Warriors

Skipper Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and his men have taken the club's best start to a campaign to 5-0, staying with St George Illawarra as the competition's only unbeaten teams.

Unfancied by many pundits at the beginning of 2018, the Warriors are firming as favourites to make their first finals appearance since 2011.

They again demonstrated their new-found defensive resilience against the Cowboys.

Last year's grand finalists have now lost four games in a row.

The Warriors were dealt a massive blow when halfback Shaun Johnson was ruled out with a groin injury on the eve of the Sydney game.

In past years, such a setback would have caused the New Zealand side to put the cue in the rack but they rallied to record an important two points.

Johnson's fill-in, Mason Lino, was superb. However, Green was the chief architect as the Warriors recorded their first win without Johnson since round 22, 2014.

The Warriors are unbeaten after four rounds and look genuine contenders after six years in the finals wilderness.

Lisone was hit with two grade one charges for dangerous contact to the head of Raiders utility Aiden Sezer, in near identical carries late in the match at GIO Stadium.

Neither incident drew a penalty from the referee, which would've prevented Warriors halfback Shaun Johnson from nailing two late field goals to steal the match.

Lisone's teammate Adam Blair also took the early guilty plea for his late shot to the back of Sezer in the same match, but will not miss a match.

Sunday night's Ed Sheeran concert at Mt Smart prevented Warriors staff from gaining access to the club's headquarters to store playing gear and other equipment, including GPS trackers and game jerseys, after returning from Canberra.

They were forced to temporarily stash it away in an unmarked van outside a staff member's home on Auckland's North Shore, where it was pillaged overnight.

Warriors CEO Cameron George said they were "devastated" by the turn of events.

The 19-year-old Papali'i limped off early in last week's 20-8 win over Gold Coast and has since been ruled out for up to six weeks with a medial knee ligament sprain.

He'll be replaced in the second row by ex-Titan Pulu, who has twice started on the bench this season and will line up alongside Tohu Harris and lock Ligi Sao.

As a result, fellow Warriors recruit Agnatius Paasi comes onto the bench, where he'll join another new face in Jazz Tevaga, who replaces Sam Cook.

Coach Stephen Kearney talked up Pulu's NRL pedigree.

The Warriors had an impressive 32-20 win over South Sydney in Perth at the weekend and are crediting a breathing exercise Read showed them during a pre-season camp.

After each try they scored skipper Roger Tuivasa-Sheck got his side back in a huddle to make sure they stayed focus.

"It's just to bring everyone back in a re-focus and get ready for what's next.

On March 10th 1995 a New Zealand rugby league legacy was born. The Warriors make history running through a lit Mount Smart Stadium tunnel for the very first time.

Among those who ran out on that historic day was a 23-year-old Stephen Kearney.

Now 23 years on, the team he now coaches will begin their season on the exact same date in Perth with an objective to get the club back to winning ways.

"Certainly the hard work that the boys have put in during the preseason is about putting it all together for round one." says Stephen Kearney.

Tuivasa-Sheck, who joined the club from the Roosters in 2016, will remain at Mount Smart Stadium until the end of the 2022 season.

Warriors chief executive Cameron George said the 24-year-old "embodies all the qualities we want to see in our players".

"As one of the game's most exceptional athletes, Roger understandably attracted lots of interest, so we couldn't be more delighted to have him onboard for another four years," he said.

A home side missing several of their most-experienced players scored four tries to three on Saturday against the Storm, comprising personnel from reserve grade and feeder clubs.

Without their premiership-winning first-grade players - who beat Leeds 38-4 on Friday night in the World Club Challenge - Melbourne still put up a decent performance.

They opened the scoring with an exceptional team try finished by Sunshine Coast Falcons winger Matt Sopa-Lowler.

Saturday's matchup between the Celtics and the Warriors was the perfect cliched atmosphere. It felt like a playoff game, the two best guards in the league were battling back and forth in a potential NBA Finals showdown.

But there was nothing cliched about Curry and Irving's performances at Oracle Arena.

Two-time MVP Curry dominated the second half, but did so getting to the line just two times before the final minutes of the game, finishing with 49 points, five assists and four rebounds.