Manu Vatuvei proved to be an unstoppable force on Saturday night and centurion Michael Luck will be sure to toast the hat-trick hero after the 'beast' led an inspired 30-16 home-town victory over the Sharks at Mt Smart Stadium.
Things went slightly pear-shaped before kick-off for the Warriors as former Shark bad-boy Brett Seymour was ruled out with a broken thumb suffered in the loss against the Titans last Sunday.
He will be sidelined for at least six weeks.
Joel Moon came off the bench into stand-off, although Lance Hohaia played the majority of the match at No.6 with Wade McKinnion slotting in at the back and James Maloney shifted in one to halfback.
The setback didn't deter Warriors hooker Aaron Heremaia as he continued his enterprising start to the season in the sixth minute.
His sniping run and double-dummy-pump-fake had the Sharks defence at a standstill as he burrowed over the line for the opening points.
Kevin Locke assumed the kicking duties in Seymour's absence, but failed to convert an easy first-up conversion.
Six minutes later, Warriors backrower Lewis Brown ignited a Warriors flashback as he broke down the right-hand flank.
Brown dished to Locke and the ball was shifted from Tate to Maloney, who threw a long ball that Mannering picked up on the bounce.
He spread it to Ropati and the Kiwis centre brought Vatuvei on the cut as the blockbusting winger muscled his way over the strife carrying three Sharks players.
The classic four-pointer put Vatuvei into outright second on the Warriors all-time try-scoring tally with 63 in 96 matches.
He moved past Francis Meli and is 16 behind Stacey Jones.
This time Locke converted from the sideline to give the home side a 10-0 lead.
Sharks coach Ricky Stuart was pulling his hair out as his side failed to complete their sets. Their defence was also sloppy, missing 19 tackles in the first half and this made metre-eating easy for the Warriors pack.
The Warriors were ahead 16-0 after 17 minutes when Hohaia slipped a deft grubber into the in-goal for Mannering, in his first match as captain, as he dotted down and Locke added the extra two.
Finally the Sharks had some possession and Kiwis winger Luke Covell finished a slick quick-hands movement after the Warriors were caught short on the left-side defence in the 25th minute.
Scott Porter converted off the posts to put the visitors back in touch at 16-6.
The Sharks halfback turned provider seven minutes from the interval as centre Blake Ferguson leaped above the pack to collect a vital reply.
Porter collected three further two pointers, the conversion and two needless Warriors penalties either side of half-time, to draw the sides level.
But Vatuvei proved unstoppable on two further occasions, finishing with 14 tackle-breaks, to put the Warriors into the comfort zone.
Warriors prop Sam Rapira bulldozed his way over the line to nail the result five minutes from time and Maloney slotted the conversion to give the 15,314-strong crowd a very pleasing home start to the season.
Warriors 30
Tries: Vatuvei 3, Rapira, Heremaia, Mannering
Con: Locke 2, Maloney
Sharks 16
Tries: Ferguson, Covell
Con: Porter 2
Pen: Porter 2