Draw 2016

[Philip_Smith007]

Apparently we get another good draw!
How is 13 away games and 11 home a good draw?
Start with 2 away games.

VODAFONE WARRIORS | 2016 NRL DRAW
(NB: local kick-off times listed)

Round 1 | Sat, March 5, 5.30pm

v Wests Tigers, Campbelltown Sports Stadium, Sydney

Round 2 | Fri, March 11, 7.05pm

v Broncos, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

Round 3 | Sun, March 20, 4.00pm

v Storm, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

Round 4 | Mon, March 28, 4.00pm

v Knights, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

Round 5 | Sun, April 3, 2.00pm

v Roosters, Central Coast.

Round 6 | Sat, April 9, 7.30pm

v Sea Eagles, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

Round 7 | Sat, April 16, 7.30pm

v Bulldogs, Westpac Stadium, Wellington

Round 8 | Mon, April 25, 7.00pm

v Storm, AMII Park, Melbourne

Round 9 | Sun, May 1, 2.00pm

v Dragons, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

May 6-8 | Rep Round

Round 10 | Sat, May 14, 5.00pm

v Panthers, AMI Stadium, Christchurch

Round 11 | Sat, May 21, 7.30pm

v Raiders, Yarrow Stadium, New Plymouth

Round 12 | May 27-30, Bye

Round 13 | Sat, June 4, 5.00pm

v Broncos, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

Round 14 | Saturday, June 11, 3.00pm

v Knights, Hunter Stadium, Newcastle

Round 15 | Sun, June 19, 6.00pm

v Roosters, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

Round 16 | Sat, June 25, 5.30pm

v Sharks, Shark Park, Sydney

Round 17 | Sat, July 2, 5.00pm

v Titans, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

Round 18 | July 8-11, Bye

Round 19 | Sat, July 16, 3.30pm

v Sea Eagles, nib Stadium, Perth

Round 20 | Sat, July 23, 3.00pm

v Raiders, GIO Stadium, Canberra

Round 21 | Sat, July 30, 5.00pm

v Panthers, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

Round 22 | Sun, August 7, 4.00pm
Cbus Stadium, Robina

Round 23 | Sat August 13, 7.30pm

v Rabbitohs, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

Round 24 | Sat, August 20, 9.30pm

v Cowboys, 1300SMILES Stadium, Townsville

Round 25 | Sun, August 28, 4.00 pm

v Wests Tigers, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

Round 26 | Sunday, September 4, 6.00pm

v Eels, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

 

[RHYTHM AND STEALTH]

In Summary

arriors
Play twice:
Broncos (Brisbane & Auckland)
Knights (Newcastle & Auckland)
Panthers (Christchurch - away & Auckland)
Raiders (Canberra & New Plymouth)
Roosters (Sydney & Auckland)
Sea Eagles (Perth & Auckland)
Storm (Melbourne & Auckland)
Tigers (Sydney & Auckland)
Titans (Gold Coast & Auckland)
Play once:
Bulldogs (Wellington - away)
Cowboys (Townsville)
Dragons (Auckland)
Eels (Auckland)
Rabbitohs (Auckland)
Shark (Sydney)
Game locations:
Auckland - 11, Sydney - 3, Wellington - 1, Christchurch - 1, New Plymouth - 1, Gold Coast - 1, Perth - 1, Townsville - 1, Melbourne - 1, Canberra - 1, Brisbane - 1, 1 - Newcastle
Starting point: The Warriors start their season with consecutive away games against the Wests Tigers and 2015 grand finalists the Broncos, before hosting the Storm and the Knights. There will be a lot of pressure on the New Zealand outfit to start the season well after a disappointing 2015.
Tough run: A stretch of four games between Round 5-8 against fancied opponents the Roosters (away), Sea Eagles (home), Bulldogs and Storm (away) could be a great litmus test for the new-look Warriors side. If they can get through it relatively unscathed, they'll be well set to make a charge in the middle part of the season.
Show-stoppers: Round 5 v Roosters - Roger Tuivasa-Sheck returns to take on his former club in what is sure to be an entertaining encounter. The traditional Anzac Day clash against the Storm returns for 2016 in Round 8 and is also one not to be missed, one of the highlights of the NRL calendar.
Origin impact: (Byes: Rd 12, Rd 18.) The Warriors are not usually too affected by the Origin period and this year they have one game during the annual interstate series. They'll take on the Roosters in Round 15 minus State of Origin players, giving them a great chance to get an important win against a weakened opposition.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Draws are draws, unless they're the Raiders' ridiculously soft one.

Only gripe is the f**king Perth fixture again.

 

[Philip_Smith007]

Draws are draws, unless they're the Raiders' ridiculously soft one.

Only gripe is the f**king Perth fixture again.

Does anyone come close to doing the travel km we will do with a Townsville and Perth trip?
RTS and Luke won't know what hit them!

