Incredible game and effort, really don’t mind that we lost.
3. Barnett
2. AFB
3. Walker
the forwards were outstanding . Halves let us down with the kicking a bit , otherwise they were good.
Well said about the loss.
Last year we were happy after these type losses, because we had the humility of not being entitled.
This year people were posting crazy stuff about how anything less than a top four finish would be a fail. That is just silly. This is the gawd dam NRL, this is a competition where one year a club is a gimp, the next a fairy tale giant killer, to expect top four when we do not have the cheats that the likes of the Storm or Roosters or Broncos enjoys is a failure to understand the handicap that this club plays under.
The first thing that separates us from every other team in this competition is that we cannot offer a player, his wife, and his children an Australian life style and a quick flight to be with extended Whanau in times of crises or frankly to go around to mum and dads place for a barbie.
That is a massive hurdle. Lets all recall the hoop lah about what a sacrifice it was from the Warriors during Covid to be away from family etc. Hell that is what every Australian the Warriors have ever tried to sign are faced with, which is why we will NEVER have a fair platform in this competition.
Nor have we had the counter to that problem which is this myth about having an entire country to pick players from. History shows that the Warriors have lagged far behind Australian clubs in scouting the best of NZ talent. This is a subject I could speak to for pages, so I will spare you all one of those rants apart from saying that the Storm grabbed SK to nail all of the best of the middle to lower North Island and they took on Kidwell to have a foothold in Canterbury and the South Island.
We are anything but the best recruiters in New Zealand. Taking all of these facts into consideration (they are facts, in Wellington the comp for the Juniors is called the Stephen Kearney cup, in CH CH the locals view hit man Kidwell as one of their heroes despite the key is the wee...he is still a local boy made good and their Buck Shelford after giving big Willie a hiding).
Outside of Auckland the Warriors have been viewed as a club that ignores all the up and coming stars from North of the Brynderwyns and South of the Bombays. There are countless stories of the Shaun Kenny Dowels and Isaac Lukes catching busses to Mt Smart and being sent away in favor of some big South Auckland teenager.
This is why the club appointed Cappy in a new position and created a department for him to try to counter our handicap vs all the clubs in not having shared and fair access to Aussies best, by at least starting to out compete Penrith and the Storm in NZ.
Unfortunately the ARL (Auckland Rugby League) and the NZRL have collaborated to move against the Warriors. The ARL have aligned themselves with Sydney clubs by opening up special arrangements for Australian clubs to have sister clubs in Auckland and pay the ARL fat fees.
Around the country the regions have been sold under the same arrangement whereby the NZRL gets fat fees to let other Aussie Clubs have staff here in NZ that pay the NZRL transfer fees.
Our own national bodies are selling players here because they resent that the Warriors do not have to pay for players in their own region.
We are in a war. And Mcfadden is our best hope of the sell off of what is basically New Zealand assets.
It is a real shame that Auckland Rugby League hates the Warriors because of past bs where they were kicked out of the Warriors.
When you take all of this crap in, it is a miracle this club is still going strong off the field. A club that is not the best at scouting Kiwis and has to offer Australians East Auckland housing at 1.5 Million dollars on top of bloated salaries from a pool of players who did not laugh out loud when their agents said the Warriors are interested.
The biggest watershed and change moment that has ever happened since 1995 was seeing St Thomas's college win the Schools nationals and for the Warriors to sign all of their best players for our under 17s...who went on to win the Grand final and be the first debut schoolboy side to win the NRL in fifty four years.
This is why I keep saying Cappy is the Warriors best signing.
