
Penrith are without star halfback Nathan Cleary missing due to a hamstring injury, so they will be less of a kicking threat for the Warriors.
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