Listened to a podcast with Kevin Campion. He mentioned that when he was at the club it seemed to go well because it had a mix of Australians to lead the way, yet I look at this mob and mostly it’s Kiwi lads (and it seems that’s the recruitment strategy too).
He mentioned when he was back as an assistant coach he found the young local lads seemed to think they’d made it and didn’t need to put the hard yards in to prepare.
I wonder if over a decade on from Kevs time at the club that he’s still right on the mark. Dollar for dollar it’s probably true that Kiwi lads will come here or play here for less on average. But you look at this weeks team, we have Green, Burr and Lawton, and locals.
Perhaps the kiwis only approach would work if the local comp was as hard nailsed as it was back in the day. But from what I can see it seems a massive step up even into reserve grade where we are regularly getting belted.
If I go back and this may be simplistic, but the successful Warriors teams have had tough as teak Australians. Whether it be Campion, Cleary, Carlaw, Marsh, Steve Price, George Gatis, Mick Luck, James Maloney...
Thoughts?