Highlighted posts

Vancent said:

…it is, and then you read about Capewahs growing tally…

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Depends on how they count the misses .Thats why defensive misses can be misleading.
EG Capes does a lot of kick chases & is first to the catcher but does tackle him but slows him down or makes him change direction & the second chasers/chaser grab him does that mean a missed tackle against Capewell.
Hence my theory of stats being misleading SOME of the time

sup42 said:

To be fair the Broncos fans are right, everybody hates them including me.
They are a good example of the Tribalism in the NRL, the QLD team vs the rest yadda yadda.

Also when they were under Bennett their Salary cap looked smelly (basically the Origin side). Their fans are reknowned for being arrogant.

We (you and Mr Brownstain) are talking across purposes.

I agree that the Warriors enjoy neutral fan support. Unlike the Broncos fans. That accusation of behaving like them is not me.

Also I said I did not agree with everything the original poster said.

My point and the original posters point was in regards to the Australian coverage of the Warriors.

You and Mr Brownstain are talking about fan perceptions.

The Original poster who Mr Brownstain called a victim was talking about the tone of the Australian media.

You yourself have posted many times that the Australian medias job is to concentrate on Australian perspectives and that Kiwis need to deal with it.

I said that they do this and I said "Rightly".

Which is why I also said I do not agree with everything the Original poster said.

However Mr Brownstain has a history of calling people victims when their opinions do not align with his own world view....which in this case was frankly wrong.

As the Original poster claimed the media over there will talk about our achievements with an Australian spin on them. This is no different say to the New Zealand habit in Union our more successful code of saying our coaches overseas are why those countries have done well.

This is a fact, they do say RTS brought his Roosters standards to the Warriors (a point the original poster 'victim'lol made)

The Aussie Media do talk about the Warriors benefiting from the Penrith influences here.

This attitude is as old as the competition itself....as Rabs Warren said back in 2002 during the intro for the Sharks vs Warriors semifinal "has there ever been a more despised finalists in the history of the competition".

Personally I like the rhetoric, I like all their tribal "Origin is the highest form of the sport" bullshit coz like Blockers "the big Warriors forwards are tiring " or like (insert random Fox Sports expert) will say when the Warriors win "Their big pack is hard to contain and that unpredictable style they play throwing offloads is a winner" .

Bottom line, their fans over the ditch like us, their Experts in their media talk about us through an Aussie lense fact.

No posters should be called out as victims by Mr Brownstain for an opinion about the tone of the Aussie media, because that is un called for.

Let me be very clear here, I do not think the Aussie media hate us either....I think they are indifferent and apathetic because we have been so poor for so long, that it is beyond them to take us too seriously....apart from those pockets where we are flavor of the month.

And I am cool with that, does that make me a victim?

Anywho on matters of recruitment, I am finding it really hard to get any Superleague coverage of our guy over there.

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sup42 said:

To be fair the Broncos fans are right, everybody hates them including me.
They are a good example of the Tribalism in the NRL, the QLD team vs the rest yadda yadda.

Also when they were under Bennett their Salary cap looked smelly (basically the Origin side). Their fans are reknowned for being arrogant.

We (you and Mr Brownstain) are talking across purposes.

I agree that the Warriors enjoy neutral fan support. Unlike the Broncos fans. That accusation of behaving like them is not me.

Also I said I did not agree with everything the original poster said.

My point and the original posters point was in regards to the Australian coverage of the Warriors.

You and Mr Brownstain are talking about fan perceptions.

The Original poster who Mr Brownstain called a victim was talking about the tone of the Australian media.

You yourself have posted many times that the Australian medias job is to concentrate on Australian perspectives and that Kiwis need to deal with it.

I said that they do this and I said "Rightly".

Which is why I also said I do not agree with everything the Original poster said.

However Mr Brownstain has a history of calling people victims when their opinions do not align with his own world view....which in this case was frankly wrong.

