Warriors veteran Simon Mannering has stressed the NRL season only gets tougher from here on, following their heavy loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Saturday.
The Auckland-based side club were beaten 30-10 at Mt Smart, but are well-placed at fifth on the ladder after 12 rounds.
After starting the season with five straight wins, their form has been up and down, losing four of their last eight games.
Mannering said the team were well positioned at the mid-way point, but believed they needed to lift if they were to stay with their rivals for a top-eight spot.
"It's probably the best position we've been at this club for a number of years, but in saying that, it doesn't count for anything if we don't push forward in this second half of the season," he told the Warriors website.
"Inconsistency is something that really hurts you in this competition, because it's a tough comp and every team you come up against is a real challenge.
"We need to come out firing after the week off, because the further the season goes on, the more desperate teams become and obviously teams are coming into some good form.
"We've got to take it up a notch, for sure, moving forward, we can sort of put the first half of the season to rest and reassess, and hopefully take it up a notch."
With a bye this week, Mannering has called for the team to focus on the fundamentals ahead of their next game against the Manly Sea Eagles on June 9.
"If you look at the recent losses we've had, it's just been the basics of the game that we've let ourselves down," he said.
"Controlling the ruck, generating ruck speed ourselves, so very fundamental parts of our game, but also very challenging sometimes.
"We just have to get back to building our platform and we can generally play football off the back of that."
Newshub.
