The Warriors fans have been turning up in droves to support their side. Photo: PhotoSport / Brett Phibbs
The bandwagon is overflowing with another sellout crowd set for Auckland on Friday night as the Warriors meet the Sea Eagles.
The match is being dedicated to former Warriors and Kiwis coach, Daniel Anderson.
Anderson is a quadriplegic having suffered a spinal cord injury late last year after a body surfing accident.
Mount Smart will be renamed Daniel Anderson Stadium for tonight's match.
Current head coach Andrew Webster acknowledged Anderson was an influential figure at the club.
"I just explained how big of an impact he had on this club and knowing the impact he had also on Super League, he created one of the best Super League teams in history at St. Helens. Rugby league in general but particularly at the Warriors, so many players that are in our on our staff are being coached by him, they just talk so fondly of their memories and how good he was as a coach."
Former Warriors coach Daniel Anderson will be honoured by his former club tonight. Photo: Stuff / Lawrence Smith
Webster said it's important to repay Anderson and a number of players from his era will be at the game.
"We have our old boys here too, and a lot of them have been coached by him too. We are big on respecting the past, the present and the future, so there are lots of things about the past this weekend that we want to celebrate."
Anderson is the club's most successful coach having taken the Warriors to its first ever grand final in 2002.
Webster said he reached out to Anderson during his rookie years as a coach for advice and he was only too happy to oblige.
"I wanted to reach out to experienced coaches and ask them some questions about creating a pathway for myself as a coach. He was generous with his time, he was a busy man at the time and he was more than happy to do it."
The Warriors will be hoping for a more polished performance after a pair of unconvincing wins over the Titans and Tigers.
Manly are sitting 12th on the NRL ladder but still have an outside sniff at the top eight.
Webster said this makes the Sea Eagles a dangerous prospect and as evidenced by the past fortnight, clubs sitting lower on the ladder threaten to stall the Warriors' momentum.
"The teams who aren't making the eight have got absolutely nothing to lose and the way they attack and their style of play is really relaxed and they can throw caution to the wind."
He said since the bye, they haven't been the same team.
"We haven't been crisp in what we want to do and we haven't had that hard edge about us, so it's time to get that back."
An internal review of the scratchy win against the Tigers produced a unanimous goal against Manly.
"I asked them firstly, what do you think? Do you think this is good enough? Is this what you want? How do you want it to look? And then does what they want marry up with what we want? And it does. They want a hard edge about them this week.
"They want to come physically to play and they want to get their resilience back for 80 minutes That's what we want as coaches so we're all on the same page."
Tohu Harris said Daniel Anderson made the Warriors what they are today. Photo: Photosport
Skipper Tohu Harris agreed that they were below par.
"Without taking away from the Tigers who they really turned up to play and put a lot of pressure on us, there are things in our control that we didn't do as well as we could, unforced errors and efforts on defence that we want to tidy up and so far this week we've done a good job at correcting that."
Harris said they Warriors want their effort to reflect what Anderson means to the club.
"In a short amount of time, had a big impact on the club, and it's still felt today. Obviously, those successful years, the things that they were able to accomplish in the calibre of players that came through under him and then and then kicked on after him, they make the club what it is today. He was a huge part of the club and we want to do our part to help him on his journey."
The Warriors are unbeaten since their 28-6 loss to the Rabbitohs back in June and hunting a sixth straight win tonight.
The last time a Warriors side posted six consecutive victories was 21 years ago when Daniel Anderson's side collected a record eight straight wins on the way to the grand final.
Kick off at Mount Smart is at 8pm.
-RNZ