As the Original poster claimed the media over there will talk about our achievements with an Australian spin on them. This is no different say to the New Zealand habit in Union our more successful code of saying our coaches overseas are why those countries have done well.

This is a fact, they do say RTS brought his Roosters standards to the Warriors (a point the original poster 'victim'lol made)

The Aussie Media do talk about the Warriors benefiting from the Penrith influences here.

This attitude is as old as the competition itself....as Rabs Warren said back in 2002 during the intro for the Sharks vs Warriors semifinal "has there ever been a more despised finalists in the history of the competition".

Personally I like the rhetoric, I like all their tribal "Origin is the highest form of the sport" bullshit coz like Blockers "the big Warriors forwards are tiring " or like (insert random Fox Sports expert) will say when the Warriors win "Their big pack is hard to contain and that unpredictable style they play throwing offloads is a winner" .

Bottom line, their fans over the ditch like us, their Experts in their media talk about us through an Aussie lense fact.

No posters should be called out as victims by Mr Brownstain for an opinion about the tone of the Aussie media, because that is un called for.

Let me be very clear here, I do not think the Aussie media hate us either....I think they are indifferent and apathetic because we have been so poor for so long, that it is beyond them to take us too seriously....apart from those pockets where we are flavor of the month.

And I am cool with that, does that make me a victim?

Anywho on matters of recruitment, I am finding it really hard to get any Superleague coverage of our guy over there.

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First time I've watched Gannon play on the weekend. He scored a solo try one off the ruck (albeit against some pretty tired players in the 79th minute) showing a quick turn of foot and a step to beat a defender from about 15-20m out. For the first half of the game he was quite involved, ran well and broke a few tackles and got a few offloads away. Seemed to drift off a bit in the second stanza. His stats were - 109m gained, 1 LB assist, 3 offloads, 1 try, 5 tackle breaks. 29 tackles, 6 missed.

Small sample size but overall was impressed with his speed, ability to bend the line and break a tackle. Looked dangerous on most possessions he had.

Definitely see why he is being discussed as a ball playing lock. Nice passing game. Got a good offload away around the corner of a defender to get a LB assist.

6 Missed tackles 2 games in a row is a worry

roguei said:

Never seen this before, but would love to know if it has happened before. Both the NSW cup and Jersey flegg teams singing the team song togther:

View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DK3rSkmh3SQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Sorry for those who cannot view it. Its directly from Cameron George's insta account which normally is not reposted anywher else. Also interesting to see bunty introducing the flegg side to the new song. At least i assume thats the case with the flegg side just standing there as the NSW cup side erupts.

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Putting the comp on notice, this club has changed, we're now united from top to bottom with the best culture in NRL.

Never seen this before, but would love to know if it has happened before. Both the NSW cup and Jersey flegg teams singing the team song togther:

View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DK3rSkmh3SQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Sorry for those who cannot view it. Its directly from Cameron George's insta account which normally is not reposted anywher else. Also interesting to see bunty introducing the flegg side to the new song. At least i assume thats the case with the flegg side just standing there as the NSW cup side erupts.

Hanson scores. 42-22. Thought this would be close given that Parra are third. Just give our boys the cup already. We're just too good.

Found this really interesting: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/564109/nrl-the-man-behind-nz-warriors-next-man-up-philosophy

Talks about how the NSW league coach came over because of webby, how he came from the bulldogs and perth systems as NSW coach there, and how we manage to keep a mixture of old boys and young men in there. Good read for those interested in our development systems.

Tookey 2.0 said:

Question: If we win the comp and LM is named Daly M, and he says he wants a 3 yr contract @ 1.1 mill a year do we take it?

Deffo overs for him, but to keep this team together for the next few years I think id be happy with that

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If we win the competition, he can have whatever he wants.

tajhay said:

This is exactly how broncos dickhead fans thought/think about their club competing in the comp.

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For sure.

The way I see it, this club got better when they started rejecting all the conspiracy stuff.

