Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan: Big Changes, Stay Mellow
Having wiggled through this journey of the Aotearoa Warriors with youz, the whole process of the past few years feels like a growth stage and then the emergence of the concentrated juice. This feels like a boil up, through a boil down process to provide a hearty meal, it' the smoking of some fresh kaimoana to enhance flavours, it's the scoby you can build a pot of kombucha upon or the curry paste you toiled hard to make and can now use to make different curries.
Impurities are worked through and all of the above examples take time don't they?
Yesterday, the Warriors officially announced that new coach Nathan Brown will be joined by Phil Gould in the type of role that only Gould can hold down. There have been many inconsistencies in the 25 years of Aotearoa Warriors history and two of the inconsistencies have been the flow of coaches in and out of Mt Smart, along with Aussie NRL folk bemoaning the Warriors lack of rugby league oomph.
12 coaches since 1995, six coaches in a rather weird decade since the departure of Ivan Cleary.
Dwelling in that history provides me with my mellow vibe. Like you, I've seen most of those 12 coaches offer hope and struggle to ... well, give Warriors folk any positivity. Based from that history, I found it rather foolish to hold any coach as a saviour because that's the direct opposite of how Warriors history has played out.
Anyone who thinks they can predict who the saviour be, or who is going to repeat history by being a meh Warriors coach, can't base that on reality or facts. None of us really knew that Daniel Anderson or Ivan Cleary would be the lads to take the Warriors to Grand Finals, because we've seen them all come and go. Who the fuck knows how ol' Nathan Brown will go as Warriors coach?
I've got nothing to offer to forecast Brown as Warriors coach. There is a nugget though in where Brown's at with his career and if I were Brown, I'd be rather excited to take on a different challenge, to level up as a coach; Newcastle Knights was a rebuilding job, Aotearoa Warriors feels like a 'let's be in the top-eight every year' job.
Getting into the weeds of some Brown/Warriors stuff...
Brown has been with the Warriors recently as part of their coaching staff, yet I heard Brown knock back any speculation from his Triple M broadcasting team (jam the Triple M podcasts if you're a footy nerd) about him and the Warriors coaching gig. Multiple weekends in a row, Brown was prodded and each time he outlined what a great opportunity it would be, although it didn't align with the kind of job Brown wanted.
So, wtf?
I reckon Brown A) though Todd Payten would be the dude to take the job and Brown didn't want to slide into a battle with Payten for the job and B) understood the issues the Warriors face below the NRL level. Brown doesn't seem like the type of guy who would do something super niggly like competing with Payten as Brown's spoke positively about Payten, so when that flipped with Payten doing what he did earlier in the week, Brown made a 'stars align' kinda move.
However, Brown needed a few things sussed with Warriors boss dawgs.
I've been amazed at how little many hearty Warriors fans in my life know about the Warriors below the NRL level. All I can speak on is Warriors folk in my life and depending on how tapped in you are, you may reflect on whether your 10 toes to the ground with the Warriors, or how engaged Warriors folk in your life are.
Maybe Brown saw and understood that the Warriors, NZRL and Auckland Rugby League are all separate entities. Each of them has their own interests and while that should be the betterment of rugby league in Aotearoa, each of those organisations will have different ideas on how to better rugby league in Aotearoa. That's far from ideal and Brown's involvement, then understanding of the landscape may have put him off slighty given how deep the Knights rebuild went - the Knights didn't just re-jig their salay cap, they had to develop systems and ways of recruitment etc.
Brown went through all of that, so coming to a Warriors club in a landscape with inefficiencies everywhere wouldn't have been overly attractive. I'd suggest that Brown would have raised this with Warriors leadership and now the Warriors have someone who many consider to be one of the smartest rugby league minds in the game.
Gould's role is to oversee the rugby league landscape in Aotearoa, that's how I see it. To have the various organisations working together for the betterment of rugby league in Aotearoa, while rocking the Warriors logo. Swing it back to the idea of Aussie folks bemoaning how the Warriors aren't so good and kiwi folk laying out the 'get so and so, he'll fix the club'.
It's here.
Gould is backing up his chat. For someone who has consistently prodded at the Warriors for their predicament, there is mana in Gould stepping up to the challenge and backing up that chat. Many of the other folk, whether mainstream media in Aotearoa or Aussie rugby league folk, throw up ideas and suggestions but haven't been willing to back up their chat. At the very least, Gould's out here putting his best foot forward for rugby league in Aotearoa.
And Gould is someone who knows the beauty of rugby league in Aotearoa.
It was Gould, who back in 2015 went to Whangarei with Penrith Panthers recruitment guy Daryl Mather and held camps for rugby league players in Northland. That specific camp saw Caleb Aekins move to the Panthers, yet prior to Gould's trip to Aotearoa, he and Mather already had James Fisher-Harris and Corey Harawira-Naera in the Panthers system.
Gould didn't snare Whangarei's Dylan Brown (Eels), or a current junior prospects like Wiremu Greig who is in the Cowboys system and Bayleigh Bentley-Hape in the Roosters system. However, Gould identified a talent pool in Northland that has exploded with growth as far as contributing to NRL teams goes.
Of all the 'saviour' names that get thrown up by your mates, or that uncle, Gould has a history of involvement in Aotearoa. The other candidates for this type of role, have seen in from across the ditch and will know of the general landscape, Gould's got his hands dirty in Aotearoa, felt the soil and it's hard not to respect that. Ponder the above, then add in Peter O'Sullivan who is known as one of the best talent scout/recruiters in the NRL - O'Sullivan's been in that mix for a long time as well.
The Warriors not only move forward with just Gould, or just O'Sullivan. They move forward with both of them and considering that both Gould and O'Sullivan have kinda led the way in grabbing talent from Aotearoa, away from the Warriors, everything has come full circle as they are now tasked with ensuring that the Warriors are keeping the best talent.