 

[jaseg]

Fairly soft draw, I'm happy with it. Even the Perth game is a bit better - 3pm local instead of some shocking time, and a bye the week before. Back to Melbourne for Anzac day and our home game outside of Auckland is opposing the team we have probably the best recent record against (Raiders).

Aside from a relatively hard looking first couple of months, it's a reasonably favourable looking fixture list.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

The bye is a good thing the week before no doubt, but we won't travel early (will we?) and we're still having to navigate those time zones. Then we come back the next week to Canberra, a place where we've just started winning again. I don't like it.

To me, two Sydney teams should be playing that Perth fixture. I get that it's an NZ ex-pat strong hold, but Sydney teams have plenty of Kiwis and support. And if Perth loved NRL that much, they'd probably still have a team.

By my count, we are 0-7 in Perth. It's just a shit fixture. And even worse, we're playing Manly who are already a side we don't know how to beat any time we play them.

That's my only gripe. Would be nice to have the plum draw the Raiders have but there's 12-13 competitive teams this year - sorry Titans, Tigers and Knights - and you've got to play them all somewhere and some time. If we're good enough we'll be in the eight if we're not we won't, same as any year.

 

[grandorient]

How/why did you guys start playing in Perth in the first place ?

GO

 

[Evil_Mush]

Agreed that overall we've got a fairly decent draw.

Even though we've got the dreaded Perth fixture again, that's been counteracted by the two away games in NZ, minimal travel during the season prior to that game (including home game and bye directly before that fixture), and pretty decent turnarounds between games.

e.g. in the 4 month period between March 12 (after Brisbane round two) and July 11 (bye weekend before Perth), we only travel to Australia 4 times, including a period of 46 days in NZ between the Melbourne R8 & Newcastle R14 games! That must surely be a record for not travelling overseas mid-season!

Looking at turnaround times, we have five 6-day, five 7-day/full week, two 8-day and two 9-day turnarounds. Plus the three 13/14 day turnarounds with the bye & rep round weeks.

As for which games I'm looking to attend, Wellington & New Plymouth are gonna be locks, tossing up between the remaining home games I haven't seen the away team live yet (Broncos, Roosters, Panthers, Rabbitohs, Eels).

 

[Blair]

Far out, not much joy for Sydney-based Warriors fans, again. It's an unfortunate trend for us, even the Chooks have moved their home game away.

With round one at Campbelltown done and dusted it's Shark Park or bust, unfortunately.

Oh, unless we reach the finals!

 

[jaseg]

Depends on where you live I suppose, but the Central Coast game is pretty much Sydney. It's certainly easier/quicker to get to than Campbelltown was.. and about the same time as going to Cronulla.

 

[Blair]

Depends on where you live I suppose, but the Central Coast game is pretty much Sydney. It's certainly easier/quicker to get to than Campbelltown was.. and about the same time as going to Cronulla.

It's tough from the Blue Mountains. Our local game (v Panthers) has been moved to Ch.Ch which, results-wise, I'm not so worried about as we've been losing quite regularly at Penrith. The SFS is good, as it's a straight train ride there and back. Parra and Olympic Park are fine too.

Central Coast? Possible, much like Shark Park as you said. I might go to both. There's no other choice.

I miss living in NZ and getting all the Warriors news coverage, but then I remember all the rugby union stuff, which was always way over the top, it made me quite anti-rugby in the end.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Far out, not much joy for Sydney-based Warriors fans, again. It's an unfortunate trend for us, even the Chooks have moved their home game away.

With round one at Campbelltown done and dusted it's Shark Park or bust, unfortunately.

Oh, unless we reach the finals!

Chooks game hasn't been moved, it's at Allianz?

 

[captainwarrior]

Chooks game hasn't been moved, it's at Allianz?

It's been moved to the Central Coast due to an availability issue of the stadium. They swapped it with the game the Roosters were supposed to play there against the Knights.

 

[Blair]

It's been moved to the Central Coast due to an availability issue of the stadium. They swapped it with the game the Roosters were supposed to play there against the Knights.

Phil, can you edit your original post to show this venue change? I use this thread as a quick guide to the season, I try to avoid the official NRL site as much as possible, it's too busy.

 

[Rich102]

Phil, can you edit your original post to show this venue change? I use this thread as a quick guide to the season, I try to avoid the official NRL site as much as possible, it's too busy.

Done.

 

[Blair]

Done.

Cheers Rich.

This venue change v Roosters won't affect either side really. Surely the Chooks don't have a horde of fans up there (isn't it North Sydney's new catchment?) and there'd be kiwis both living there and going up from Sydney.

 

[Fufu Andronez]

Dam that sucks! I'd earmarked that Allianz Stadium game as a big day out.

 

[Blair]

Dear Admin,

Any chance of making this a 'sticky' so that we can quickly refer to it?

Chur.

 

[Blair]

The draw can now be updated with the match days and kick-off times for the last six rounds if a mod has the time. Cheers.

 

[Rich102]

Done.