Long way to go yet in NRL race, says Mckinnon

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.