If there were any remaining doubts surrounding the credentials of the Warriors, those were expunged on Sunday night.

The home side decimated the Sharks 44-12 in front of a packed house at Mt Smart stadium – withstanding early pressure to explode into a scintillating attacking display including eight tries.

One of the standout performers was centre Rocco Berry, who told the Big League Podcast’s Nathan Limm he was proud to be a part of it.

“I feel like we weathered the storm early on with our defence and then got on a roll and put a good performance together.”

The beginning of the end for the Sharks was a 12-minute period midway through the first half in which the Warriors ran in four unanswered tries, completely winding the Cronulla side and sending the already raucous home crowd into delirium.

They say defence wins games and Berry told Nathan Limm it was their ability to nullify the Sharks’ attack that gave the Warriors a platform to mount some attacks of their own.

“We kind of just got the momentum back in our favour and once we had that momentum we just tried to take advantage of it and I thought we capitalised on our opportunities and those tries came off the back of that.”  

Fans were quick to praise Berry’s individual performance, particularly the options he provided to Shaun Johnson in taking the ball in to the defensive line on attack, which was something not seen as often this season.

Berry is hesitant to join in with the plaudits, instead opting to attribute credit to the players around him.

“I’ve got a lot of good players around me and I think I had quite a few opportunities in the weekend to attack and it’s a credit to Shauny, he’s obviously playing great footy and playing outside him and of course Charnzey at the back.

“It gives me a lot of opportunities and I’ve just got to take them when they come.”

His attacking performance was one that made headlines, but Berry says it’s work on other parts of his game in the background that are now starting to pay dividends.

“That defensive decision making and things like that is something I’ve really worked on hard and Webby and Richie have been really good for that.”

Berry has been plagued by a number of injury setbacks in his career already – but he tells The Big League Podcast he’s enjoying keeping fit and hopes to continue contributing to the team.

A message that has repeatedly come out of the Warriors camp is that despite the growing chatter about their finals hopes – they’re not looking at the NRL ladder – and Berry is singing from the same song sheet.

“We’re just focused on each game as it’s coming up and just focus on that. Try put out best effort into that game and get the two points. I think if you stick with that mindset; everything else takes care of itself.”

There are no easy games in the NRL and this Friday is no exception. The Warriors host the fourth placed Raiders who will be out for revenge after having Jarrod Croker’s 300^th game party spoiled by the Warriors the last time they met.

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