Highlighted posts

What's new Featured content Highlights New posts New media New media comments New pickem comments New showcase items New showcase comments New threadmarks Latest activity
    Well, this post may be more of a thanksgiving type one mixed in with a bit of seasons greetings so apologies for that.

    This time last year I had just had fairly major surgery and not in the best shape. Recovering in hospital and then at home, while not being able to move much and do much, can take it's toll on you. Both with your physical health and mental health. One of the things that helped to keep me occupied and distracted was NZWarriors.com

    Thank you @Cces and @Wrighty for running your fantasy competitions and your contributions to the site. These games are great to play, really enhances the forum and good to fill in the time in bye weeks and the off season. Even though the end result in the last game seemed somewhat contrived and not reflective of rewarding the best team assembled - obviously my one, conveniently now deleted by the turks. We have another starting shortly and if you haven't been involved with playing one I recommend getting in on the next one and trying it out. Once again, thanks team. Though I'm no longer buying your "I'm new to league" line anymore now @Wrighty!

    Thank you to the members of this site and community. It really is a fairly diverse group with a love for the Warriors in common. There are a few arguments with shadows and the odd pissing contest, but mostly a very knowledgeable and good bunch of cats to share the ups and downs with, learn from and discuss all things Warriors and more. Thank you everyone for your contributions however big or small to the discussions and topics at hand.

    This place is very male dominated, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. In my experience, though this is improving with younger generations coming through, I have found men in general don't really talk much when it comes to personal problems or asking for help and support, be it physical or mental health related. It is great to see threads like A Weighty Issue, Life's Lessons, PSA - Social Media - Impact on Mental Health and Savage September. Some may find these threads aren't their cup of tea, but anything that helps support, motivate, inspire and provides an opportunity for discussion and chat is a good thing I think. Personally, I have found great support and motivation from the Savage September thread over the last few months. Thank you to @MrFrankWhite for starting the thread and the rest of the guys in that thread for your contributions and inspiration. Please don't take anything for granted, look after yourself, get yourself checked out regularly and it really is ok to talk about things. One thing I have learned over this year is little changes can, and will, make big differences even if it might take time to see them. You just have to start.

    Lastly, the biggest thanks to @tajhay, @mt.wellington and the rest of the crew that allow us to have an amazing place like this to frequent. After being violated by the turkish bear, I think the rebirth of the site has been phenomenal. And while it was such a disappointing period, I think what has been achieved getting things back up and running in such a relatively short space of time is simply amazing. This, in my opinion, is the best Rugby League fan forum out there and that's a direct reflection of all of your hard work doing what you do.

    So, from me and mine to you and yours, have a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Take care out there and be safe.
     
    New post of the boys doing there classic bethells run:
    View: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDySgEAvekq/

    Surprised to see Jett Cleary so much in the video and mainly around a lot of our top 30 group.
    Good to see that it looks like tohu is back with the full group, and full on training.
    I don't remember ever seeing so many blokes doing it while carrying a ball. Huge emphasis seems to be on that this preseason.
    Interesting to see Demitric Vaimauga giving a bit of prep talk in the video. I wounder if they are prepping him to take on tohu's role, not just in lock which does require a lot of communications but also maybe as a captian in future. Looks like Tom Ale, my bad.
    Probably hear this every time but at the end "some of the fastest times ive seen run"
     
    Last edited:
    Some interesting tidbits out of Warriors pre-season so far: The days have been long and much of the focus has been on rebuilding that goal-line resilience and working on icing opportunities when they present. Webby says they've stuck with 80% of what they did previous pre-seasons, but 20% is different. Apparently, there's been a lot of ballwork early on this pre-season and it's all being done at speed. The intensity has been high. No standouts in the group yet, but the young-gun cohort (Demetric, Ali etc) have been impressive. Looks like Ali and DWZ on the right side and Pompey and RTS on the left, though RTS has also been running as the opposing fullback in match simulations. They break for Christmas, but go back on Jan 3, earlier than usual because the trial games have been moved forward next year.
     
    sup42 said:
    What caught my eye is the school.

    I was surprised the Warriors snapped up so few from the NZ champion high school, then I thought about, the Warriors old bias towards Auckland schools and was not so surprised.

    Someone will try to level the we can't keep them all oxymoron here.

    Cliches are just that.

    Watch the tournament. St Thomas are the new Melbourne Storm style school boys league system.

    As such it makes them unique.

    They crushed everyone at schoolboys with three basic sporting elements.

    They were fitter than all the other schools.

    They were technically better in the wrestle than all of the other schools.

    They were smarter in tactical play than other schools.

    Thus my Storm reference.

