The Achilles' heel the Warriors must fix before finals

The Warriors are flying towards the top of the ladder, posing as the next best challenger to Penrith for the Provan-Summons Trophy.

But Denan Kemp has identified one aspect within Andrew Webster’s side that must be fixed to avoid an early finals exit.

Despite their starting halfback going down with a season-ending ACL injury for the second season in a row, the Warriors have not let it derail the side’s form in 2026, holding on to second spot.

That form continued on Friday night with the side, coming off their their final bye of the season, defeating Wests Tigers in a comfortable 32-6 victory at Campbelltown.

However, the former Warriors winger believes the win highlights an issue that needs to be addressed before the home and away season concludes.

“I thought the Warriors could have won by honestly over 50,” Kemp explained on SEN’s Saturday League Kick Off.

“It was still a really good win for the Warriors, a good solid win.

“They do have a tendency to not cash in a lot of momentum.

"There's so many games where they will dominate that first 20 (minutes), and they don't cash in (and) they'll make an error trying to score a try.

“Then all of a sudden the momentum swings and you're sitting there as a Warriors fan and you're going, ‘Hang on a sec, we were dominating this team and now all of a sudden we go into halftime, it's 14-6’.

“Now, (the) Tigers eventually fell away, but if they are to be a premiership threat, they're gonna need to make sure they're far more ruthless when they do have momentum."

“They have lost their main No. 7 (Tanah Boyd), even though Te Maire Martin's been outstanding, so has (Chanel) Harris-Tavita, but that's their biggest Achilles' heel heading into finals footy; if you get momentum, you must cash in on it.”

Chad Townsend agreed with Kemp’s view, noting that the team would be disappointed not to win by more.

“They started the game really strong, physical, moving the ball from side to side, the kick chase, impressive, playing fast (and) scoring easily,” Townsend added.

“That's what made me think, the Warriors are in a mood here.

“But then they made a couple of errors, they got brought back to life (and) the Tigers scored a try against the run of play.

“I think the Warriors will sit down in this game, and there were some great individual performers, but for me, I think they'll be disappointed.

“They'll be disappointed with their ball control, and if they played last night, that game against a top four, top six team, I don't know if they win that game.

The Warriors are back to Auckland for the first time in a month next week when the St George Illawarra Dragons come to Go Media Stadium next Saturday.

That kicks off at 5:35pm AEST.