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NRL season preview: New Zealand Warriors

New Zealand's Kevin Proctor (left) celebrates with try-scorer Shaun Johnson. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Expert
3rd February, 2015
10

The Warriors, the team from the other side of the ditch, are undoubtedly the hardest team to predict. The 2015 NRL season will be absolutely no different.

On the back of a narrow finals miss in 2014, they will be looking for two things in 2015 – consistency and ultimately a finals berth.

The Warriors are a side that look like they could dominate an Australian All-Star team one week, and the next week look like they could lose to the London Broncos in Super League. That is the punishing nature of having to make the trip from New Zealand to Australia and back every second week.

For the Warriors, the best thing they could do is keep a similar squad to last year to gain some consistency, and that is exactly what they have managed to do. The other thing the Warriors will no doubt rely on is Shaun Johnson.

If he can keep injury free he could ruin the NRL, but his problem is also consistency. If he has an awesome season and the Warriors forward pack holds strong then they could be looking at a very high finish. If he doesn’t and is inconsistent again expect the Warriors to be battling for one of the final spots in the top eight again.

Pre-season fixtures
Jan 31 – Feb 1: Auckland Nines versus Gold Coast Titans, Canberra Raiders and Wests Tigers
Feb 7: versus Gold Coast Titans @ Tawoomba
Feb 14: versus Penrith Panthers @ Rotorua

The Warriors can start their search for consistency in the trial games this season following the Auckland Nines. While the Nines is a hard competition to gain anything out of, the games against the Titans and the Panthers that follow the Nines could really tell us a thing or two about the Warriors.

First up they travel to Australia to play the Titans, then they take on the Penrith Panthers back home in New Zealand. This is a miniature chance for the Warriors to start to build on the week in, week out demands of flights across the Tasman.

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It is also a chance for some players to try and work themselves into form before we get into the season proper as the Warriors haven’t had a massive personnel change and so know more or less what their key combinations are going to end up being.

Ins and outs

2015 gains
Matthew Allwood (Canberra Raiders, 2017), Mafoa’aeata Hingano (2016), Ryan Hoffman (Melbourne Storm, 2017), Api Pewhairangi (Parramatta Eels, 2015), Bodene Thompson (Wests Tigers, 2017) and Jonathan Wright (Cronulla Sharks, 2015).

2015 losses
Jayson Bukuya (Cronulla Sharks), Kevin Locke (Salford Red Devils), Sam Lousi (rugby union), Feleti Mateo (Manly Sea Eagles), Dane Nielsen (St George Illawarra Dragons), Abraham Papalii (Sydney Roosters), Jerome Ropati (retired), Michael Sio (QueenslandCup), James Taylor (Newcastle Knights), Carlos Tuimavave (Newcastle Knights) and Adam Tuimavave-Gerrard (St George Illawarra Dragons).

The Warriors are a club that haven’t made a lot of changes. They haven’t let go of any overly big names, with the biggest no doubt being Bukuya and Mateo, and haven’t signed any stars of the game, although players like Hoffman, Wright and Pewhairangi could prove to be big acquisitions. Hoffman moving from Melbourne will be the biggest of these gains and could really help the Warriors in both the attacking and defensive departments.

The only real question about the Warriors’ off-season is the decision to let Adam Tuimavave-Gerrard go to the St George Illawarra Dragons. The youngster has some big wraps on him as he makes the trip across the Tasman, and while he has no first grade experience he could prove to be a big loss.

Draw analysis
The draw for the Warriors is certainly not one that will place fear into the hearts of fans. The team will be looking for a strong start to the season and with their draw it has become even more important as they play the Knights, Raiders, Eels and Broncos in the first four rounds and all of these teams finished in the bottom half of the table last season.

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Even though their first two games are away from home their next two are in New Zealand and they would be looking to exit the first month of the season with no less that three wins. The draw from there does steadily increase in difficulty but there is no real period where you would look and say they might lose five or six in a row during the season.

In fact their hardest period of the draw seems to be a three-week spell in between Rounds 18 and 20 when they take on the Melbourne Storm, Sydney Roosters and Manly Sea Eagles. Another talking point from their draw is that they are never at home for more than two weeks in a row, however spend the last two weeks of the NRL season in Australia as they plays Wests Tigers and Canterbury Bulldogs.

There is no doubt the travel factor normally hurts the Warriors so they will need to be almost unbeatable at home. The teams the Warriors will play twice in 2015 are the Parramatta Eels, Newcastle Knights, Canberra Radiers, Wests Tigers, North Queensland Cowboys, Sydney Roosters, Gold Coast Titans, Melbourne Storm and Penrith Panthers. Out of the teams they play twice five of the them finished in the bottom eight last season and there is no doubt this is one of the easier lists in the competition.

Predicted impact of State of Origin
The New Zealand Warriors are one of the luckiest clubs in the NRL when it comes to having players selected in the NRL. Normally they have no one even in consideration for Origin as the majority of their squad hails from New Zealand or other nations.

This year, however, could be different with the signing of Hoffman. If he has a half decent start to the year after he can expect to be involved in the NS Origin campaign of 2015.

Predicted finish and final word
There is no doubt they have a lot of their creative reliance on Shaun Johnson and if he doesn’t produce on a week to week basis then the Warriors’ forward pack would have to be grinding out wins, which is hard to see them doing. I’ll be tipping them to finish outside the top eight in 2015.

Season fixtures
R1 Sat 07 Mar 2015, 4:30pm, Hunter Stadium Knights V Warriors
R2 Sun 15 Mar 2015, 6:30pm, GIO Stadium Raiders V Warriors
R3 Sat 21 Mar 2015, 3:00pm, Mt Smart Stadium Warriors V Eels
R4 Sun 29 Mar 2015, 12:00pm, Mt Smart Stadium Warriors V Broncos
R5 Mon 06 Apr 2015, 5:00pm, AAMI Park Storm V Warriors
R6 Sat 11 Apr 2015, 5:30pm, Mt Smart Stadium Warriors V Wests Tigers
R7 Sat 18 Apr 2015, 5:30pm, 1300 Smiles Stadium Cowboys V Warriors
R8 Sat 25 Apr 2015, 12:00pm, Mt Smart Stadium Warriors V Titans
R9 Sat 09 May 2015, 5:30pm, Remondis Stadium Sharks V Warriors
R10 Sat 16 May 2015, 3:00pm, Pirtek Stadium Eels V Warriors
R12 Sun 31 May 2015, 2:00pm, Mt Smart Stadium Warriors V Knights
R13 Sat 06 Jun 2015, 5:30pm, nib Stadium Rabbitohs V Warriors
R14 Sat 13 Jun 2015, 6:00pm, Mt Smart Stadium Warriors V Roosters
R15 Sat 20 Jun 2015, 5:30pm, Cbus Super Stadium Titans V Warriors
R16 Sat 27 Jun 2015, 3:00pm, Mt Smart Stadium Warriors V Raiders
R18 Sun 12 Jul 2015, 2:00pm, Mt Smart Stadium Warriors V Storm
R19 Sun 19 Jul 2015, 2:00pm, Allianz Stadium Roosters V Warriors
R20 Sat 25 Jul 2015, 3:00pm, Mt Smart Stadium Warriors V Sea Eagles
R21 TBC, Mt Smart Stadium Warriors V Sharks
R22 TBC, Mt Smart Stadium Warriors V Dragons
R23 TBC, Sportingbet Stadium Panthers V Warriors
R24 TBC, Mt Smart Stadium Warriors V Cowboys
R25 TBC, Campbelltown Stadium Wests Tigers V Warriors
R26 TBC, ANZ Stadium Bulldogs V Warriors

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