    You don't have to believe me, watch them on you tube and pay attention to technical aspects of their game (for purist who have been following the NZ scene for decades they are truly a revelation, if you don't see that then you should look up Batercard cup and Fox because these kids are better than those men).

    Therefore their coach must be outstanding and insightful in terms of NRL culture, he would be the first person I would be phoning from Warriors HQ (perhaps they have already obviously people like me do not know the vagaries of this club we follow).

    That team was so in tune that I would have tried to sign 100% of the players and worked out the details later.

    Why?

    Because after a century of Rugby league they are the first School boy outfit in this country to display fully professional and drilled RL science.

    One hundred years.

    First to win on fitness and tackle technique, first to use repeat sets comfortably like adults. And they came from nowhere. Who knew a school of nobodies using sports science would destroy all the usual suspects?

    Of course the Roosters went for whomever they could get.

    Yet we moan about signings year upon year and wonder why they happen, the duds I mean. Watch Money ball, and Air, look to the classic scenes in those movies when the scouts are telling the managers why this player has no game sense or this other player has club house issues.

    Problem with our game starts with scouts, the same ones who brought us Vatuvei as the highest paid player (Manu was great, but a Winger should never be your highest in a Salary cap, and at another NRL club Manu would have had a hot housing in NRL defence this club failed him at) or Hurrell as the so obviously warrior esque fat boy take the piss type.

    McFadden then is our best hope from here.
    Click to expand...
    As a Chch local, I've been following their programme for a few years now and it's very impressive, churning out very talented young men, not just in League. This is the foundation that I see transferring into the South Island NRL side in years to come, anyone that is ignorant to what is going on down here and doubts that a Christchurch based side can be successful in the NRL, be prepared to be proven wrong.
     
    BangBro's (still banging) said:
    I guess the Jackson Stewart one stings a little because the Roosters have a decent record of getting good outside backs from NZ.

    RTS, SKD, and Manu to name some.
    Click to expand...

    What caught my eye is the school.

    I was surprised the Warriors snapped up so few from the NZ champion high school, then I thought about, the Warriors old bias towards Auckland schools and was not so surprised.

    Someone will try to level the we can't keep them all oxymoron here.

    Cliches are just that.

    Watch the tournament. St Thomas are the new Melbourne Storm style school boys league system.

    As such it makes them unique.

    They crushed everyone at schoolboys with three basic sporting elements.

    They were fitter than all the other schools.

    They were technically better in the wrestle than all of the other schools.

    They were smarter in tactical play than other schools.

    Thus my Storm reference.

    You don't have to believe me, watch them on you tube and pay attention to technical aspects of their game (for purist who have been following the NZ scene for decades they are truly a revelation, if you don't see that then you should look up Batercard cup and Fox because these kids are better than those men).

    Therefore their coach must be outstanding and insightful in terms of NRL culture, he would be the first person I would be phoning from Warriors HQ (perhaps they have already obviously people like me do not know the vagaries of this club we follow).

    That team was so in tune that I would have tried to sign 100% of the players and worked out the details later.

    Why?

    Because after a century of Rugby league they are the first School boy outfit in this country to display fully professional and drilled RL science.

    One hundred years.

    First to win on fitness and tackle technique, first to use repeat sets comfortably like adults. And they came from nowhere. Who knew a school of nobodies using sports science would destroy all the usual suspects?

    Of course the Roosters went for whomever they could get.

    Yet we moan about signings year upon year and wonder why they happen, the duds I mean. Watch Money ball, and Air, look to the classic scenes in those movies when the scouts are telling the managers why this player has no game sense or this other player has club house issues.

    Problem with our game starts with scouts, the same ones who brought us Vatuvei as the highest paid player (Manu was great, but a Winger should never be your highest in a Salary cap, and at another NRL club Manu would have had a hot housing in NRL defence this club failed him at) or Hurrell as the so obviously warrior esque fat boy take the piss type.

    McFadden then is our best hope from here.
     
    Last edited:
    Prop is hardly an area of weakness with the kiwis captain and an Australian international there. We were near on the best team in the comp last year in controlling territory.

    We’ve got a pair of aging wingers, a spine that lacks firepower and largely unproven but promising centres. Those would be the areas I would be looking to spend money on rather than big money on another prop who may end up on the interchange bench.
     
    Cheese has always had such a crap attitude to the warriors I think we couldn't really have him at the club & it not feel like we last on his wish list.

    Kinda funny how it worked out for him at the Roosters - from being head hunted by the coach on big $ and all "I looked at the jersey and just want to win a premiership in that jersey" to being punted in two seasons. Thats a fall from grace.
     
