Hot on the heels of a stunning 32-30 win over the Sharks in round five, and an NRL ladder position that might be giving some fans in Auckland vertigo, plaudits have been flowing thick and fast for Warriors coach Andrew Webster.
But the man himself was quick to point out he shoulders at least part of the blame for the slow starts that have troubled his team this season.
"I'm not talking about starts anymore," he joked with media at training this week.
"I've put too much emphasis on it. I'm putting it at the front of their heads, to the point where that's all you guys (the media) want to talk about. So that's on me.
"I don't want to walk past it, I want to address things, we've trained on it.
"But in our meetings this week we're just going to focus more around our individual performance for 80 minutes, from the first to the last whistle."
The Warriors let Cronulla get out to an 18-0 lead in the first half at Shark Park last Sunday, leading to a 26-12 deficit at the break, before a memorable comeback in the second term.
The turnaround means the third-placed Warriors have now won four of their opening five games, despite conceding at least one try in the opening five minutes of each of them.
It also means Webster is being touted as the best acquisition the club has made in years, his profile boosted by the sort of appearances on national breakfast TV usually reserved for the All Blacks.
The former Panthers assistant has always maintained the Warriors need to keep their minds on the job ahead, with Sunday's visit to Newcastle no exception despite an eased workload at training after the amount of time spent defending in last week's victory.
"We're really respectful of Newcastle and how well they've been going," Webster said.
"We just want to make sure we're bouncing into training and able to face this challenge head on."
Sunday's clash will be the second time the two sides have done battle this season, with the Warriors triumphing 20-12 in the first round.
"Round one was one of the hardest games we've played," Webster said.
"They would've walked away thinking there were a couple of things that got away from them.
"Since then, they had a player sent off against the Tigers and still managed to find a way to win, another sin bin on the weekend and found a way to draw (32-32 against Manly).
"Both teams are improving along the way. We have to improve again if we want to win."
