Warriors aim to showcase their potential

With little more than pride to play for and a casualty ward that has been getting busier by the week, the Warriors face a major test of character over the final five rounds of the season, starting in Newcastle on Saturday.

As bad as things are now - and with their playoff hopes all-but extinguished after four-straight losses, they are pretty bad - it could get a whole lot worse if they fail to get past the last-placed Knights.

Forget that the Knights have been punching above their weight for the last month, culminating in last week’s upset over the Dragons, and that the Warriors are on the road with five regular starters watching from home, including star halfback Shaun Johnson, both back-rowers Ryan Hoffman and Bodene Thompson and enforcer James Gavet.

This is a match the visitors are not only expected to win, they need to win to give those long-suffering fans who have not already given up on the struggling side hope for next year.

The Warriors have said all the right things this week about playing for the jersey, maintaining standards and not throwing in the towel. But, ultimately, the proof will be in their performance at Mcdonald Jones Stadium.

‘‘They’ve got nothing to lose but we want to showcase what we’ve got here as well,’’ hooker Issac Luke said.

‘‘We’ve just got to stay focused on the task. We do have our moments when we’re on and we’re unstoppable, but we have that lapse in our game and it’s ... that we need to shut down.’’

In fairness to the Warriors, they have shown signs of improvement defensively during the most recent defeats to the Sharks and Cowboys. Scoring points has been the problem, particularly in the

second half where they have averaged just 5.5 points throughout the four-match losing streak.

While they have completed well all season, they continue to be plagued by execution issues in the red zone.

Losing Johnson has not helped as Kieran Foran and Mason Lino struggled to gel in the halves against the Sharks and were guilty of over-calling each other on several occasions

Coach Stephen Kearney was confident that issue had been addressed at training but Luke has put the onus of himself and fullback Roger Tuivasa-sheck to take some heat off the playmakers.

‘‘Whoever’s at hooker, we’ve got to make that connection because we’re the first pass.

‘‘We’re doing the right things there but there’s two parts to the game and we’ve just got to get the other one right.’’