The New Zealand Warriors need a new club culture

A new logo, new coaching staff, new jerseys, a few new players and a new CEO – we’ve seen it all before, but 2015 shapes as a particularly important year for the Warriors.

The club that always promises so much yet delivers so little has re-assembled for the upcoming season and expectations, as always, are sky high.

It’s mid-January and already the well-oiled propaganda machine is in motion with reports of a new attitude and intensity being seen in pre-season training, accompanied with photos of players struggling through their dune runs.

Players were put through a gruelling pre-Christmas two days at ‘Camp Hell’, with army-inspired fitness sessions intended to build both mental and physical fortitude. From reports that have filtered back, most players responded well. Again, it is all talk at this stage of the year, and again, it is nothing we haven’t seen before.

Mid-way through 2014, Elijah Taylor was asked about the differences between the environment at the Warriors and Penrith Panthers. Putting it as nicely as he could, he described the Warriors as a “family club” where “everyone is very close”.

After a brief, but poignant pause, he went on to describe Penrith as “very competitive … very, very competitive. Trainings are very intense, we expect high standards from one another. It is very different from the Warriors”.

To me, those statements sum up what this club has become over the past 20 years, or perhaps more appropriately what it hasn’t become.

The Warriors have never been a club with a reputation for high expectations or punishing bad attitudes and performances. Instead, we have a reputation among league circles as a club that seems to embrace underachievers, poor attitudes and where players go to wind down on their careers after spending their best years at clubs they feel have genuine premiership chances.

On the rare occasion we meet a player with the sort of work ethic that should be commonplace, such as Steve Price, Michael Luck or Kevin Campion, we are so gobsmacked at the difference in attitude from these guys that they are placed on a pedestal. And, for a time, their attitudes rub off onto others.

Unfortunately, however, these players are just a few bright lights among a sea of mediocrity that has plagued this club over the past 20 years.

I wrote last season about the changes Andrew ‘Cappy’ McFadden was trying to implement at the Warriors and it appears he has taken a similar theme into the off-season. Focus appears to have moved on from miracle sports science cures and is now set on getting the basics right – improving fitness levels, basic skills, and preparing and playing as a unit, as well as an attitude adjustment not just on the field, but off it.

Only from the ground up can we even begin to entertain the idea of a club that will flourish not just this season, but for many seasons to come. So, from this perspective, I believe he has got it right and still hold faith that he is the man for the job.

On a much broader note, with talk of expansion, and the constant turf war between the NRL, AFL and A-League in Australia, the Warriors represent a potential rugby league stronghold, if only they could get it right on and off the field.

While McFadden goes to work on righting the environment from an individual and team perspective, the club as a whole must be right behind him – and that can only start from the very top.

Jim Doyle comes with a fantastic reputation, and has made his presence felt already. He has re-opened the great Auckland stadium debate, though we appear to be no closer to a solution that will please everybody.

The Warriors are being linked with players such as Trent Merrin, Kieran Foran, Steve Matai and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. We may not get all of them, or any, but it’s imperative we throw our hat in the ring for players of this quality – proven match and premiership winners.

It is imperative we chase individuals who will aid in the battle to overthrow the dismal attitudes of seasons gone by, and who will strive to attain the goals of a club moving into a new era.

For all that is seemingly new, and apparent changes for the Warriors in 2015, it will be for nothing if Doyle and McFadden cannot revolutionise the culture that has led this club to seasons of disappointment over the past 20 years.

If they need any further proof of what’s achievable with a culture adjustment, they need look no further than transformation the Black Caps have undergone over the past 18 months. Like the Black Caps, this Warriors side needs to be greater than the sum of its parts, and they need to start now.

Rugby league and the NRL already have immense popularity in New Zealand and how successful they can be in this country is entirely at the feet of the Warriors. Success breeds success – crowds, TV ratings, jersey sales, player recruitment, expansion and stadium debates will all follow in the wake of a winning side and a successful club.

2015 may not be the year the Warriors break their premiership drought, but they have a chance to set in motion something much bigger than a rogue title. Here is a chance to set this club up for the next 20 years and beyond.

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