OPINION: The best thing about the Warriors making this year's NRL playoffs?
I'd love to say it's rewarding those loyal fans who have stuck by the embattled Auckland-based league club through thick and thin.
- Warriors honour Simon Mannering's 300th game with victory
- Panthers win dents Warriors' home playoff hopes
Yep, that means our old mate, Sir Peter Leitch (aka The Mad Butcher), will be beside himself with pride this week.
I'd love to say it's giving one-club, 300-game veteran Simon Mannering one last taste of finals footy before he rides into the sunset.
Or even vindication for coach Stephen Kearney, who has won a World Cup, two Four Nations titles and an Anzac Test victory with the Kiwis, but never seems to do enough to silence his doubters.
Truthfully, though, the sweetest thing isshoving it up the critics - on both sides of the Tasman - who had this outfit as wooden-spoon favourites at the start of the season.
Remember, too, that Kearney was widely tipped as the first coach to lose his job this year. A five-game winning start - the Warriors' best ever - quickly put paid to that theory.
But even after that start - and a one-win/four-loss mid-season mini-collapse - there were those predicting the Penrose pretenders would still slide out of the eight, as they have so many times before.
Guess that didn't happen either.
The Warriors - and NZ rugby league in general - don't get much love from over the ditch. The Aussies recognise New Zealand is a great market to exploit for purely business reasons, but heaven forbid our boys should ever actually win the comp.
At home, bandwagon jumpers have become accustomed to hopping on and off the train every couple of weeks, but have probably spent more time on than off this season.
To get this far, the Warriors have followed an, at times, painful blueprint for success.
Addition by subtraction
It's always hard to say goodbye, but one of the first and most important parts of the Warriors revival was cutting loose some personnel who were maybe holding the joint back.
These casualties included players - some of them fan favourites - who were past their prime (Manu Vatuvei), desperately needed a change of scenery to re-energise their careers (Ben Matulino), hampered by off-field distractions (Konrad Hurrell) or simply didn't fit the roster (Tui Lolohea).
Recruiting
Instead, Kearney brought in veteran players with championship experience and many of them contributors to his Kiwis success - Adam Blair, Gerard Beale, Peta Hiku and Tohu Harris.
Perhaps the most surprising has been half Blake Green, who brought a solid track record in both Australia (2016 premiers and Grand Final with Melbourne Storm) and England (2013 Super League and Challenge Cup winner with Wigan).
His assuredness has lifted the weight off Shaun Johnson's shoulders, and helped open up space further along the back-line for David Fusitu'a and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to show their skills.
Pre-season
Perhaps the most-heralded recruit was strength and conditioning coach Alex Corvo, who also brought a fine pedigree with winning teams like the Storm and Brisbane Broncos.
To be sure, he worked his players out hard in the pre-season - probably much harder than many had worked before - and they hit the ground running as arguably the fittest team in the competition.
And if nothing else, Corvo's arrival showed the Warriors were serious about turning around a culture that seemed to rely a little too much on natural ability and not so much on sweat.
Coaching
Some Kiwi league fans still haven't forgiven Kearney for effectively ending Jarrod McCracken's career with a spear-tackle almost two decades ago. In their eyes, he can do no right.
And the knock on him was, even though he had enjoyed great international success - he's won more games against Australia than any other Kiwis coach - his NRL club record with the Warriors and Parramatta Eels was far from impressive.
Still, the Warriors seem to have finally found someone who understands his players, and knows when to show compassion and when to employ stick.
Everyone remember that pre-season footage of him threatening to plant his foot up anyone who couldn't play the ball properly at training? And yet strangely no murmurings of 'bullying' from the bowels of the Mt Smart clubrooms.
Issac Luke
Speaking of 'bullies', Luke could so easily have been one of those players cut. His two previous seasons with the Warriors were an extremely mixed bag and at times, he seemed out-of-shape and totally disinterested.
But he and Kearney go back a long way, and the coach seems to know which strings to pull to get the best out of his veteran.
At his best, Luke has been inspirational this year and you have to hope that the lack of a contract extension is just a ploy to keep him motivated to the end. Certainly, none of the other hooking options currently on the roster appeal as long-term occupants of the nine jersey.
Road Warriors
One of the big Achilles heels of NZ professional sporting franchises over the years has been winning away from home.
Last year, that reached an all-time low of one-win/11 losses for the Warriors and even in their last playoffs appearance seven years ago, they were only 5-7 on the road.
This season, they are the equal-best travelling side (with the table-topping Melbourne Storm) in the competition with eight wins/four losses. The Sydney Roosters and Cronulla Sharks can match that record this weekend.
That's also better than the 7-5 they managed when they won the 2002 minor premiership and reached the Grand Final - surely a great omen for playoff footy.
Resilience
Fans and critics had every right to feel slightly 'déjà vu all over again' when the Warriors went 1-4 mid-season. The early fitness factor had evened out across the competition and with injuries taking a toll, they could so easily have reverted to their old ways and drifted into oblivion.
One of the most underrated qualities of a champion athlete or team is the ability to bounce back from adversity. Or, as Rocky Balboa put it: "It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."
This version of the Warriors seems to have embraced that mentality and hasn't allowed the odd loss along the way to derail its campaign.
Belief
Take all these ingredients, mix them up in a bowl and the end result is belief. Ask any successful team for the key to their success and you'll invariably hear this word mentioned.
It's the biggest intangible - it's mostly about seeing collective hard work and sacrifices paying dividends.
However far belief takes these Warriors into the playoffs, hopefully it will provide a foundation for an even deeper run in years to come.
Grant Chapman is Newshub online sports editor.
