The New Zealand Warriors continue to sail through smooth pre-season waters following a second successive trial win over the weekend.

Coach Ivan Cleary was impressed with the Warriors' form and pleased to again escape serious injury in the 26-8 defeat of the North Queensland Cowboys in Cairns.

The Warriors are keen to make up for a horror season in 2009, where they failed to meet high expectations on the field.

"On the whole, I was pretty happy with how things went," Cleary told AAP.

"A lot of players are playing well at this stage which is a pretty good sign."

Cleary said the defensive effort throughout and improvements on attack from their 26-8 defeat of the Sydney Roosters in Rotorua a week earlier had again been encouraging, especially in humid conditions.

"I thought we got better as the game went on in terms of our direction and the way we wanted to play," he said.

"Defensively, we were pretty strong."

The Warriors coach said it was also heartening to have so many players performing so well heading into the last trial against Manly at North Harbour Stadium on Saturday, where star centre Brent Tate is likely to make a long-awaited return from injury.

Cowboys coach Neil Henry said the Warriors looked impressive three weeks out from the National Rugby League starting.

"Credit to the Warriors, they seemed to have a bit more cohesion in their attack," Henry said.

"We were a bit disappointing with our attack.

"I was very happy with our committed defence in the first half. We need to be a lot more disciplined on the ground. We gave away a lot of penalties."

Tate, captain Simon Mannering, Steve Price, Manu Vatuvei, Wade McKinnon and Ian Henderson were all missing against a Cowboys side who were without star skipper Johnathan Thurston, although they did include new signing Willie Mason.

The scores were locked 6-6 at halftime, with hooker Aaron Heremaia crossing for the visitors.

They kept their tryline clean in the second half while running in two tries to fullback Lance Hohaia and one each to wingers Patrick Ah Van and Bill Tupou.

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