General EXCITEMENT LEVELS LIFT FOR SEASON 2006

[Skinny_Ravs82]

Ivan Cleary's Vodafone Warriors attracted plenty of attention off and on the field at North Harbour Stadium today.
The entire Vodafone Warriors squad and coaching staff plus the club's front office personnel attended a special breakfast put on by North Harbour Stadium building up to Sunday's NRL trial against Canberra at the Albany ground (kick-off 3.00pm).
The players and coaching staff were spread around the tables among the 400 people in attendance.
Head coach Ivan Cleary was interviewed and announced his first team of the year as well as revealing Steve Price would again be captain with Kiwi skipper Ruben Wiki officially named as vice-captain. Price and Wiki were also interviewed by MC Gordon Gibbons in what proved to be an enlightening and often amusing finish to the breakfast.
After signing plenty of autographs and being entertained by a kapa haka group from nearby Norcross Intermediate School, the Vodafone Warriors then trained on the main field at the stadium.
Pupils from Norcross Intermediate as well as some from Glenfield Intermediate School had the chance to watch the initial phase of the training session which included featured wrestling drills with former Commonwealth Games silver medallist Ken Reinsfield. Also looking on were a number of the media including former Kiwi coach Graham Lowe.

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[warriors4life_old]

some good pics thanks SR82

 

[Skinny_Ravs82]

Hehe, no worries. All compliments of photosport and the offish site.
Nice to see that everyone seems to be having fun.

 

[Wiki_old]

Cooooool.

 

[sebastian_old]

hey sr82 do you know if where going to be using the jersy pricey's wearing this year or is it just nolvelty?

 

[Ronnie_7_old]

I would say that it's just a novelty. I doubt that they will go back to those jumpers

 

[warriors4life_old]

yea he probably just wears it sometimes in training but nice to see him busting out the retro jersey

 

[Skinny_Ravs82]

Yeah he looked rather good in it I must say. I suppose there must be a few of those around still in shops but pretty rare as far as I know.

 

[Jesbass_old]

Did anyone notice the cool defence drill they had going down at the end of the field? My brother and I sat on the bank right behind them to get a closer look. They had five cones - four marked out in a square, and one in the centre. Five players would make their way to the centre cone, then, when they were called, two would run to one side, (to the corners), and the other three would run to the opposite side. The group of three had the ball. The task then was to have all five players turn back to face each other. The defenders had to try to block the pass, and the attackers had to get through. It was really good, because it helped both sides figure out how to recover from a broken defensive line, or an unstructured attacking line. It was a great drill.

 

[Skinny_Ravs82]

From what you've described to us it sounds pretty good. Hope they can come up with some good attack and defensive plays that will leave others standing and s taring. hehe :wink: