BETWEEN now and the opening to the NRL season on March 13 there's going to be a lot of bold predictions about favourites for the title - pencil in the New Zealand Warriors as one of them.

There was a lot to like about the way the Warriors dismantled the Gold Coast Titans 34-12 at Oakes Oval, Lismore, on Saturday night.

The Warriors led 14-0 at half-time and then rattled on three quick tries soon after the break to put the game beyond Gold Coast's reach.

It was the New Zealand outfit's third straight win of the pre-season campaign, following victories over the Melbourne Storm and North Queensland Cowboys.

Following on from the Warriors' run from eighth position to the preliminary final last year, and the Kiwis winning the World Cup, there's plenty of momentum coming our way from across the Tasman.

“We haven't had a record like that in trials,” Warriors captain Steve Price said after the game.

“We've lost nearly all the time in our trials and we've started pretty poor in the season.

“Hopefully, that is a sign of better things for us.

“We have to start the season better and hopefully that is going to happen.

“The best thing is that we've played three really good teams. Even though they had a mixture of some of their more experienced guys and younger guys playing, we were the same.”

The Warriors host Parramatta in the first round of the premiership season, while the Titans will be at home to the Newcastle Knights.

Although Titans coach John Cartwright rested most of his starting line-up in the second half of the game on Saturday and gave 'locals' like Will Matthews, David Mead and Shannon Walker a run.

Worrying defensive lapses and bad handling errors marred Gold Coast's overall efforts.

“We are going to do all the work we can on Newcastle now and try to get close to what our combinations should be,” Cartwright said.

“The whole trial series is about getting ready for Newcastle.

“We just turned over too much ball. Defensively, I was really happy with the first half, even though they led 14-0 at the break.

“We didn't get hold of the ball enough and they were very, very good.

“After half-time we let in one or two soft tries and we had a pretty inexperienced line-up out there.”

One of the highlights was the form of former Kyogle player Shannon Walker at fullback.

He pulled off a couple of ankle-tapping, try-saving tackles in defence and was on the spot for the Titans' first try.

The ball was being passed along the line about 15 metres out from the Warriors try-line when it hit one of the Titans' players and bounced into the air.

“It flipped up and I thought it was going to go forward, so I just sprinted as hard as I could to get it and it was a try,” Walker said.

With four or five spots in the Gold Coast team still up for grabs, Walker at least caught the attention of his coach.

“He's a talent and he has played very well in the trials,” Cartwright said.

“It was good to see that he definitely knows the way to the try-line.”