The NZ Warriors finally found their attacking flair as they ground out their second win of the NRL season with a 37-26 win over the North Queensland Cowboys on the Central Coast on Friday night.
Returning centre Peta Hiku scored a hat-trick as the Warriors ran in seven tries, three more than their previous four games combined.
Heading into the match, the Warriors had been criticised for their lacklustre attack which is based around high possession and low-risk play, and coach Stephen Kearney was pleased to see it finally pay dividends.
The Warriors finished the match with 56 percent possession, while competing 87 percent of their sets.
Kearney was happy to walk away with the win in a brutal back-and-forth battle, but knows there's still plenty of work to do.
"We were all pretty disappointed in last week's performance and to come out against a quality side like the Cowboys and perform the way we did was positive.
"We looked at what we did well against the Dragons and what we didn't do so well against the Panthers and I thought we cleaned up a few of those areas. But we made it awfully difficult for ourselves at times so that's something we need to work on."
Kearney also heaped praise onto playmakers Blake Green and Kodi Nikorima, who played their best game together as a halves pairing.
The pair combined for five try assists, with Green's setting up three from kicks, while Nikorima's slick running helped set up two.
"Greeny [Blake Green] kicked really well for us," Kearney added. "We built some pressure with repeat sets, and that gave us opportunities to get over the try line.
"It's about building that momentum and certainly possession of the footy is king at the minute.
"I thought he [Nikorima] played pretty well against the Dragons, the week previous to the Panthers.
"That's the challenge for Kodi, to elevate him to the status of the top shelf halves in the competition. It's about turning up every week and performing similar to what he did tonight and against the Dragons.
"That's the challenge for him and we'll keep giving him the awareness of what we need from him. I thought he was good tonight, but it was a pretty solid team performance."
The win lifts the Warriors to 10th on the NRL standings, and they face the struggling South Sydney Rabbitohs at Bankwest Stadium in their next match on Friday.
