Warriors in short turnaround to meet Storm

By Corey Roser, NRL.com

The odd five-day turnaround is part of every season for most NRL Telstra Premiership clubs these days, but for the Warriors it's something they have hardly even had to think about in recent times.

Since 2012 the Kiwi club have been involved in just one five-day gap between matches, beating the Tigers 32-22 on April 11, 2015, five days after losing to the Storm on April 6.

This week they will navigate it again when they take on Melbourne on Friday night, after beating Newcastle 26-22 on Sunday afternoon.

While admitting he could have done with the extra rest, Warriors prop Albert Vete said it's something the players have put out of their minds. 

"Obviously we have known this was coming for a while, so our S and C (strength and conditioning) staff [have been] pretty on to it," Vete said.

"For me, the body pulled up pretty sore after that first game so I would have liked a couple more days to recover, but that is the nature of the competition I guess.

"It's going to happen, we have just got to be able to adapt and make sure that our bodies are ready to go."

In addition to the reduced gap between games, Round 2 will also see the Warriors play their first Friday night home game since July 2011, when they beat the Bulldogs 36-12.

Coach Stephen Kearney said that from his experience as both a player and coach, reduced time between games presented both positives and negatives.

"It is a bit challenging, but sometimes that is a good thing too," Kearney said.

"Having played on Sunday and with a recovery day on Monday for them, (Wednesday) was reasonably light, (Thursday) will be even lighter and then you're into the contest on Friday.

"Sometimes when you have got too much time to think about the opposition and think about what you have got to do on the weekend in terms of your performance,sometimes that can be a bit of a hindrance in itself."

The Warriors' clash with the Storm shapes as an intriguing one after both sides showcased contrasting styles to finish Round-1 winners.

The Kiwi side's eight line breaks were tied with the Tigers for the most across the opening weekend, while they scored 26 points to get past Newcastle. Melbourne on the other hand had the best defence on the opening weekend, leaking just six points in a grinding encounter against the Bulldogs at Belmore.