BrentWebb'sno.1fan #3 Bulldogs
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Warriors Logo
In March 1995, the Warriors were launched amid an explosion, cash, pageantry and optimism never before unleashed on the New Zealand sporting public.
Such was the wave of hype propelling the first professional sporting franchise in Kiwi sport that at one stage Warrior-mania threatened to engulf and overwhelm the greatest of the countrys sporting icons, the All Blacks.
Back in 1994, a small group of Maori protesters gathered on the footpath outside the Customs Street corporate headquarters of Dominion Breweries, major sponsors of the Warriors, in downtown Auckland.
They sang, they chanted. But what was the point asked a bemused passer-by. Those who chose to listen to the explanation were told that the protesters were unhappy with the new Warriors logo, based on a Maori Tekoteko or carved figurehead. The tongue was curved. It should be straight, the demonstrators claimed. A curved tongue was a sign of femininity and lack of courage. The logo must be changed.
Ian Robson, the Warriors 31-year-old chief executive, bustled past the group, his mind on the first of dozens of meetings in yet another typical day in the build up to what was looking like the Greatest Show to ever hit New Zealand sport. Robson, baby-faced but constantly exuding powerful confidence of a man whom not only knew what he wanted but how to get it, had already dismissed the Maori protest in the press. A towering man with a snappy fashion sense, Robson had far bigger things to worry about than a bunch of rabble-rousers unhappy with a logo. This mob must have been the only people in New Zealand who werent excited about the advent of the Warriors. They needed to get a life and get with the programme.
Later it would emerge that the original logo put to the Warriors by Maori designers had featured a straight tongue. But Robson and his marketing manager, Liz Dawson, felt the Tekoteko was more striking with a curved appendage.
As Robson rounded the corner and headed out of sight, the protesters began a quiet ceremony.
A curse was laid on the Auckland Warriors.
In October 1998, the Warriors were sold by the Auckland Rugby League to a consortium comprising Tainui, Graham Lowe and his business partner Malcolm Boyle. One of the first acts of the new regime was to apply to the National Rugby League for a change to the Warriors logo. Within weeks, the tongue had been straightened.
Did it get rid of the curse?
Hell, no!
After another two seasons in the NRL, the Warriors were still the biggest under achievers of the competition, and were also known as the sleeping giants. Then, the new millennium had dawned and the mood was buoyant at the Warriors. The final flourish to the 1999 season had given the club a fighting chance not just of survival but the opportunity to thrive. That thought was obvious at the club headquarters and the way the 2000 season was talked up.
And that enormous optimism was translated in the off-season build-up. Season Ticket sales had gone through the roof. At the kick off against the Melbourne Storm, those sales had more than doubled to 8000 plus the highest level since the first year of the club.
There was also optimism over several off-season signings. Which included Ivan Cleary, leading point scorer in the NRL in 1998. Parramattas Mark Tookey, and young sharks centre David Myles and North Sydney utility Scott Pethybridge were picked up at bargain rates to add depth and experience respectively to the outside backs. Wests forwards Matt Spence and Scott Coxon were signed for the same reason.
There was only one problem, the football gods, whom the Warriors had displeased way back in 95, were still not happy. Boy they held a grudge, the club straightened the tongue on the logo, tried to right any previous karmie wrongs by being straight up with people, had got on the Kaumatua, or witchdoctors as people called them, to rid the Headquarters, gymnasium, field etc of any evil spirits or curses.
But this was one stubborn curse. And it wouldnt rest.
This was just one of the problems that the ill-fated Auckland Warriors had.
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