Blake Green remains cautious when predicting the final three weeks of the 2018 NRL season.
The Warriors five-eighth put in a stellar performance in the club's 20-4 win over the Newcastle Knights on Friday night - a win that has the Auckland side on the verge of playoff football for the first time since 2011.
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The Warriors can be caught by the West Tigers if the Sydney club win their remaining three fixtures by handy margins, and Stephen Kearney's side lose three in a row.
The Bulldogs away and the Panthers and Raiders at home await the Warriors, but Green says now is not the time to be looking ahead at week one of the finals.
"Yeah it appears that way, but they can often be the hardest ones to win," Green tells RadioLIVE.
"The Bulldogs and the Raiders are out of contention, but it can be very dangerous playing teams like that.
"They have no pressure on them to come up with the result and they can play carefree and score tries out of nowhere - important games for us that we need to win."
On the flipside, three wins for the Warriors will have them knocking on the front door of the top four - a guaranteed life should they not win in week one of the finals. That would be a fantastic achievement given the club was predicted to be wooden sooners at the start of the season.
"I guess if you had said to me at the start of the year we would be in this position then I would have been really happy," Green tells Brendan Telfar on Saturday Sport.
"Obviously it's a possibility for us, but I don't want to sound like a broken record, but our next job is the Bulldogs next Sunday in Sydney, so we need to focus all our energy on that one.
"If we can string some wins together then who knows where that will leave us?
"We can't control what other teams do.
"We just control our own destiny, so if we can get another two points next week then it won't hurt us."
After a humbling 36-12 defeat at the hands of the Gold Coast Titans a fortnight ago, the Warriors have put extra focus on tightening up without the ball.
Topping the Dragons 18-12 in Illawarra last weekend with only 40 percent of the ball was followed up by another outstanding defensive effort against the Knights.
The Warriors leaked the first try of the match on Friday night but kept the visitors scoreless for the remaining 70 minutes.
Green says how well the Warriors defend for the rest of the reason will reflect on where they finish.
"Defensively the way we backed up that effort against the Dragons was pleasing; we played with plenty of energy and I thought we controlled the game for large periods," Green tells RadioLIVE.
"Defending really well is a huge part of winning really big games.
"All the big teams hang their hat on defence and like to create a lot of pressure on teams by defending and kicking well - playing that territory battle and it was pleasing we were able to do that last night."
The Warriors head to Sydney later in the week for Sunday's clash with the Bulldogs.
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