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mt smart

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  1. It has been a long time coming. The Warriors have never had a long term investment strategy. They may have talked a good game, but their biggest failing has been the way they recruit then develop junior footballers (I say junior loosely to include all teams below NRL). There have been several key changes at the Warriors that have been building towards a properly run development club - starting with the current owner Mark Robinson. I have to admit I did not know what to make of the guy when he took over, although he has a pedigree in the sport. But since his arrival the club has managed to hang onto their CEO (the Warriors go through staff like nothing else) Cameron George, their CEO was at real risk of being cut (he had been there through a number of poor seasons). But the Owner held onto his CEO who has then been able to take the learning of the years of struggles and made some critical appointments. Hiring Dally M wining Rookie coach Andrew Webster is the most talked about - but for the long term, the re hiring of former Warriors coach Andrew McFadden as recruitment manager was equally important - McFadden knows the recruitment scene here, he knows the problems, and he was only too happy to move his young family from Australia to base themselves in New Zealand (ex Canberra) long term. Rehiring an Aussie failed ex Warriors coach like McFadden is not a move the club would have been open minded enough to try in the past. Why is McFadden different to the others the Warriors discarded? He was the very first coach that managed to impose attacking structure on a Warriors first grade side, under McFadden the reliance on second phase offloads and a side step (Kiwi ball) was trimmed back and placed within set attacking moves. Even Ivan Cleary failed to teach local NZ players to play structure more complex than second man plays. Someone at this club finally worked out - that if you find a guy who can teach new skills - you should keep them around a New Zealand side. But McFadden has not come back to teach attack (Andrew Webster is all over it-he lectures the Reserves and first grade side in joint sessions-the reserves are always in the first grade coaching talks now). McFadden has been charged with finding and developing teachable kids, that are able to take on instruction and develop the missing micro skills in their games (many of these kids have been coached by random good will parents who have little formal training and are coaching because League is rapidly dying at junior club level in New Zealand). The Club made a lot of money last year with record sales of all Warriors interests - to see it reinvested in a proper Juniors program is outstanding. From that you can extrapolate that the Owner and CEO get it - they know the resources have to be reinvested in tomorrow, not season 2024/2025 but seasons 2027/28. You have to have a four to five year Junior development program with a goal of building a stable of NRL players that represent the best talent pool to come out of New Zealand. The Warriors have rarely if ever achieved this, they have been out competed in their own country by other NRL clubs for the best juniors (most notably the Melbourne Storm who wisely used assistant coach Stephen Kearney's contacts in the lower North Island to set up a network that consistently finds the best players outside of the Warriors preferred narrow focus of South Auckland). In the past few seasons the Warriors have tried to counter this by picking up kids from Rugby Union (which is fine ) but they should have been doing this as an over and above strategy - and not a forced into it situation due to losing the recruitment battle in their own sport. The Warriors winning season last year obviously helps, they had a thousand kids show up for an open try out. The Owner of the club is currently looking for a building to house a new Juniors gym (they have recently acquired a new Gym for the seniors) so there is some serious redirecting of profit back into the organisation that the Warriors have never enjoyed before. In the past the club has been content to meet cost and stay afloat through jersey sales. Ironically merchandise sales are better than ever, but that is not where the club has its focus anymore, now they are focused on a simple model of delivering a finals team every season, top eight or bust. As a life long fan, that is all I want, a club that lands somewhere between 8th and 1st in the regular season, year on year.
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