NRL Season 2009

haha...maybe a bit early, but just wanted to post about the Warriors sticking with Fein.

Do you think Stacey will even get a game this season??

I heard Sonny Fai made a move to the sharks?

(ducks for cover from people with a conscience)

They'll find a way to make room for both Fein and Jones in the lineup if they're both playing well enough. It's not like we have supremely talented play-makers to keep them out of the other two spots.

There is Liam Foran and Joel Moon pushing for those spots too, as well as Daniel O'Regan, who is now part of Senior Squad (but unlikely to feature)

It all depends on how well Jones plays. If he's lost it, then he'll just slip into a mentoring type role. If it turns out he's still good, then others might only get a go if he's injured or gets rested.

Liam Foran.

Watch out NRL if this kid gets enough game time and keeps his head in the right place.

2 Months to go!

Roll on the season!

I would love to see Jones play very well this year, my fear is that it halts the development of Foran who has some pretty big wraps.

'09, the year of the Warrior, do it for Sonny boys!

Oh, and keeping Fien makes sense.

It's too late in the piece to release him now. We have already jettisoned Rovelli.

... and Fien kinda is the World Cup winning Halfback.

Yeah Fien played well in the world cup and at the back end of last season so hopefully he can keep that up. Stacey jones himself has said if he doesnt feel he can get to NRL condition he wont let Cleary play him, I honestly think he might be a bit past it. As awesome as he once was, he is probably too old and lost too much speed to be as effective as he used to be.
Im keen to see what this Foran is like, has big wraps as having been the junior kiwi halfback, but never got a chance at the Storm being behind Cronkenheimer

45 days out and the odds are starting to appear



To be honest I think the warriors play better as underdogs, so don't put to much expectation on them :p

I have $50 on the Warriors to win. Stand to win $550.



I got that ages ago Nacoa? TAB a bit slow crossing the Cooks Strait or something?

well odds appearinmg in the media then

Preseason odds are always in the order of where they finished up last season, there's never any surprises there, we made the grand final qualifiers hence us being in the top 4 of the odds. Nothing deeper to it imo.

They have Cowboys and Bulldogs at better odds due to some good off season recruitment though.

Big Ups Wiki for his life time achievement award.

lol ooo out of place joke when i was drunk, can an admin delete it please!

Heh, I would take offence bro but I'd already heard that joke like a dozen times before I saw you post it.


I'm a bit nervous. The Warriors have signed Canterbury up to do their jerseys and are going to unveil it at the end of the month. After the debacle that is the Black Caps uniform... I'm a little concerned...

That really is a worry!

Home:

http://i479.photobucket.com/albums/rr156/dei_phid07/1.jpg?t=1224325921

Away

http://i479.photobucket.com/albums/rr156/dei_phid07/2.jpg?t=1224325944

Already on sale in some shops as shown by this guy from the Warriors forum:

http://forum.nzwarriorsonline.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=363&d=1232932304

Looks pretty similar to the Black Caps uniform actually!



gc.

Bit girly with that thing from the neck line to one shoulder

Def got nothing on last year's kit!

Im def oldschool but BRING BACK THE V



PS canterbury logo doesnt really need to be on there twice does it?

Werd. Last years kit was the best that they'd ever had!

Bring back the DB Bitter logo IMO.

I like it. I didn't buy a jersey last season but will def get me a new one now.

Same as all the Jerseys, just makes it Official merchandice of NRL, it's hidden when tucked into shorts anyways.

So Benji at 7 this year for the Tigers.


Pretty cool what Vagana did with book for Fais family.

Is the Hamilton game this weekend?

Hamilton game is tomorrow night.

What'd Vagana do?

Went around the 15 clubs and got players and coaches to write testimonials/condolences,and then delivered it to Fai's family.

He's been a halfback all along!


<_<
>_>
<_<

That is pretty cool.

Craig Bellamy wrote a full page on him, and he didn't even know him, pretty heart warming

That's awesome

What a legend.

Heart-warming stuff

Warriors won 24-12. I believe Price and Tait didn't play. Sports Tonight said there will be some highlights in the news tomorrow morning ...which is annoying because I turned on tv tonight to see the tries.

dont mean to be the grinch on all the heart warming stuff etc....but what exactly did he write about?

