Where To?

[Big Marn]

Do we persist with paying overs for players not invested in the club (eg Nikorima) and/or looking for a retirement nest egg ( eg Adam Blair) or do we take another season or 2 of misery while we try to get homegrown talent up to NRL speed like we did prior to Andersons reign.

Interestingly the only forward that would have been above par this year is Leeson Ah Mau (only forward to average over 100M a game) and he came through the juniors system, got discarded by Warriors, honed his game with the Dragons and came back a better player, ( obviously not a game breaker but a useful cog in the machine). We had to pay to get him back which i guess is an indictment on management not perservering with the younger players.
The only other forward of note is Tohu and whether he would have made a difference in this miserable season is debatable.

Everyone is pointing the finger at Potato and rightly so, but the player talent at this club is ordinary and definitely nowhere near Premiership level.
The thing that concerns me is whether the talent pool in NZ is decreasing steadily, as parents look at other sports for their talented kids (eg Basketball) and/or look for a ticket out of Auckland away from bad influences, drugs, and gangs.

It seems to me that the Warriors will always be behind the 8 ball for a multitude of reasons, and something incredible needs to happen to change that.

 

[Rich102]

I think the young players are still moving to league, just not the Warriors.
Very poor player development.
The kids know a bum coach when they see one.

 

[WellsNZ]

If you're shining school aged kid right now, basically all you know of the Warriors in your life is trash. This matters, who wants to play for this team that loses all the time, NZ team or not. Especially when you're a kid, losing isn't cool and you aren't as rusted on in your fandom.

And if I was a parent of this kid, and I could have them go to the Warriors, or go to Australia, with a good coach, and a well managed club, of course I'm sending them to Australia. I want them to have the best opportunity.

We need to start with a legitimate, Australian coach who knows what the f**k he is doing. Someone who will have players, good players, that want to play for him. Not as in getting the players on the roster engaged and wanting to play (because this should be a requirement by default), but a coach who has established credibility in the game to the point that players are willing to come from Australia to NZ to play for his team because they trust him enough to do it.

We need to be finding the next good pommy forwards and bringing them here as well. Don't let Canberra get all of them. We will always struggle with recruiting top Aussie talent. We can compete better in recruiting poms. There's a lot of good English forwards around now and we could do with a couple of hard working, mongrel English blokes in the team.

We'll have to continue to overpay some players along the way to try to establish this. That's fine, but we need to identify the exact type of players that are worth overpaying for e.g. people who live and breath exactly what we want every player to be doing and constantly setting the example for the rest of the squad. We can overpay someone who does this because there's a carryover effect beyond their own individual performances. What we can't do is overpay someone who shows that it's OK to run 30 metres a game and you can still get 800k a year. I'll overpay a Jai Arrow happily because you'd know he'd give you absolutely everything and set a standard for the rest of the team.

Then, maybe, as part of this gradual process, we'll have a platform starting to form where local talent find playing here more appealing compared to Aussie or yawnion.

I'd be very tempted to throw Josh Reynolds a lifeline, don't think everyone will agree, and I wouldn't pay him a huge amount because of his injury history, but there's a heart and soul player who will give you absolutely everything every week and really give a f**k, been to two grand finals, won an Origin series, and when the chips are down identifies it and tries to do something to lift his team to get back into it instead of deciding it's too hard lets pack it in. Give him a year, say here's your chance to showcase yourself in the NRL still.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Most of our players are useful but we’re short of one really good player in pretty much every area bar back three and hooker. We need a proper front row enforcer, another decent ball playing edge backrower, and a centre with some genuine pace. Also not sold on the Nikorima/CHT combo moving forward though we’ll actually need to see it tried properly first.
But most of all we need a new coach. I’ve always backed giving Kearney his chance but he’s had it, he said himself it was a three year project to become a proper finals team, last year they looked like they might be on track but they’re way off now and time’s up. George needs to man up and get on the phone to Toovey.

 

[Iron Lion]

Well, there is good news and bad news.

Bad news first.

Out of the reserve grade players, Adam Pompey is probably the best of the lot.

• Everyone else is well and truly behind him in terms of numbers and impact on the game.

Hayze Perham has the best potential but he hasnt put up the numbers and showed much impact at this level yet.

• Though I suspect Perham is a big game player and given the spotlight has the potential to become a threatening player. A one-two punch with RTS could be rewarding.

The best of the rest is probably Taane Milne. Kearney just seems reluctant to give him shot in first grade.

• Having said that he is reluctant to give anyone on the rise a shot in first grade

Ok, the Good News now.

The warriors have some exceptional junior talent currently.

The following players have NRL written all over them over the next 2 - 3 years

Paul Turner
Temple Kalepo
Tom Ale
Brody Tamarua
Preston Riki
Isaiah Vagana
Selestino Ravutaumada
Eliesa Katoa
Taniela Otukolo

Realistically the only ones that would be semi-ready to play NRL in 2020 are

Paul Turner
Tom Ale
Brody Tamarua
Preston Riki

The must keep players at all costs are

Paul Turner
Tom Ale (Jason Taumalolo like)
Selestino Ravutaumada
Eliesa Katoa (Big and athletic - 193cm 110kg)
Taniela Otukolo (incredible hooker who is Damien Cook like - only 17 years old)

As far as the NRL team goes it doesn't look good unless who coaches the Warriors in 2020 injects new blood.

If I was the coach id look at something like this.


1) RTS (speed)
2) David Fusitua
3) Taane Milne
4) Patrick Herbert
5) Hayze Perham (speed)
6) Paul Turner (speed)
7) CHT / Blake Green
8) Ken Maumalalo
9) Kodi Nikorima
10) Leeson Ah Mau
11) Jackson Frei / NEW SIGNING
12) Tohu Harris
13) Bunty Afoa

14) Josh Curran / Jazz Tevaga
15) Tom Ale
16) Lachlan Burr/ Brody Tamarua / NEW SIGNING
17) Agnatius Paasi / Preston Riki / NEW SIGNING

We need to pick up some reserve grade signings. Big props and 2nd rowers not getting a fair go elsewhere. Look to the super league for ex NRL players ready for their 2nd shot in Australia.

Mitre 10 cup has a lot of great talent. 1 or 2 guys from there.

 

[Matua]

Bit harsh on Nikorima to say he's not invested - he arrived as the wheels were well off, there's not much he could do to address the issues.

 

[Fufu Andronez]

The pub

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

Bit harsh on Nikorima to say he's not invested - he arrived as the wheels were well off, there's not much he could do to address the issues.

Nikorima has the same problem SJ had. By the time the ball gets to him we're already going sideways.

Like SJ, Nikorima is at his best at first receiver, but the way the NRL is structured robotically, especially with our Muppet coach, the controlling half always goes first.

 

[TheDalek079]

why not try and get Paul Green? He'd be the first coach since Monie to have already won a premiership (excluding Bluey's english comps). Did an apprenticeship under Trent Robinson, he got the Cowboys their first premiership, then got them into a grand final missing Scott and JT. That's pretty good. Things aren't going too well for him at the moment, so he may be willing to have a fresh start away from North Queensland?

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Agree with Lion’s lineup for the most part apart from moving Ken. We’ve got enough shit to fix without messing with something that’s actually working.

 

[Fufu Andronez]

Blatantly obvious now that the rubbish going on upstairs has filtered throughout the club.

Shit flows downhill.

I honestly don't know what is next but I suspect the best thing would be for the NRL to assume ownership and parachute some quality people in to take care of the club until a suitable party is found to fix things.

Not sure if that's a possibility though given the fact that we were only just sold etc.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Blatantly obvious now that the rubbish going on upstairs has filtered throughout the club.

Shit flows downhill.

I honestly don't know what is next but I suspect the best thing would be for the NRL to assume ownership and parachute some quality people in to take care of the club until a suitable party is found to fix things.

Not sure if that's a possibility though given the fact that we were only just sold etc.

The NRL can’t do that unless the owners default on their license conditions or go broke afaik. While our ownership situation isn’t exactly stable it’s far from in crisis either. But I agree it definitely seems to have affected things. I thought things were on the up when Jim Doyle was around but they’ve definitely reverted to the usual shambles since he stepped away.

 

[spear tackle]

Warriors have over their lifetime built up many players and good squads of up and comers and just when it looks like a good team is evolving they let them all go and they head off and realize their protentional elsewhere.