Warriors Talent Pool

[Hawkins]

Hi Team

I have a serious question about the Warriors Talent Pool.

Do you have to be a New Zealander to play?

Is there a cap on international talent? (Hoffman, Ayshford etc)

Do you think it holds you back if there is a cap and no other team in the league has to draw on "born only" players cause then Melbourne would be f**ked and Newcastle more f**ked.

 

[Rich102]

I have been wondering this for a little while and can get no answer.
Certainly short sighted and doomed to fail if it is true.

 

[Hawkins]

I have been wondering this for a little while and can get no answer.
Certainly short sighted and doomed to fail if it is true.

Really, most of the squad is from New Zealand, that cannot be by chance but the Warriors don't have an official position?

 

[jaseg]

No, there's no cap on overseas players - we're just seemingly in the middle of a second bout of irrational nationalism in 5-6 years.

Stupid, really. There's plenty of non-Kiwi talent that could help the team.

 

[Hawkins]

No, there's no cap on overseas players - we're just seemingly in the middle of a second bout of irrational nationalism in 5-6 years.

Stupid, really. There's plenty of non-Kiwi talent that could help the team.

But if you think about it a player like Aaron Woods moving from Balmain to Canterbury doesn't even have to move house, hell he could play for Manly, Easts, Rabbits, Parra, Sharks but probably not Penrith and still live where he lives.

However the outlying clubs need a change of Postcode and New Zealand would have to logistically be the worst unless your allergic to Wankers and then Melbourne might have you beat.

So with no cap I guess its just that its not appealing to relocate.

 

[jaseg]

Yeah, I guess... there's always going to be guys who want / are willing to come to NZ (Price, Tate, any of the NZ internationals we've recruited etc) or are just looking for the contract that best suits them (at the top level of recruits) or guys who are just looking for an opportunity - there's always a risk that some of them will leave once they can (Maloney), but that's just the game.

There's also potentially other factors in play... for a start, a question I've never properly got the answer to... all cap figures (even from official NRL sources) appear to be in before tax numbers - is this how they work out the cap? Because if the cap is really calculated on before tax figures, we've got an advantage - the NZ high income tax brackets are more favourable.

At the end of the day though, it's a bit like the property market - just as no two properties are exactly the same, no two clubs are the same, and different players are going to value being at different clubs more than others for various reasons. It's a structural thing that you're never really going to get around.

 

[WellsNZ]

But if you think about it a player like Aaron Woods moving from Balmain to Canterbury doesn't even have to move house, hell he could play for Manly, Easts, Rabbits, Parra, Sharks but probably not Penrith and still live where he lives.

However the outlying clubs need a change of Postcode and New Zealand would have to logistically be the worst unless your allergic to Wankers and then Melbourne might have you beat.

So with no cap I guess its just that its not appealing to relocate.

Pretty much as you've touched on here, unless you have particular incentive to come here e.g. being offered more money, having family here, or having no other NRL options there isn't really much reason for an Australian to leave their home country. There'll be the odd exception, some might for example just want to be in a country with less spotlight, but in general most people aren't going to make that jump unless they have good reason to. It's not like you're traversing the world to see a different culture or something by going from Aussie to NZ. You need to give these guys a reason to shift, money, an opportunity they aren't getting etc.

Conversely most Kiwis would probably prefer to stay here if they could, but the fact there's only one team doesn't make that realistic. It's also potentially going to be better for your career moving to a stronger club, whereas shifting to the Warriors from elsewhere seems to be doing more harm than good for many.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Our best bet is having a scout/talent manager/recruitment manager who is able to identify the Maloneys, guys like those from other clubs who aren't getting a go but will thrive with the right opportunities. Paul Vaughan, benched/QLD Cup at the Raiders and now is being spoken of as an Origin prop. Those are the guys we should be rounding up, obviously in addition to developing our own talent and not letting SST, Paasi etc thrive at other clubs.

But hey, our recruitment manager is Tony Iro. So not much hope. At least he's a Kiwi though aye...

 

[ozenzud]

And unless you like cold, rain and wind the weather in NZ is shite, so that doesn't attract too many punters.

 

[Hawkins]

And unless you like cold, rain and wind the weather in NZ is shite, so that doesn't attract too many punters.

No but from experience I can tell you that sounds a lot like Canberra.

 

[Rich102]

I think the biggest disadvantage for most would be the travel times involved for away games every two weeks.
With reporting times two and a half hours before international flights that 5 hours sitting in airline terminals alone.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

I actually think the Warriors need to target uk players more. We're on a much more even footing with the Aussie clubs for attracting them because most of the percieved disadvantages for Aussies don't really apply- weather is better than the uk and not as hot as Aus, distance isn't really a factor as once you're on the other side of the world everywhere is is miles away. As the other have mentioned realistically we generally have to pay overs for Aussie talent and they're likely to not stick around.

 

[JJ]

Dunno, But objectively we're appalling at developing young talent - seems you either should be consistently giving them bench experience (like Coen Hess) or just throwing them in and persevering (Cleary, or Taylor albeit injury forced)

The only ones I can recall being treated like that were Matulino, Johnson and Kata ( I guess) - the rest don't seem to know if they're in the squad or what position they're playing week-to-week. We're shit anyway, I just can't understand why we don't be shit with Hingano, Vete, Afoa etc in the team in the same position every week - at least that way there's hope we will get better

 

[Rich102]

It's not the Warrior way!

 

[WellsNZ]

I actually think the Warriors need to target uk players more. We're on a much more even footing with the Aussie clubs for attracting them because most of the percieved disadvantages for Aussies don't really apply- weather is better than the uk and not as hot as Aus, distance isn't really a factor as once you're on the other side of the world everywhere is is miles away. As the other have mentioned realistically we generally have to pay overs for Aussie talent and they're likely to not stick around.

Didn't they have a couple of young English guys lined up couple of years back?

I agree, particularly with forwards, that it's a good place to be targeting. Fixing the forward issue isn't going to come cheap, good props are a premium. Looking outside the box e.g. UK, castoffs in ressies that might be hungry for an opportuntiy etc.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Didn't they have a couple of young English guys lined up couple of years back?

I agree, particularly with forwards, that it's a good place to be targeting. Fixing the forward issue isn't going to come cheap, good props are a premium. Looking outside the box e.g. UK, castoffs in ressies that might be hungry for an opportuntiy etc.

Yeah, that was a complete flop. Think both returned before the door had stopped swinging on their way through.

The trouble is, we don't have good recruitment managers - we have jobs for the boys in that domain. Bell was awful, no sign Iro will be any better.

Foran's money should've gone to Vaughan. We're not a charity, I love Foz and want him to do well but using as a halfway house, when we had Ata and could use cap in better ways, isn't going to work.