Ref bias.
Travel bias.
Media bias.

Webby and the boys don't make excuses. As supporters, neither should we.

sup42 said:

I do not agree with everything he says but he has a point and any non self righteous NRL apologist will acknowledge the Warriors are (rightfully) the outsiders in the Australian NRL narrative.

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This is exactly how broncos dickhead fans thought/think about their club competing in the comp.

Moral of the story: dont act the same like those fans. You are creating your own narrative. The Warriors are well liked in Australia. We would like to keep it that way thanks. Travel well and travel far. Insular 'us v them' mindset limits ones growth.

Edit : agree with locking Metcalf up.

Wah's Up said:

Good interview on recruitment


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2ZJw73ysBs

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While I am on my soap box ranting about McFadden.....

The genius of the club returning a Warriors coach and giving them the recruitment keys is that they are finally breaking the cycle of under achievement.

We all know that the Warriors hire people to run the team, and that from that comes some good innovations, and a lot of bad.

Then they fire that guy and rinse and repeat....

That is the entire failed history of this team we love, hire a coach, get some good from them, lots of bad, and fire them before they can take those lessons and apply them.....go round and around repeating the same mistakes.

By hiring McFadden Mowhawk finally released us from the cycle of failure (I am not a Mowhawk sycophant, I do not even like the guy, credit where it is due, he did good this time).

McFadden as a Warriors coach was the first Aussie coach able to teach these guys how to run an Australian attacking structure. McFadden was the one that brought in shapes, out the back door plays, and NRL structures.

So he actually knew the way to bridge the gap between the technical Australian systems and the New Zealand raw product - this guy did what Daniel Anderson and Ivan Cleary could not.

So skip forward to today. McFadden brings in as many Aussie halves as we can afford, the reason is obvious, he knows from his time here as headcoach that the undergrades of the club need Aussie structures to bring out the best in the Kiwi athletes running off those structures.

Cappy has literally identified that having as many Aussie undergrad halves as possible means the super talented NZ running player gets ball in structure and therefore is more likely to learn and show they can carve the opposition off a world class set up and platform base.

This is Cappys real genius, all our Raw kiwi kids are getting the same exposure to Aussie environments as they would normally seek by pissing off from NZ and bypassing the Warriors to get the Aussie education offshore.

Now the Warriors are looking at offering the best education in junior football in the NRL thanks to McFadden bringing in all these Australian spine players to give these kids of ours a Penrith and Storm like Junior platform.

The Warriors are truly headed for an era of winning in our current set up. No joke, we have the Staff to finally fix this club.

Listened to Healey's interview on sports nation where he was questioned directly about the family being back in Aus scenario. He mentioned that his partner is hopefully planning on moving to NZ at the end of this year. Pretty good indication he's at least committed to seeing out his current contract.

On retaining Metcalf, certainly worth an upgraded contract offer if he is on around the 500k mark. However the Nicho Hynes scenario is a perfect example of a player getting blown up in the media and ending up falling well short of expectations after signing a massive contract.

For the first time I can remember I have huge faith in the club to handle the negotiations in a way that's likely to get a good result for both the club and the player.

Worst case scenario if he does decide to move on. I back the pathways system to bring through a strong replacement option.

Great time to be a warriors fan.

sup42 said:

Cappy is not Fucking around

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But yeah, I agree. Cappy has really sorted our recruitment out.

CWC said:

TBH from I've seen he doesn't look like a Walsh type, his partner came with him, had a baby, now getting married in Queenstown, no affairs or drug scandals, our media is gushing over him too (woman's mag apparently?), so it's not like he's not a celebrity here.

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Have you heard LM talk? That aussie twang has dulled a bit and he's getting a bit of the 'fush and chups' coming through.

He's individually brilliant and also will work more subtly according to what the team needs.

I was on the fence about how much we should be paying him, I've kind of turned a corner where I think it'll doing him a disservice if we don't hit as close to that $1m+ mark as possible.

CWC said:

Another key factor is Webby, if he leaves the floodgate might open. He's the priority over everything else TBH, work environment culture, and he seems to be keeping certain types of people in the environment

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Webby is the apex of the pyramid. Dude is a people managing freakazoid. We've struck gold with Webby, we are screwed if he ever leaves.

IMO the worst case scenario is he stays until Jett/Jye etc are ready to rip it in FG, which is in the next 2-3 years anyway. At least a heads up.

TBH from what I've seen he doesn't look like a Walsh type, his partner came with him, had a baby, now getting married in Queenstown, no affairs or drug scandals, our media is gushing over him too (woman's mag apparently?), so it's not like he's not a celebrity here. I think it'd be a d*** move to run away now but I just don't see him as a d*** at the moment.

As for extended families etc, me and wife don't have family in NZ for a decade and it's not an issue, in fact there are bad drama with extended families, and we're Asian, stereotype would say we SHOULD have the entire extended family living upstairs lol. Families are not always the best thing, his wife might not want to hang out with the in-laws, who knows. As long as they get time in AUS and parents can holiday here, and they have good friends and colleagues in NZ who are also parents and a good community that's enough for some people.

Another key factor is Webby, if he leaves the floodgate might open. He's the priority over everything else TBH, work environment culture, and he seems to be keeping certain types of people in the environment

I think people are forgetting that Metcalfs career was in dire straights before the Warriors invested heavily in retraining his legs.

That is the real reason the Sharks let him go, they (and the Warriors for that matter) knew there were significant risks because he had a well documented history of chronic hamstring tears.

Where Metcalf is now would likely not have happened at any other NRL organization, he was an unproven promising reserve grade half that had been miss managed in terms of someone at the Sharks missing his running gait was causing tears.

The Warriors medicos diagnosed that issue, sent him to the U.S.

He now has his own leg workouts that are twice the training he did before being given a hamstring program.

What do you guys recon that is worth to Metcalf?

I am not talking about being grateful.

For any of us, having a chronic potential career killing chronic illness through our youth, then eventually finding people that get behind you when you break down, people who send you to America to see the best.....what is that worth?

Metcalfs no fool, he has a lot more to keep him here than just liking the lifestyle.

Think we need to accept the inevitable. If we want to keep Lukey Met we will need to pay up.

I for one support it.

WARRIORS’ BID TO KEEP POTENTIAL NEXT $1M HALFBACK

The Warriors intend to open talks with in-form halfback Luke Metcalf with a view to ensuring the gun no.7 remains at the Wahs.

Metcalf’s form has been off the Richter this season to the point where there’s no question the Wahs will have to get close to the $1 million per season mark to retain him.

As most arguments begin around rugby league playmakers these days – “if Dylan Brown’s worth $1.4 million per season then what’s this bloke worth?”.

Metcalf enjoys a tight-knit bond with Warriors chief executive Cameron George to the point where the Wahs players have nicknamed him “Luke George”.

That doesn’t necessarily mean a deal will get struck straight away but given the way the Wahs have invested in Metcalf and provided a pathway to making the no.7 jumper his own it’s a strong chance.

Metcalf, 26, has still only played 39 NRL games and had to overcome some heavy injury setbacks with a badly broken leg leading to a rod in his leg.

There were also hamstring problems when he arrived at the Wahs meaning the club sent him over to the US to spend time with re-conditioning guru Bill Knowles.

This year Metcalf has taken off to the point where he’s gone past Melbourne Storm champion halfback Jahrome Hughes as the best running halfback in the NRL.

According to Fox Sports Stats Metcalf is the NRL’s leading halfback in terms of tries (eight), line breaks (eight), run metres (733m) and points (113).

What it all adds up to is a cracking story on one of the most improved playmakers in the NRL who given the form he’s displayed this season should go very close to becoming rugby league’s next $1 million-a-season halfback.