Probably that it was the NRL drowning him to keep the Warriors down, just like they did with the suspension of Cameron Smith for the finals to keep the Storm down

From what I have read positive signs, great D, Stacey had glimpses of former form with deft touches and kicks. Plus 3 from 3 from Kemp.

Good to see Wairangi Koopu turn out for the Storm too. It would have been sad to see him lost to retirement or English league. He used to be one of my favourite Warriors from back in the day. yeah I know he got woefully inconsistent later in his career but I met him a few times and he was polite and well spoken and I liked him because of it.

Just got back from the Warriors/Cowboys warm up match. Some definate rusty play. Warriors looked good when all their big guns were on the field.

LOL @ the Cowboys having two players sin binned in the final 10 minutes..

Score?

32-28 to the Warriors. Got off to a good start. Swapped out half the players every 20 mins. So they started the game with a strong lineup and finished with a strong lineup. The middle part of the game saw lots of defensive lapses and too many penalities given away. Warriors fell behind, then ran in a few tries in the last 20 mins.

McKinnon got cleaned up in the last couple of minutes. Looked slightly injured. Here's hoping he was just winded.

Big ups to the big crowd attendance. Not many spare seats in the stadium.

16,500 to a warm up game. Incredible! I'm not sure how many times North Harbour has had that many to its home games.

Apparently all but one of the Cowboys' tries came from short range and were pretty soft. Mainly due to inexperience in the forward pack.

Yeah, it was pretty weak defence when the inexperienced players were out there. The Cowboys got within a few metres of the tryline then just trundled across the line for a try.

I don't think they were quite prepared for the number of people that turned up. Apparently ran out of beer shortly after kick off (I didn't mind though as I stocked up as soon as I got there). Although they did deal with the big walkup crowd pretty well. Queues to get in were moving fairly steadily and they had some extra staff selling cash only tickets on the steps before the main ticket booths.

My parents bought tickets a week ago and could only get seats right at the end of the stand. There was a huge interest in this game and indeed the Warriors season as a whole. Some smart buys, some great performances last year and the fans are buzzing!

Can't WAIT for march 14th.


Season tickets baby!! OH yeah. ^_^

Excellent news about the crowd

Mt. Smart is going to be a fortress this year!

Warriors season opener or the Eden Park ODI vs India?

Shit. It's the same day David!

Dunno about yous but I am considerably more optimistic about this upcoming season than I ever have been before. As Warriors fans we've nearly always griped about our achilles heels ....the halves...... being unable to free up our greatest assets, the centres/wings. With almost an embarrassment in riches & competition in the halves now there should be any problem whatsoever proving quality service to...........omg whos that out there again?/ lol only Brent Tate, Manu, Jerome Ropati and Wade McKinnon. Sick options

The only thing that perplexes me is where Lance fits into all this if there is no place for him in the halves, I've mentioned wing before but no one seems to like that idea, I guess cos he's short and therefore bombable. He is fast, elusive and determined though. I think his star is rising too fast to be constantly coming off the bench

So where is the achilles heel? Well I suppose you could argue there is a lot of sameness around our forward pack and without a truly class ball playing forward we may become a touch predictable on offence, should be pretty sweet on D though

You forgot Denan Kemp in the backline, one of last years top try scorers and fast enough to qualify for the Olympics if he wanted to.

As for the forwards, there was an article in the weekends paper that now Greg Eastwood has been denied a UK visa, he is in talks with NRL clubs, one of them being the Warriors. Of course with Fai no longer here, it opens up some room in the salary cap and the article went on to mention that the clubs would consider releasing Epalahame Lauaki if they do sign Eastwood.

I would take Eastwood in a heartbeat over Epalahame "brain explosion" Lauaki.

As for Lance, I think he is going to be the unluckiest Warrior out there. After such an awesome year last year, he is going to play for the Vulcans. Jones at halfback, Moon at five/eight, Fien on the bench... No place for Hohaia...

Certainly a lot of familiar faces in the forward pack but don't forget we've added Origin-rep Lillyman and most of our pack is made up of young guys on the rise. Future superstars like Mannering too.

You do seem to be searching for a weakness though, so I guess if that's it, we're pretty damn well placed.

