PhotosportWade McKinnon

TVNZ

New Zealand Warrior Wade McKinnon believes it's way too early to read any significance into the National Rugby League (NRL) ladder.

Heading into this weekend's fifth round, with the Warriors away to Newcastle on Sunday, the standings have an unexpected look to them.

South Sydney are the surprise frontrunners, thanks to their gutsy defensive effort in Auckland last Sunday, when they finished ahead on the scoreboard despite most other statistics being against them.

Premiers Manly, who have gone down to both the Warriors and Newcastle, are bottom and the only winless club, while beaten grand finalists Melbourne just scrape into the top eight.

The Warriors, with a two-win two-loss record like the Storm, are one place behind in ninth.

The Knights are also at 50 percent, but have a slightly better points differential that puts them seventh.

Despite talk of how even the NRL had become, McKinnon said it wasn't usually until the second half of the season that the contenders began to sort themselves out.

The combative fullback, who produced his best performance of the campaign so far in the Warriors' 16-22 defeat to Souths, pointed to the fate of Gold Coast last year.

"The Titans were first until round 10 and everyone was talking about them," he said.

"But they didn't make the semis, so I don't think you can judge how the competition is until the second half of the season."

After what some critics had perceived as McKinnon's slow start to the year, he was impressive against the Rabbitohs, scoring a try and making 205 metres with ball in hand.

He finished the weekend third in the NRL for metres gained, with 593m from four rounds.

But the personal numbers didn't mean too much to him.

"To be honest, I wasn't that happy because we lost," he said.

"We played pretty well but some little things didn't come off and we couldn't get across the line."

McKinnon felt his greater involvement against the Rabbitohs could be put down to the nature of the contest and the more opportunities that came his way.

"I got a lot more ball than what I've been getting," he said.

"The first few games, we sort of marched teams down the paddock, so I've not been able to return the ball as much."

McKinnon, 28, had an impressive debut season with the Warriors in 2007 after his move from Parramatta, showing a potent ability to break the line.

But last season began in nightmare fashion with a serious knee injury in a trial fixture and the lengthy rehabilitation kept him sidelined until August.

He was reluctant to draw any comparisons between his form of two years ago and how he was travelling now.

"I don't really think about what I've done, or about this and that," he said.

"I just go out and play my game, and play it on the day."

Coach Ivan Cleary said he didn't know why McKinnon had attracted criticism before his "terrific" showing against Souths.

"I don't know why he's been copping flak," he said.

"I thought he was excellent at the end of the game against Manly two weeks ago."

But Cleary also said the greater number of penalties being whistled created more of an arm wrestle, making it harder for fullbacks to stamp their mark.