Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Starting 2021
Having flushed the 2020 Aotearoa Warriors dunny, we enter 2021 with fresh Warriors vibes and a new hope. We've all been here before as we battle past demons while trying to maintain a clean slate for the upcoming season and given how much has changed over the past six months for the Warriors, it feels far easier to step into that clean slate space and get a minor fizz on for this season. No need to dwell on what was, let's stay aligned with preparing for the best.
Best, as in top-eight and Finals footy. Warriors expectations can always get a bit weird and while it's tricky to built a genuine case as to how or why the Warriors can sit in the NRL's upper echelon this season, the objective has to be Finals footy. I believe there are also foundations from which we can realistically hope and believe in a top-eight finish, starting with having good rugby league folks involved.
Between Phil Gould and Peter O'Sullivan, the Warriors have kaumatua who have built out successful systems and clubs in Australia. Gould's done a lot in rugby league, most applicable to NZ Warriors though was how Gould re-built Penrith Panthers as a commercial entity as well as overhauling the Penrith junior pipeline. This is low key a lovely time to be a rugby league supporter in Aotearoa as the #KiwiNRL takeover of Australian clubs (13 #KiwiNRL debutants last year) is now aligned with Gould working with the Warriors as well as some stuff with NZRL to build far more efficient pipelines and support for the plethora of Aotearoa juniors.
I'll dive into the annual Warriors recruitment geeze in the coming weeks. The most important thing for Warriors fans to know is that there is more than enough Aotearoa talent for the Warriors and 15 other NRL clubs. In Gould and O'Sullivan, the Warriors have two of the leading recruiters out of Aotearoa who were snatching all the talent that the Warriors couldn't identify under previous regimes. Now those snatchers of talent are both working for the Warriors and while that won't stop the numbers of youngsters from Aotearoa flowing over to Australia, it will help with better decision making in player identification.
Spending a few months sitting back and observing, all the logistics stuff that would have fallen to Cameron George seems to make sense. Starting the season in Australia, aligning their movements with school terms and embracing their situation is all nifty common sense. Across various interviews, George and coach Nathan Brown yarned about the players wanting certainty and that's exactly what they got with how the logistics have been structured.
When pondering coach Brown, I'm most interested in the identity and playing style of the Warriors. This has been a major issue for the NRL team for the past decade as a lack of identity makes it hard for fans to connect with what the team is doing. Statistical trends have been all over the place and at various stages, there have been pockets of 'huh?' when trying to suss playing style and a super high completion rate that led to losses is a small example.
It's not feasible for fans to dictate a style of play or identity. Instead, the club needs to operate with clarity, execute what they intend to do and live who they have internally decided to be. Then there is no friction for fans to attach themselves to how the team plays and operates. Previously there was all sorts of friction and you never knew what style of footy the Warriors would dish up.
The easiest bit to chuck up here is the big forward pack stuff that has been floated recently. The Warriors have added Kane Evans, Ben Murdoch-Masila and Addin Fonua-Blake to their forward pack and they are all big, mobile, powerful humans. The key though, is what the Warriors do with a bigger team and a team that is probably more aligned with NRL footy in 2021 as their size comes with mobility and footwork.
The identity/playing style nugget isn't in the 'big team' idea. That nugget resides in what the Warriors do with more size and mobility. They recruited strongly based on some key principles and now we wait to see how that looks on a footy field.
Other than the size package, which is only useful with mobility, the Warriors picked up solid job-doers like Euan Aitken, Bayley Sironen and Marcelo Montoya. Covering all of Aotearoa's sporting excellence here at the Niche Cache, I'm seeing a surge of young talent filter through to the professional ranks of all kiwi sports and that's evident in the #KiwiNRL debutants. For Warriors success though, there is a difference in leaning on younger players for 'plug and play' situations vs someone who has steadily rolled through NRL seasons.
The Warriors have a lot of exceptional young talent. To win footy games and sustain a level of performance across the NRL season, the Warriors need solid players who can do a job. Not only under the rigors of a standard NRL season, there's also the logistics of this season and many of these new recruits are solid NRL players who can be solid on the footy field as well as emotionally solid through this strange situation that the Warriors are in.
Ponder Eliesa Katoa and Rocco Berry. Katoa is a freak due to how he settled into NRL footy and while these two both came to the Warriors via 1st 15 rugby union, Katoa was an instant NRL beast while Berry has clearly been held back. Sometimes the young lads are like Katoa, most of the time they are more like Berry and having those NRL pros eases the pressure on the Berry type of young players.
Beneath the NRL level, I'm also eager to see what seems like a clear, precise system in action. The Warriors stopped their Under 20s Jersey Flegg team, instead opting for an Under 18 SG Ball team for 2020 and this season it is far too complex to put young lads in a situation to compete in SG Ball. As I'll touch on in the recruitment focus, this may be why a few SG Ball lads have made moves to Australia as the Warriors can only offer so much at this time; talented SG Ball halfback Sione Moala has moved to Canberra Raiders for example.
The Warriors do have their partnership with Redcliffe Dolphins and this will be crucial to their 2021 campaign. This will give fringe Warriors footy as they can travel up to Queensland to play for Redcliffe in the Intrust Super Cup, while younger players who have traveled with the Warriors could also have Hastings Deering Colts (Under 20s) footy with Redcliffe. As the Warriors are in Australia, the pipeline of Warriors players to Redcliffe and Redcliffe's player base to the Warriors will be open as long as there are no dramas with Australia's state borders etc.
Redcliffe has an Intrust Super Cup team, Hastings Deering Colts (Under 20s) and Mal Meninga Cup (Under 18s). The Warriors will likely be able to send their players to any of these teams and this is where the benefits of such a partnership in 2021 will be. Of course, a Redcliffe superstar could emerge and the Warriors may have first dibs as well. Part of my funk will be tapping into these Redcliffe team lists each week and sussing out how the stuff below the NRL team is shaping up.
The Warriors are still doing things in Aotearoa and while it's not super official, I still believe Gould is making various contributions to NZRL/Aotearoa rugby league matters. NZRL will start an Under 20s competition in February to give players a crack within Aotearoa and NZRL GM of High Performance and Football Motu Tony also alluded to an NZRL SG Ball team in 2020. The Warriors recently held a 'Future Warriors' (Under 16) camp as well, which means that the NRL Warriors are in operation across the Tasman while encouraging pieces to the puzzle are taken care of in Aotearoa.
In November, the Warriors dropped some information on a young crop who had started training. The Warriors have their top-30 squad, then the development players who can play after the mid-season marker and then I'm intrigued to see the group below that of players in Australia who sit in that spots 35-40 (depending on how many players are in Australia). Of this group, names to keep an eye on are; Jyris Glamuzina, Isaiah Vagana, Templo Kalepo, Preston Riki, Viliami Vailea, Leyton Finau, Preston Riki, Vailingi Kepu, Otukinekina Kepu.
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Peace and love.