OPINION: The Warriors are a club in chaos.
The repercussions from the Warriors' big night out in Auckland after their Anzac Day thrashing in Melbourne belted 42-0 continue to be felt.
It will be some time before the club and everyone involved can move on.
It's understood a group of the Pacific Island players have found captain Ryan Hoffman's very direct Aussie manner difficult to handle.
The teams' stuttering season is on a knife edge and only an improbable win against the Broncos next weekend seems capable of somehow injecting confidence back into the club and getting the team back on track.
While desperate to promote unity to their disappointed fan base, the team will have to work hard to contain friction​s​ within the p​layer ranks.
Behind the scenes, some team-mates are at odds with each other over how the recent issues have been dealt with.
It is understood the hard-line taken by coach Andrew McFadden and captain Ryan Hoffman, most particularly toward ​some of the ​young players, is not going down well.
But despite all the revelations and confessions since that appalling lack of judgment by six fully contracted players to head out on the town on April 26 and fill themselves up with energy drinks and the pain-killing drug Tramadol, you get the strong feeling the full story is yet to come out.
It seems the Silly Six, or whatever you want to call them Manu Vatuvei, Ben Matulino, Bodene Thompson, Sam Lisone, Albert Vete and Konrad Hurrell even allowing for Hurrell's claim that he abstained from the pill popping, had company on their night out in the shape of a former Warriors player whose identity has yet to be revealed. It's understood this mystery guest was a bad influence.
Hurrell is now gone signed this week by the Gold Coast after it was made clear he had no future with the Warriors, most particularly while McFadden is at the helm.
The club's PR machine has been working overtime to hose down suggestions the highly popular Vatuvei was about ​to pack his bags and was even being shopped around rugby clubs. In a "tell all" on a sponsor's media platform yesterday that looked scripted to me, the big winger finally confirmed he had changed his mind about quitting.
Vatuvei has been out of bounds for media generally since his involvement in the "energy drink" lapse. His only previously comment was a seemingly staged interview and video clip conducted by the team's media man. Contrast that with the openness around such matters when similar dramas break among Sydney clubs​.
It's troubling from a disciplinary viewpoint that it appears these six Warriors ​players didn't think there would be any consequences for their actions.
They were found out when a senior team-mate reported them into management. Despite this player trying to do the right thing by the club (his name has been widely circulated on social media), his actions have caused further friction inside the team, with others not happy that he dobbed in team-mates.
The night out continues to have consequences. Vatuvei was granted leave on medical grounds when the behaviour of he and his team-mates made international headlines.
His decision to "come clean" yesterday and to ​confirm that ​after ​having considered quitting, he was staying appeared to me carefully rehearsed and managed by the team's media team and delivered via a major sponsor​.
Relations have soured inside the group of six. After initially agreeing to tell a uniform story to club management after being potted by the team-mate, one of the players told a different tale, fearing the incident might spell the end of his career. This has split the group.
It is also understood some of the players have found it tough to deal with McFadden's style of leadership and that a group of the Pacific Island players have found Hoffman's very direct Aussie manner difficult to handle.
There must have been many times recently when Hoffman and other stars who quit lucrative contracts with Australian-based NRL clubs ​worried that their league careers had taken a U-turn because of the issues within the Warriors.
During this week a group of senior players met behind closed doors they stopped short of calling it a crisis meeting. But it didn't stop the rot.
Straight afterward an arranged interview between Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and a media organisation, again hand-picked by the club, didn't help matters. Tuivasa-Sheck proceeded to reveal what was discussed at the meeting despite some players believing the discussions should remain confidential.
Long-suffering Warriors fans deserve the full truth so the club players, coaches, staff and most importantly those paying at the gate can wipe the slate clean and start cheering again. It's not even winter and this season is far from over. As of the start of this shortened round 12, the Warriors were just two points off the top 8. So close, but in many respects so far away.
