Season 2024 in Review

[Big Marn]

Wasnt Nigel Vagana involved in some sort of player welfare scheme for awhile? Used to go club to club helping out new players. Not sure what sort of help he provided though.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

WTF Stacey...

That's pretty hard to take as a fan.

Don't know if Webster will love Stacey saying that, nor saying that chopping and changing pretty well f**ked our season

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

WTF Stacey...

That's pretty hard to take as a fan.

Don't know if Webster will love Stacey saying that, nor saying that chopping and changing pretty well f**ked our season

What don’t you like about it?

 

[Penrose Warrior]

What don’t you like about it?

The part about players having problems away from the field and not being in the right head space.

I don't mind the game plan being off, Webster getting caught short as a new coach, injuries, all that stuff.

But it's f**king hard to take if Stacey blurts something like that (without any depth) and we are to believe that these guys were unprofessional this year. If it was AFB, he should've been moved on. If it wasn't, who was it? Are these people still at the club? Why did this happen? One good year, and things go tits up?

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

The part about players having problems away from the field and not being in the right head space.

I don't mind the game plan being off, Webster getting caught short as a new coach, injuries, all that stuff.

But it's f**king hard to take if Stacey blurts something like that (without any depth) and we are to believe that these guys were unprofessional this year. If it was AFB, he should've been moved on. If it wasn't, who was it? Are these people still at the club? Why did this happen? One good year, and things go tits up?

Yea fair enough. But TBH I’m less surprised about the news itself as I am about someone actually admitting it.

Bunch of 20-something y/o males with a lot of money and lots of attention.. I imagine nearly every club, at any given time, has a handful of players whose heads aren’t in the right place. They just rarely admit to it unless there’s an incident.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Yea fair enough. But TBH I’m less surprised about the news itself as I am about someone actually admitting it.

Bunch of 20-something y/o males with a lot of money and lots of attention.. I imagine nearly every club, at any given time, has a handful of players whose heads aren’t in the right place. They just rarely admit to it unless there’s an incident.

Oh no I agree. I'm not surprised, it does f**k me off but...actually no, it does surprise me. No it doesn't surprise me in the sense that I've followed the NRL for a long time, teams have issues and they're humans, shit happens. But with our team, the main issue we felt - and some still do - was around AFB. But he played the house down from mid-season. So who are these issues around? Can anyone hazard a guess who it might be, that Stacey is talking about?

Stacey said a few things in that interview that I would never expect a professional to say, I now have a really good idea why I've never thought he'd be head material. Saying that, was poor. You don't kick fans in the teeth when you're down and it does your club no favours to say some people weren't in the right headspace.

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

Oh no I agree. I'm not surprised, it does f**k me off but...actually no, it does surprise me. No it doesn't surprise me in the sense that I've followed the NRL for a long time, teams have issues and they're humans, shit happens. But with our team, the main issue we felt - and some still do - was around AFB. But he played the house down from mid-season. So who are these issues around? Can anyone hazard a guess who it might be, that Stacey is talking about?

Stacey said a few things in that interview that I would never expect a professional to say, I now have a really good idea why I've never thought he'd be head material. Saying that, was poor. You don't kick fans in the teeth when you're down and it does your club no favours to say some people weren't in the right headspace.

Honestly no idea who else other than AFB that could've been the source of any off field dramas.

But re: his performances - I had a closer look at his stats at the end of the regular season and interestingly, his per game numbers for total runs, metres gained and post contact metres were all better in '24, but his average tackles per game was lower.

I know you can interpret stats in lots of different ways, but I found it interesting that while he was even better on the headline stuff for front rowers, in a key effort area like defence, his contribution dropped.

 

[Wheeled Warrior]

Jazz is someone I'd like to hear from to get his perspective on what happened. It's not that he hasn't already spoken about it - he mentioned that AFB wanted to confront Moses in the carpark after the Warriors loss to the Panthers last year. Moses of course said everything stays on the field.

Did anyone catch that from Jazz in that interview?

AFB was really great this season I acknowledge his awesome effort, but that would all be nullified for me if he caused shit that offset the rest of the team.

Also it's possible there are others that could be causing shit, not just AFB.
Jazz could be the culprit too lol

They will keep it internal as they do but Stacey has opened this up more with his latest comments.