The next challenge for Metcalf will be to deliver in the big end-of-season games come September. Given what we’ve already seen from him this season we’re tipping he can tick the box.

The One New Zealand Warriors have locked in three highly promising South Island players – Makaia Tafua, Jason Salalilo and Bishop Neal – until the end of the 2028 season.

All Christchurch-born and raised, the trio have underlined their potential coming through the club’s pathways system.

Hooker Tafua (21) has already made 22 appearances for the Warriors’ reserve grade side in the New South Wales Cup, prop Salalilo (20) has played eight NSW Cup games this year and second rower Neal (17) was an influential figure as the club secured its second consecutive Harold Matthews Cup (under-17) premiership this season.

“Makaia, Jason and Bishop are all terrific examples of the talent coming out of our academy in Christchurch,” said One New Zealand Warriors general manager recruitment, pathways and development.

“Their development has been outstanding since coming into our system.

“Makaia and Jason have grabbed every opportunity through the grades to earn exposure with our New South Wales Cup side while Bishop has huge potential a back rower.

“He would have played in the Harold Matthews Cup as a 15-year-old last year only to be ruled out through injury but he certainly showed what he can do this year despite still being only 16 at that time.”

Tafua, a Linwood Keas junior and Shirley Boys’ High School product, started his journey with the Warriors in the club’s first year back home after the Covid era when he played four times for the SG Ball Cup (under-19) side.

By last year he was a New South Wales Cup regular making 17 appearances and scoring four tries as his development was fast-tracked alongside senior players. He also scored three tries in three Jersey Flegg Cup (under-21) games while he has split his time between the NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg teams this year.

Salalilo and Neal both come out of New Zealand rugby league’s new powerhouse St Thomas of Canterbury College.

Salalilo has followed the same path as Tafua coming through the SG Ball, Jersey Flegg and now NSW Cup sides. He has been impressive in eight interchange appearances for the table topping Warriors in the NSW Cup this year.

Neal is a standout both physically and talent-wise, an imposing figure standing 194cm and weighing 113kg. He routinely ploughed through defences using his combination of size, power and pace in the Harold Matthews Cup this year finishing as the team’s top try scorer with eight in 10 games.

He was almost unstoppable with two tries in the grand final after which he was named the player of the match.

Profile | Makaia Tafua​

Born: June 14, 2004
Birthplace: Christchurch, NZ
Junior club: Linwood Keas
Position: Hooker
Height: 180cm
Weight: 88kg
New South Wales Cup:
Appearances: 22 (2024-2025)
Points: 16 (4 tries)
Jersey Flegg Cup (under-21):
Appearances: 9 (2024-2025)
Points: 32 (8 tries)
SG Ball Cup (under-19):
Appearances: 4 (2023)
Points: 0

Profile | Jason Salalilo​

Born: April 28, 2005
Birthplace: Christchurch, NZ
Junior club: St Thomas of Canterbury College
Position: Prop
Height: 183cm
Weight: 102kg
New South Wales Cup:
Appearances: 8 (2025)
Points: 4 (1 try)
Jersey Flegg Cup (under-21):
Appearances: 6 (2024-2025)
Points: 20 (5 tries)
SG Ball Cup (under-19):
Appearances: 7 (2024)
Points: 0

Profile | Bishop Neal​

Born: May 10, 2008
Birthplace: Christchurch, NZ
Junior club: Hornby Panthers
Position: Second row
Height: 194cm
Weight: 113kg
Harold Matthews Cup (under-17):
Appearances: 10 (2025)
Points: 32 (8 tries)

View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKtPUkxx_W_/?igsh=MWRybGNsM2J5YWxjYQ==

sup42 said:

Easy, Eliesa Katoa.

Used the Warriors to get a Storm Berth. As such the worst investment in recent history.

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Recruited from Union, thrown straight from Jersey Flegg to the NRL, left edge one week then right the next, 3 seasons living out of a suitcase & 4 head coaches. Even with covid factored in the club butchered his development