General Biggest Warriors "What If's"

[juju]

This season the biggest thought I'm left with when thinking about this season is "What If"

What if Xavier Coates was denied
What if Tohu played the ball properly and SJ slotted the FG in front
What if the weak gutted dog was penalised
What if CHT landed his kicks

And that all got me thinking we really are a "what if" club

What are our biggest "what if" sliding door moments?

To me

What if we keep Carlaw as our home, the spiritual home of footy Auckland
What if we signed/kept the Paul Bros instead ageing Poms
What if the incorrect interchange & the point deduction in 1995 never happened
What if the 2002 GF half time cassette recording never happened
What if Logan Swann passed the ball
Sonny Fai
What if George Rose was binned for Aaron Heremia getting elbowed in the face in the GF
What if didn't SJ break his ankle

are we the "what if" club?

 

[Ever Hopeful]

What if we waited the year that Bellamy wanted instead of putting pressure on him to break his contract?

 

[jonesy101]

What if Villasanti didn't make THAT tackle to energise Fittler.

 

[Playdaball]

What if we closed down a few years ago.

 

[juju]

What if we closed down a few years ago.

That's been a possibility a few times...

What if Richard Fale was successful is another one...

 

[run_it_str8_again]

What if we turned up every game and never dropped our bundles?

 

[juju]

What if we turned up every game and never dropped our bundles?

That's too fantastical

 

[Playdaball]

What if the coaching team came up with a new game plan in the off season, found a game controlling half, got players with genuine speed, managed a few players from the roster, learnt how to select a good bench and used them effectively , found a decent field kicker and a team that didn’t make mistakes at vital times ….

 

[jonesy101]

What if we closed down a few years ago.

That was a strong possibility when the Tainui Lowe joint venture couldn't sell the club 24 years ago with a few rocky moments since, however post pandemic the brand has been very strong with a major NZ sponsor as well. Double that with a lot of investment into pathways and the future is looking much brighter than it ever has, even if the first grade results this year have not been so good.

 

[Rizzah]

What if we waited the year that Bellamy wanted instead of putting pressure on him to break his contract?

I'd forgotten about this, cheers!

 

[MXRecord]

What if we waited the year that Bellamy wanted instead of putting pressure on him to break his contract?

Another reminder of the incompetent morons that ran the place.

 

[3rdstriker]

What if Cleary had been re-signed at the time?

 

[Matiunz]

What if Cleary had been re-signed at the time?

lol I as wondering how long it’d be until this old chestnut got dragged out again.
Doubt Cleary would’ve had the same success with the resources we had here (see west tigers)

 

[BigUCE]

lol I as wondering how long it’d be until this old chestnut got dragged out again.
Doubt Cleary would’ve had the same success with the resources we had here (see west tigers)

I’m not so sure. The Panthers current success is largely attributed to their strong junior/pathway systems. Back when Cleary was at the club, we had similarly strong junior teams, but the majority of them barely cracked first grade. Maybe all they needed to succeed in first grade was a decent coach?

 

[Matiunz]

I’m not so sure. The Panthers current success is largely attributed to their strong junior/pathway systems. Back when Cleary was at the club, we had similarly strong junior teams, but the majority of them barely cracked first grade. Maybe all they needed to succeed in first grade was a decent coach?

The Tigers also actually have very good juniors it’s just they don’t tend to stay there.
Our juniors at the time were built on the house of cards that was the Holden cup

 

[Mr. Brownstone]

lol I as wondering how long it’d be until this old chestnut got dragged out again.
Doubt Cleary would’ve had the same success with the resources we had here (see west tigers)

3 teams in the GF by the time he got to his final season with us, I’ll take that along with making the top 8 most seasons he was coaching us. Tigers went 14th & then 9th under him - much better than what they’ve delivered since. Massive failure in our history to lose him.

 

[Lets Eat (YeahNah)]

What if we had better structure in keeping developing home grown talent

What if we knew how to sell our club to perspective players

What if we knew how to be a professional club with training, diet, fitness, IQ and preparation

What if we knew how to develop our own style and not try and replicate others

In AW we trust
Disclaimer: love this team

 

[SJ2k]

What if the NRL realised there's far more room for growth in NZ than Melbourne and gave us the Storm treatment. Instead of kissing the ass of a city who doesn't really care about the NRL.

 

[mt.wellington]

What if the Warriors had a proper pathways system during our dominant U20s era and realized the full potential of the many stars we had in that era. The irony of Shaun Johnson retiring is that he was the last decent home grown prospect we had from the Toyota/Holden Cup competition. Players before him like Russell Packer, Ben Matulino, Sonny Fai and Kevin Locke were all developed beforehand in the BarterCard Cup. WTF happened to development of Carlos Tuimavave, Omar Slaimankhel, Suiatonga Likiliki, Sam Lousi, Konrad Hurrell, David Fusitua, Ken Maumalo, Elijah Taylor, Dylan Collier, Tuimoala Lolohea, Sam Lisone...

Even more worrying is that we have a pathways system now that has a lot of decent looking juniors such as our Championship winning Harold Matthews team but have we learnt anything from our past failures? Have we learnt to identify and retain talent???

 

[Matiunz]

What if we had stuck with the Lion Red Cup and we had an NPC like comp developing players in the provinces