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

Jazz is someone I'd like to hear from to get his perspective on what happened. It's not that he hasn't already spoken about it - he mentioned that AFB wanted to confront Moses in the carpark after the Warriors loss to the Panthers last year. Moses of course said everything stays on the field.

Did anyone catch that from Jazz in that interview?

Oh real? I completely missed that… which interview does Jazz mention that in and does he say what set Addin off? I dont actually remember the last time I saw Leota get caught up in anything onfield.

 

[Wheeled Warrior]

Oh real? I completely missed that… which interview does Jazz mention that in and does he say what set Addin off? I dont actually remember the last time I saw Leota get caught up in anything onfield.

I like how open Jazz is. From around the 22 min mark.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Go back to the game day thread after the Titans massacre, and there is an account from someone in there that witnessed Jazz and AFB nearly getting into it on the sidelines after the game

I’ve got little doubt that AFB was a problem in some regard, not participating in the team song shows some sort of issue and then getting stood down as well. Levels is a no bullshit podcast and they said they’d heard some stuff out of Warriors camp around him that wasn’t good

There was a dip in his form mid season, I think he was asking for a release behind the scenes which they wouldn’t grant, and once the June 30 deadline passed and there was zero option to leave for another club, his form picked up again

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

I like how open Jazz is. From around the 22 min mark.

Ha that's hilarious. Will have to hunt down a replay to try spot what sparked it.

I've heard Jazz talk about having to try play that tough guy role before. Dunno if he's just making excuses for some of his hot head stuff, but he seems genuine. Reminds me too of Monty saying how Mick Watson used to fire him up before games to try turn him into a killer. He described Willy Mason once asking him in the tunnel what was wrong and Monty telling him to fk off lol

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Warriors wish list: The signatures to chase to revive fortunes

With a club legend retiring and fan favourites leaving, what can the Warriors do?

www.nzherald.co.nz

Swapping TMM for Lachlan Ilias is an interesting one.

Don't mind the thought of Nikore (Briton) and Mulitalo for 2026, and Leo Thompson at the Knights is a gun, too.

 

[Meth]

Weird from Stacey to break ranks like that.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Weird from Stacey to break ranks like that.

Yeah, I think it's incredibly poor. I can't imagine Webster was chuffed. Nor Cam George, nor Mr Alpha.

Shows the lack of professionalism that has held Stacey back from bigger jobs, sounds like he doesn't want them in any case, but it's the feel I've always had that he's a Tony Iro - does enough to stay on staff, but doesn't offer a tremendous amount.

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

Yeah, I think it's incredibly poor. I can't imagine Webster was chuffed. Nor Cam George, nor Mr Alpha.

Shows the lack of professionalism that has held Stacey back from bigger jobs, sounds like he doesn't want them in any case, but it's the feel I've always had that he's a Tony Iro - does enough to stay on staff, but doesn't offer a tremendous amount.

Yea that's the danger of interviews like that isn't it, where they take live questions. Risk of someone getting themselves in a tangle answering a question and saying stuff their bosses might prefer they didn't.

From a fan perspective I really like the transparency and I didnt interpret anything Stacey said as having a conscious dig at Webby or the club. But definitely an element of naivety from him there.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Yeah, I think it's incredibly poor. I can't imagine Webster was chuffed. Nor Cam George, nor Mr Alpha.

Shows the lack of professionalism that has held Stacey back from bigger jobs, sounds like he doesn't want them in any case, but it's the feel I've always had that he's a Tony Iro - does enough to stay on staff, but doesn't offer a tremendous amount.

Tony Iro, been on the Warriors staff for years, how do they not get his nephew on the books who looks a very good NRL player

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Tony Iro, been on the Warriors staff for years, how do they not get his nephew on the books who looks a very good NRL player

Holy shit, I didn't realise he was still there. That really hammers home my point, doesn't it. Sometimes when you want to move a club forward, you need to move on driftwood like that

 

[Matua]

I like how open Jazz is. From around the 22 min mark.

Is this podcast like the Monty Once A Warrior podcast? Was disappointed that just ended this year.

 

[Matua]

Also (just reading the discussion on AFB above) if the club is so weak that he can personally cause a failing year then nothing has changed at the Warriors, it's still a mickey mouse club rather than a professional outfit.

Plus, if he did cause shit that's on George and Webby for keeping him around. I said at the time they should just let him go but this was the time they decided they wanted to be tough guys.