There's no difference between losing a grand final and getting knocked out in the first week. Once you make the finals it's all about winning the GF. NOONE remembers how deep teams go into September if they don't win.
As for what the Warriors have brought to the comp. I hate how you haven't given yourselves a proper name. You're like the Roosters and Tigers, f**ken call yourselves Auckland/New Zealand. But besides that of course the Warriors have been a good thing. The NZ tv rights adds a nice extra chunk to the tv rights income and it's great for kiwi talent to have a direct pathway to the NRL.
But I do find it strange how poor the Warriors are at retaining talent. Look at Luke, Benji and Foran. The core of your test spine is playing for our clubs. Great for us but a poor indication of talent scouting over there. And you almost lost Shaun Johnson to AFL!
Ahhh... Issac Luke was from Taranaki which is about what, 4-5 hours out of Auckland, Kieran Foran moved to Australia as a youngster from memory for his parents who had a job over here, Benji, yeah maybe, although he also is from Whakatane which is also not anywhere near Auckland. To suggest the Warriors have the pick of the country when there are scouts all over the joint is ludicrous. Further to that, at the time the club basically had first grade and an affiliation with the Bartercard Cup. It didn't have the U20s or NSW Premier League, so of course they were going to lose players.
That's why I think the Warriors will finish mid table more often than not. They're not the top 2/4 team everyone thinks they are because contrary to popular opinion, they are not the Kiwi test team.
I don't think anyone genuinely believes any team that hasn't got a history of rorting the cap is consistently going to be a top 2-4 team. No one, aside from Ray Hadley commentating, is delusional enough to think they are the Kiwi test team.
We have a salary capped comp, they are no super power. That's why they finish mid table much more often than top 4.
As is the case for practically any other team, yes?
Your biggest problem is talent retention. Whoever is in charge of it across the pond knows to get the fastest/biggest/strongest athletes. You know to keep the athletes, but you guys aren't very good at retaining footballers. Your best pure footballers have been picked up by our clubs for a reason.
Who have the Warriors let go the past few years? Mostly old heads as I've stated elsewhere. A lot of the other blokes they've let go haven't played consistent first grade in most cases... I'm seriously trying to rattle my mind over the past say 3 years... Leeson Ah Mau, Suiatonga Likiliki, Daniel O'Regan all debuted at the Warriors but have played limited or in some cases no first grade football elsewhere. Nafe Seluini is already onto his second club, Steve Rapira (who has come back) went ok but didn't overly excel, Other blokes... Berrigan is struggling at Canberra, Latimore is still doing much the same with the Dragons, Seymour, Heremaia, Moon, Hohaia, are all in the UK so seemingly not wanted by other NRL clubs, McKinnon as expected was busted when he was let go, Upu Poching is back playing reserve grade... Who am I missing that supposedly we should have retained bunniesderp?
What I will say, and have said consistently, is out of Heremaia, Berrigan, Moon, Seymour, Hohaia... none of them are necessarily better than any of the talent in the squad currently (an argument can be made for Hohaia), but somewhere along the line I think there should have been a realisation that a lot of experience all basically at once is leaving the club. In that sense it would have been good for a Berrigan or Hohaia to still be at the club.
