Manly's Kieran Foran admits he's had to calm the kamikaze inside him and focus more on self preservation as he continues his emergence as one of the NRL's gun playmakers.

New Zealand coach Stephen Kearney last week expressed his concern for the Kiwi half who, apart from the prodigious talent that made him a Test player at 19, was becoming known for the way he threw his 89kg frame at much bigger opponents.

"I don't think you can be playing as physical week in week out," Foran said.

"You've got to time your moments and know which game you can be physical in and which game you need to kind of back off.

"If you try and do it every week you will end up with an injury no doubt, so it's probably me just being a little bit smarter and knowing when to be that physical and when not to."

Foran is again set to form a lethal halves partnership with Kiwi captain Benji Marshall for next month's Test against Australia on the Gold Coast.

"It is always in the back of your mind but you do focus on your week to week footy," he said.

"It would be a great honour to be there.

"The prospect of playing with Benji Marshall's always a great one."

The 20-year-old has been one of the main reasons Manly are four from six in a season many doubted the club would make the top eight.

He again led the Sea Eagles' young brigade, which includes fullback Will Hopoate, halfback Daly Cherry-Evans and backrower Jamie Buhrer, in the grinding 20-10 win over the Warriors on a boggy Brookvale Oval on Saturday night.

Foran credits the patience he's learnt from the tutelage of league great Andrew Johns as the key to his continued rise.

Johns worked with the Manly halves weekly during the pre-season and still does occasionally now the campaign is under way.

"He talks to me and Daly Cherry-Evans a lot about patience and just being in control of the game and just knowing when to speed the game up and when to slow it up," Foran said.

"Just little pointers like that I think are helping Daly and myself out a lot.

"I've always been a more natural runner of the footy but this year it was more about focusing on my playmaking ability.

"Those were areas I wanted to work on with the coaches in the pre-season, obviously doing a lot of work with Andrew Johns on kicking and passing helped out."

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