As Brown explained the benefits of the Warriors job over the past few weeks on Triple M, he used the SG Ball team as an example of systems being adjusted at the Warriors. 2020 was the first year in which an SG Ball (under 18) team was used by the Warriors replacing their Jersey Flegg (under 20) team. While the Warriors had an Under 20s team for a long time and rather successful as far as winning Under 20s footy goes, they had very little to offer under 16/18 juniors.
There has been zero correlation between Warriors Under 20s success and NRL Warriors success, so I'll let you assess how that strategy worked out. Furthermore, not having an SG Ball team gave people like Gould and O'Sullivan an easy avenue to talented Aotearoa juniors as they could offer junior talent better competition at a younger age via those Harold Mathews and SG Ball pathways.
The Warriors could only offer those juniors academy spots, maybe the odd academy game. Hence Australian NRL clubs enjoyed the pick of the crop as far as the best Aoteaora juniors go and implementing an SG Ball team was a major move for the Warriors; Warriors were 3rd (4-2) in their first SG Ball campaign earlier this year.
That was a move already made and at this stage, Stephen Kearney deserves a lot of credit. Kearney's failings were on the NRL field where his Warriors teams looked boring, lacking playing identity and off the pace. Kearney's success was in how he re-built the systems at the Warriors beneath the NRL level, or more to the point: Kearney brought many smart operators to the club and moves were made. Something like the SG Ball team was started under Kearney, with O'Sullivan at the club and other folks, which represents the wider picture here as many good moves/initiatives were implemented prior to this point.
Let's take that further because I reckon O'Sullivan, maybe Kearney and others have their mits all over some deeper Warriors matters. Kings College's #12?
He's Francis Manuleleua and young Francis is currently 5th form/year 11, who is entrenched in the Warriors system as a Papatoetoe Panthers junior. Whether it's Manuleleua (didn't play SG Ball), or his Kings College home Eric Vaafusuaga, Kelston Boys High School's Tony Tafa and Zyon Maiu'u, St Peters College's Jeremiah Asi who all played SG Ball; they are Warriors juniors who were named in the Blues Under 17 squad for 2020.
Ali Leiataua's didn't fall in that above group, but he's in the Kings College 1st 15 and was fullback for the SG Ball team this year, playing all six games there.
As per HS Top 200, Manuleleua is ranked 1st for year 11 players.
Jeremiah Asi is ranked 3rd for year 12s, while Rotorua's Cassius Cowley is ranked 18th for year 12s and serves as a funky example of league/union recruitment; Cowley was recruited via the Warriros' Pikiao pipeline and Cowley has moved to Auckland from Rotorua now playing 1st 15 for Mt Albert Grammar School, while also winning the NZRL 2019 Under 16 Player of the year award.
Aorere College's Viliami Vailea played SG Ball and is ranked 8th overall in Aotearoa's 1st 15 players.
I know you're wondering, many of the big 1st 15 schools recruit their players from junior rugby league and most, if not all of these youngsters I've mentioned above have rugby league backgrounds. 1st 15 schools don't buzz about providing talent for NZR, they just want the best athletes to win 1st 15 stuff.
Chuck in Tom Ale, Preston Riki, Tyler Slade, Paul Turner, Temple Kalepo, Jyris Glamuzina and Isaiah Vagana who played the only game of Canterbury Cup earlier this year as products of the Warriors junior system. Sione Moala played Under 19 Junior Kiwis last year and was still eligible for SG Ball this year, now there is the low key super funky wrinkle of youngsters like Moala, Kalepo, Glamuzina and Taniela Otukolo all playing big boy local Auckland footy against rugged blokes.
Now is the best time to get out and watch Warriors juniors getting reps in against men - different to Canterbury Cup because you can imagine the levels of ruggedness between Canterbury Cup and Auckland's Fox Memorial Premiership. Richmond Rovers have Moala, Kalepo and Glamuzina, while Otukolo is playing for Otahuhu Leopards.
Why did I do a mini dive into Warriors junior matters?
Because Phil Gould and Peter O'Sullivan would usually be fizzing to sign some of this talent to Australian clubs, now their job is to keep this talent at Mt Smart. I'd suggest that it will be a bit easier to keep this talent with some of the heavyweights in their respective fields now at the Warriors, as well as point to a wave of talent being developed through the club, into NRL.
Coach Brown knows that he has two of the best working with him to keep this talent and open up the talent pipeline to the NRL. Keep in mind that a consistent development pipeline can be very beneficial for salary cap management; players are cheaper in their first or second year of NRL footy and there will always be cheaper options within to replace those who want to cash in elsewhere.
As always, stay mellow and simply observe the moves made. I won't lie, I reckon this is all rather positive for the club and rugby league in Aotearoa, yet I prefer to let things play out and deal with what's actually happening. While I didn't really enjoy watching the Warriors under coach Kearney, I appreciate the work he did in setting things up behind the scenes and it was Kearney who brought people like O'Sullivan into the mix.
Unfortunately for Kearney, he ended up being boiled down as part of the process of the boil up. We wouldn't be here with a rather funky future head, without ingredients like Kearney and all the other folks who have come and gone over the past four years. For the most flavour, the boil up, the smoked fish, the curry paste and scoby must be concentrated, it's got to fester and impurities released.
The dark arts are everywhere for Warriors fans. Years of trauma, false promises and weird antics build up. With that in mind, I can't tell you that this is the big moment or that everything has changed. I can only document what is happening and as always, I'll be here tapped in documenting how the club moves forward under coach Brown and matua Gould.
Hit an ad to support the Niche Cache. Email Hitter | Support via Patreon Whanau.
Peace and love.