Kearney confident of re-igniting stalled attack

Improving their offensive execution has been the major focus for the Warriors over the past fortnight, as they seek to fix a problem which threatens to derail their 2019 campaign.

While a handful of blowout victories have inflated some of their attacking numbers, the Warriors have scored 12 points or more just six times in 11 games.

Their shortcomings in attack were laid bare in an 8-2 loss to Brisbane a fortnight ago, with coach Stephen Kearney's men failing to score a try or make a single line break in 80 minutes.

On Saturday they face a Melbourne team boasting the Telstra Premiership's best defensive record, leaking just 13 points per game on average.

Kearney said plenty of time had been spent trying to address his side's offensive inconsistencies following the loss to the Broncos.

"It was probably more around our game plan, we just didn't execute that quite the way we would have liked against the Broncos," Kearney said.

"We have had a couple of weeks to work on that and we have worked extremely hard on that area. I was really happy with the way the boys trained.

"One thing about the opposition this week, you've got to execute well against them for the full 80 minutes."

The Warriors are without a victory over the Storm in their last seven meetings and suffered a heartbreaking 13-12 loss in Melbourne on Anzac Day.

Kearney said that game had hardly been mentioned in preparations this week.

"We haven't reflected too much on it," Kearney said.

"I thought that was a real courageous performance that night and it's going to take similar courage on Saturday, coupled with the areas we have spoken about that we need to improve on from our last game.

"We touch on obviously what [Melbourne] offer and what they do, but the focus is really on what we need to do, how we need to execute and how long we need to do it for."

Last week's bye proved timely for the Warriors, allowing them to rest some key personnel who had been playing through injuries in recent times.  

As a result, back-rower Tohu Harris (knee) took part in mid-week training for the first time in more than a month this week, while winger David Fusitu'a told NRL.com the rest had done wonders for his rib injury.

Fusitu'a had been requiring pain killing injections to get through games after suffering a fractured rib and rib cartilage damage against the Cowboys in round six.

"It felt good to not have it banged around every day of the week and it feels a bit better now," Fusitu'a said.

"I know a few of the boys are nursing niggles, so it was nice to rest up and refresh and come back ready for the second half of the season.

"I'm guessing it was good for Tohu too because he hasn't been training each week up until captain's run lately, so it's good to see him out here again."

Meanwhile the Warriors will acknowledge the passing of former Gold Coast Titans National Youth Competition player Zae Wallace on Saturday, with the club's NRL, Canterbury Cup and Jersey Flegg teams to all wear black arm bands.

Wallace, who represented New Zealand at secondary school and U18 level, passed away last week aged 20 following a fight with serious infection.