The secret to the Warriors' success through the eyes of key rivals

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The Warriors enjoyed a win in Hamilton last weekend, but they weren’t at their best.

NRL: Warriors v Sea Eagles Where: Daniel Anderson Stadium, Auckland. When: Friday, August 18, 8pm. Coverage: Live Sky Sport 4, live updates on Stuff from 7.40pm

Manly Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold believes the key to Andrew Webster turning around the Warriors has been transforming them into a far more consistent team.

The Sea Eagles have a must-win game against the Warriors in Auckland on Friday night and even though Seibold’s optimistic about his team’s chances, he knows how much tougher the Warriors are to play against this season.

The Warriors have always been able to produce great wins and play breathtaking footy, but over the years this has been mixed in with woeful performances.

Under Webster, those terrible outings have disappeared and he feels that’s been crucial to the club’s success this year, which has them third on the ladder with three games to go.

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Anthony Seibold is aware that the Warriors will have plenty of strike weapons against the Sea Eagles on Friday.

“They’re a really consistent team,” Seibold said.

“Andrew Webster has had a long apprenticeship on both sides of the world, England and Australia and New Zealand and he’s done a good job building consistency.

“They’ve got a really good team, some of the additions to the team like Mitch Barnett, Dylan Walker and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad have been really good.

“You add them to Shaun Johnson, Addin Fonua-Blake and they’ve got a really formidable team.

“They’ve got points in them and some strike with Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and others. So we need to be on our game, bring the best version of Manly. We need to be hard to beat, keep fighting and we’ve done that this year.”

Although the Warriors have won their last five games and eight out of their last nine, they were below par in their victories over the Titans and Wests Tigers the past two weeks and that’s been a concern for Webster, who’s looking for a better mental attitude from the players on Friday.

Seibold doesn’t feel the Warriors are going through a bad patch, but this is all part of the usual struggles during an NRL season.

“I haven’t seen a dip so much,” he said.

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The Sea Eagles put up a good fight in their 24-12 loss to the Panthers last weekend.

“The NRL is a tough competition and it doesn’t matter where you are on the table, week upon week, it’s the most demanding rugby competition in the world, in either code.

“They’ve done a very good job at being consistent this year and they’re in the top four for a reason. We certainly come here as the underdogs, but we’ve got great confidence in what we can do and feel like this is a great opportunity for us.

“We weren’t far away last week against the team coming first, Penrith (losing 24-12). But we know that we need to be better for longer periods of the game.

“This is a good challenge and a great opportunity for us.”

Don’t expect the Sea Eagles to wave the white flag at any point on Friday night, as this is a season-defining game for them.

They enter this round 12th on the ladder and three points outside the top eight with two games to go.

As they play the lowly Bulldogs and Wests Tigers in their final two games, they’re still in with a chance of making the top eight, but their season is on the line against the Warriors.

“We’re still in the race for the top eight so this is a crucial game for us,” Seibold said.

“We need to win this game to keep in that race, we need to build on what we did last week against Penrith and do it for a bit longer.

“It has been a challenging time, we’ve got 10 players out who have played first grade for us this year.

“So our squad is quite skinny, but we’re confident in what we can do against a good New Zealand team that deserves their spot in the top four at the moment.

“But our job is to come here and disrupt them and get the result and performance we want.”

Mt Smart Stadium has been renamed Daniel Anderson Stadium for this game, with the Warriors recognising the NRL’s decision to honour the club’s former coach this weekend.

Anderson suffered a spinal cord injury late last year following a body surfing accident and all clubs are looking to raise money for him over round 25.

Seibold believes this shows how the rugby league community is so good at coming together to help out one of their own.

"I’ve admired Daniel’s career from afar, in the English Super League with St Helens and he took New Zealand and Parramatta to grand finals here.

“So he’s had a storied career as a coach and in more recent times as an administrator.

“It’s been a challenging time for him and his family, but it’s great recognition by the NRL to dedicate a round to Daniel, but also by the Warriors for renaming the stadium to honour Daniel and recognise what he did for the Warriors in the 2000s.

“Rugby league looks after its own. Daniel is in a tough spot at the moment and the rugby league community has rallied around him.”

AT A GLANCE

FACT BOX

Warriors: Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Rocco Berry, Adam Pompey, Marcelo Montoya, Luke Metcalf, Shaun Johnson; Addin Fonua-Blake, Wayde Egan, Bunty Afoa, Jackson Ford, Marata Niukore, Tohu Harris (c). Interchange: Dylan Walker, Jazz Tevaga, Bayley Sironen, Josh Curran. Reserves: Tom Ale, Taine Tuaupiki, Freddy Lussick, Edward Kosi, Ronald Volkman.

Sea Eagles: Reuben Garrick, Jason Saab, Tolutau Koula, Morgan Harper, Raymond Tauimalo Vaega, Josh Schuster, Daly Cherry-Evans; Toafofoa Sipley, Lachlan Croker, Sean Keppie, Haumole Olakau’atu, Kelma Tuilagi, Jake Trbojevic. Interchange: Jake Arthur, Dean Matterson, Aaron Woods, Ethan Bullemor. Reserves: Gordon Chan Kum Tong, Ben Condon, Samuela Fainu, Austin Dias, Jamie Humphreys.