Mannering cautious on return
Simon Mannering has cautioned Warriors fans not to expect miracles from him in tomorrow’s game against the Cowboys.
The veteran forward will play in his first game of the season this weekend, having missed the Warriors’ incredible start to the season because of a shoulder injury.
Mannering is named to begin on the interchange bench, although he could be promoted to the starting team by the time the game comes around, with Leivaha Pulu the player likely to drop out.
However, Mannering says he’s not anticipating having a blockbuster performance in his first game back.
‘‘I don’t expect too much from myself on Saturday,’’ the 31-yearold said.
‘‘I just want to do a job for the team. I don’t expect to be at my best, but I’ll still get the job done.
‘‘I don’t know how the lungs will be and obviously I’m lacking a bit of match fitness.
‘‘But it will be cool to get back onto the field at home and hopefully there will be a decent crowd in to watch a side that’s excited to play alongside each other, against a team that’s going to really challenge us.’’
During other times over the past few years when Mannering has been out injured, he’s had to sit frustrated and feeling helpless on the sidelines as the team lose a string of games.
But this time it’s been the opposite, with the Warriors one of just two teams unbeaten after four rounds, the other being the Dragons.
‘‘It makes it so much easier,’’ Mannering said.
‘‘Obviously, I was disappointed not to be there, but it is a different feeling.
‘‘When you see the team struggling, you want to help as much as you can, but you can’t.
‘‘With the guys this time, I’ve been really proud of them.
‘‘I thought in the first three games of the year, we got the wins and there was a really happy feeling, but we weren’t really hitting our straps.
‘‘But last weekend against the Roosters we took some steps forward right across the park.’’
No Warriors player has experienced the tough times more than Mannering, the team’s former captain has been there for so many depressing occasions at Mt Smart Stadium.
The end of last season has to be the club’s lowest ebb and while Mannering feels things have changed dramatically, he points out that they still have a way to go.
‘‘We were definitely in a bad place [last year] and I think it’s a long process,’’ he said.
‘‘The guys have done really well to win the first four games of the year, but this isn’t the finished product.
‘‘You can’t say we’re not that team anymore, we’ve still got a lot of things to build on and be better at, so it’s ingrained into the organisation and team.
‘‘That doesn’t happen over four weeks of a competition, it happens over years.
‘‘But you’ve got to start somewhere and hopefully this is the start of something, but it’s not going to be plain sailing the whole way.
‘‘We won’t go the whole season unbeaten, there are going to be times where we have some adversity, we might have a few losses in a row, we might have a lot of guys on the sideline.
‘‘But hopefully we’ve put things in place that will stay there for a long time and we can build on for years to come.’’