Great news from the shaky isles!

[Londonbornirishbred]

since moving down here, the anguish of being a London Bronxos fan has eased and gradually been replaced by the frustrations (and expence) of being a NZ Warriors fan, but after yet another weekend of "bad" results in both Hemispheres, i was delighted to read THIS.

This comes in a week where the CEO of the Auckland Blues union side admits that the city is now a League city in terms of professional sports entertainment.

The NRL arent under any obligations to have a second NZ side in the comp, but in terms of player development and pathways (no matter how fevered the support in PNG or important the TV figures in Perth), you would have to say New Zealand has to be the #1 option for the future playing rosters if the game is to continue to grow.

There's a real opportunity to make RL a career option for young men and women here and the fact that the warriors seem to have scoured the country to build their youth squads shows the value.....lets hope the NRL can grasp it.

[Sports Prophet]

Was that article of the Blues CEO meant to include anything about the Warriors admission you mentioned?

[unapologetic pedant]

Warriors have lost three in a row. Face an in-form Roosters next week at Allianz. Followed by the Panthers in Magic Round. As NRL TV commentators say, "it could get ugly".

Also reports emerging after the Harold Mathews GF of Union using their grip on NZ schools to put spokes in the wheels of Warriors pathways.

Everybody seems to be reverting to type.

[Leigh-On-Kiwi]

NZ warriors season ticket holder here and I've got to say the warriors are hard to watch at times. They can play outstanding rugby and then go to sleep for 20mins, albeit they're still competing every game and i think they'll bounce back.

As for OP and the second kiwi RL team, it surely has to be Chch, warriors seem to get a good following when they're there and it would make for a great rivalry. 

[The Rocket]

9 hours ago, Londonbornirishbred said:

you would have to say New Zealand has to be the #1 option for the future playing rosters if the game is to continue to grow.

I`d love to have NZ2 be the next team into the NRL but the reality is despite the lovely website and much hyped announcements of readiness neither of the bids out of Christchurch make mention of a single sponsor or any sort of investment and talk of plans to fund the venture from crowd-funding are frankly embarrassing.

[Damien]

And under threat they resort to their usual tricks:

 

[Gomersall]

16 minutes ago, Damien said:

And under threat they resort to their usual tricks:

 

Leopards*

 

*This is in no way a dig at Leigh or their fans.

[DoubleD]

The cream always rises to the top, in spite of any dirty tactics. The inertia is too strong

[RayCee]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/350248658/has-auckland-become-rugby-league-city

Having observed the way RU apologists act in NZ, headlines like this in the past have created a reaction against RL. Not shouting out loud but tapping into the Old Boy network which is all RU in NZ and using their influence in various ways. The thing is I don't think it has the influence it used to.  

[Damien]

4 hours ago, RayCee said:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/350248658/has-auckland-become-rugby-league-city

Having observed the way RU apologists act in NZ, headlines like this in the past have created a reaction against RL. Not shouting out loud but tapping into the Old Boy network which is all RU in NZ and using their influence in various ways. The thing is I don't think it has the influence it used to.  

Pretty great stats there:

Statistics confirm the rise of the Warriors. Numbers provided by the club show they have 17,552 members compared to 5472 last year and there are 8231 full ticketed members, up from 4604 in 2023.

All hospitality packages sold out before the season began, so the club had to create new spaces.

The first two Mt Smart Stadium home games this year resulted in the highest and third highest ever game day retail sales (excluding finals) and the club sold more apparel in the first quarter of this year than they did in all of 2023.

There has also been a 20% increase in sponsorship revenue with Dynasty, Great Wall Motors, MyHR, Maxigesic, UP Education, Arnott’s Shapes, Snap Rentals, Hallenstein’s, Anytime Fitness, Bayleys and Asics coming on board.

Edited May 8 by Damien

[Damien]

On 06/05/2024 at 09:25, Damien said:

And under threat they resort to their usual tricks:

 

More on that:

[Damien]

Joey Manu talks of the same from his time at school: