The only way forward for league in this country is for the administration to take a long term view. They're not going to fix the game next year or the year after. But the first steps can be made now. They need to be made now.
The current crop of players/coaches/management aren't going to win premierships or world cups - this is self evident. Measures need to be taken to bolster the game at the level where it will have a meaningful and long term benefit to the game in this country: school and club grades. Strong roots grow mighty trees and all that guff. Maybe this is happening already? But clearly more needs to be done.
The Warriors need to be a credible and appealing product to inspire and motivate young players, attract fans, and develop the game of league in NZ. But they're not at the moment. Logic and experience tells me that the Warriors are no prospect of threatening the premiership this year, the next, or the one after that. We need to look further down the track. Being competitive in five years would be nice. Ten is more realistic.
My plan? Stop signing big name players and fill the team with reserve grade grafters, Toyota cup graduates and NRL journeymen. They'll get the spoon in the first year and the second, and maybe the third. But they will be well coached (by who I'm sorry I don't know), committed and passionate. After a few years they will start regularly troubling teams in the lower quarter of the NRL table. They will come to be known as a team of plucky overachievers rather than perennial underachievers. Meanwhile, the money the Warriors save will be funneled into developing the game in the school and club grades - overhauling the competitions in these grades and developing the infrastructure around the game in NZ.
Plan B (or ideally a part of Plan A) is to give McKinsey & Co. a blank cheque and carte blanche to run a fire-hose through the hallowed halls of Mt Smart, washing them clean of the ranks of charlatans and con men.