    Fizurg said:
    I remember seeing someone explaining that NRL players are professional athletes but they aren’t elite athletes. Took me a while to understand. Elite athletes life centers around performance. Every decision they make comes back to that. Where as NRL players still get stuck into KFC and a night on the turps if they feel like it. Shows there is still a heap of room for improvement overall.
    Click to expand...
    Yeah it’s pretty clear. It was a comparison between Olympic athletes vs team sport athletes, particularly in NZ & Aus. There’s a perception they’re elite athletes - this is not correct. Bloke in a bar made a comment that there’s really only 10 or so ‘elite athletes’ in the nrl, the rest are spot fillers; good athletes but hardly ‘elite’.

    The elites are obvious, Cleary, ponga, haas, Tedesco, turbo, Murray. These guys are 24/7 athletes, diet, training, recovery, everything is tuned to a dial.

    What I will say is, Olympic athletes have up to 10 coaches, management, Physios, trainers etc working with the one individual, fine tuning every aspect to chase an improvement of 1%. Team sport athletes are in larger groups, with smaller management teams, therefore logically the improvements are scaled accordingly. It’s also down to resourcing too, and the clubs don’t have this financial positions to develop 30+ elite athletes.

    That’s why, imo, the biggest aspect to a teams success is team culture. It’s a word that’s bashed to the death, but a team culture that demands success will allow the average athletes to jump a tier into above average, and when everyone improves by 5-10%, the impact is massive. The positive aspect to all of this is it’s incredibly difficult as an elite athlete to improve 1%, hours and hours of time spent. Its far more simple for an average athlete to improve 10%, simply by dialling in their off field commitment.

    I believe this is the rationale for signing fish & Capewell, in the hope they can move the team cultures needle in the right direction, ala Demetric referencing Capewell as having a huge impact on him professionally.

    This is why we need aussies in the system too, they’ve had better developmental systems where they haven’t relied simply on their physical attributes (as seen in nz where maori/pasifika players are far more physically developed than their peers) & haven’t needed to improve other facets of their game to be successful.
     
    roguei said:
    Cool interview as well from him about 20 mins ago. Some choice quotes; "a big change for me this off season was finally jumping on a real diet", "me and capes had a compitition (in refrence to diet stuff), he obiviously beat me in the bronco but :LOL:"

    Surprised to see capes playing such a big mentor role, heard his name pop up a few times from the younger group. Great signing IMO. Also fuck our standards have been low for ages, good news that they are now but also pretty sad to hear some of our guys only taking diet seirously now or in the last year or so. Also damn is capes fast or is demitric just slow?
    Click to expand...
    I remember seeing someone explaining that NRL players are professional athletes but they aren’t elite athletes. Took me a while to understand. Elite athletes life centers around performance. Every decision they make comes back to that. Where as NRL players still get stuck into KFC and a night on the turps if they feel like it. Shows there is still a heap of room for improvement overall.
     
    Because people keep talking about halves pairings and now us bringing over kini a fallback into the warriors. It got me reflecting on this recent interview with gus where he was talking about morden day halves. Where he said:
    "The Storm play with three fullbacks: Munster, Hughes, and Paps... Cleary and Luai ran for over 200 meters in that final game. They had to run the ball to make meters. They had to run the ball to make their plays. It wasn't Cleary's playmaking that won it; it was their physicality... Origin Game 3 had two tries at the end, both from Luai and Moses running the ball like fullbacks." - Very condenced non nauced version of about 5 mins linked above.

    This made me wonder: do we have an outdated mentality when it comes to our halves? If the NRL is shifting toward a more fullback-style halves combination, is it worth giving TT a shot or seriously pursuing Kini not just as a fullback but also as a half option? Boyd is much more traditional—I don't see him as a ball-runner at all. So, will the Warriors follow the Storm and Panthers in adopting this new style, or will we double down on a traditional halves pairing, hoping that the old approach still holds and this trend is just a passing phase?

    I personally would like to see us attempt it because when expectations are already quite low, the downsides of risk are always lower.

    Side note: To piggy back off of mr @Tookey 2.0 and @Mr. Brownstone 's pleasantries. I'd say outside of warriors spesfic interviews this is probably a recomended listening for recruitment in general. As that is all they talk about here, it's morden and lastly IMO gus is knows his shit when it comes to bringing in and mentoring young talent.
     
    Fizurg said:
    Panthers had been in the doldrums for ages and they needed to figure a way out. They saw their main asset was that they had the largest youth membership and leant into that. The rewards took a while to become reality but five grand finals later it was worth it.
    Click to expand...
    This is why I’m confident the warriors have a really bright future, amazing talent to pick from and finally putting the needed resources into the pathways
    Just have to stay the course
     
Show older items
Back
Top Bottom