Yup agreed, Its the only hole I can find and I think the presence of just one ball playing forward would make this side extremely extremely formidable...but I expect Cleary has some plans for this anyway

Lillyman is a great grinder in the Mannering/Luck mould imo, not sure if he offers a different dymanic at all

+ 1 for securing Eastwood, Ive hated both Luaki's forever ..........I didnt forget about Kemp, tbh I just havent watched him play enough to feel good lumping him in with obvious superstars that i have watched a lot. He all that is he? Thats the wings covered then ...and no room for my Lance theory

I'll switch to him being a better option than the aging Jones in that case, start rising and star falling and all that. Either that or a Fien/Lance half/bench combo and Stacey backstage. Lets not get sentimental here, I guess Jones will start but Cleary needs to be brutal with the axe immediately if he doesnt fire. I find the idea of Lance playing for the Vulcans disgraceful at this point of his career. let him go to another club

Offloading Lauaki for Eastwood would be so awesome. Step 1 is complete in releasing Lauaki. Now they just need confirm Eastwood.

*crosses fingers*

This would be an excellent signing for the Warriors

Not sure they could afford Eastwood but I doubt anyone can at this point in the season. Eastwood would probably just be happy to have a job anyway.

Scratch that... forgot about Fai

It sounds as though most other NRL clubs dont have salary cap space to sign him so he will probably take what he can get. But we should have some left without Fai and that f**king idiot Lauaki.

PLEASE let this happen...

Luaki has/had loads of potential I reckon, always such a hit and miss player, a game saver or a game blower.

Kinder like Mark Tookey. Ie had the skills, just didn't implement them consistantly.

If he had tightened up his game, he would of been good. Getting on in league years now though at 27, so hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

Tookey was a legend and a trier who gace 100% every week. That's a piss poor comparison.


Sione Faumuina is a more accurate comparison. Loads of potential but poor discipline and a poor league brain let him down, consistently.

*gave

Faumuina is a better match yeah. But you can still compare to Tookey. Don't let his crowd favourite status cloud ya judgement.

He may of been a trier, but a trier don't make you a really good player! He had the potential like Luauki, but was also pretty inconsistant like Luauki, he had an awesome run during that final series, but other than that his defence plus dropped balls let him down.

Tookey could of been really good if it wasn't for those inconsistencies, much like luauki, who is lazy on inside defence and tries to often to force a pass that isn't there.

I thought Tookey was one of our poorer signings, he cost a lot and prob played 50% of games. We already had a massive pack when we bought him

I think the best warrior to compare Luaki to is Terry Hermanson....as both players specialty was/is the bullocking run (Class aside as the rock was pretty awesome)

Tookey blew his knee out and that's why he was out for ages. He played really well in the 2001/02 seasons though.

And Hermansson doesn't have half the footwork or ball skills that Lauaki has.

I'm not sure dropping is really considered a ball skill, dalai.

Tookey was always just a crowd-fave but he was quite mean in the 2002 season. I always remember him being unusually smart too.

When do we find out about Eastwood??

Apparently the bookies are already putting us in the top 4.

NZ Tab:
1 $4.00 Manly Sea Eagles
2 $5.75 Melbourne Storm
3 $11.00 Cronulla Sharks
4 $11.00 Brisbane Broncos
5 $9.00 NZ Warriors

Shown out of order I *think* because our odds have been shortened relative to Cronulla and Brisbane while others haven't moved.


Aus Tab:

6004 MANLY 4.00 $
6005 MELBOURNE 6.00 $
6007 NZ WARRIORS 9.00 $
6001 BRISBANE 11.00 $
6012 CRONULLA 11.00 $

Sweet. My $50 @ $11 return is looking better and better.

F*ck yeah you got on at the right time, I need to get in there asap. or maybe not. $9 is starting to look short/about right now

Thinking again I guess my camparison to The Rock is a bit rough. Its hard to compare players....maybe Luaki is like Peter Lewis? (Shit)

When Luaki was in the mood he would bounce/bump players off him like Ali, but meh @ comparing him to Ali

There's no denying Lauaki is a buffeting runner if he can actually hold a pass and hold the ball through a tackle.

He had a sharp offload too but had a tendency to overdo or offload to someone in a worse position than his own. He also had a good left foot step.

I think we're all a little overly harsh on him because we've beceome a bit cynical of his ability after he promised so much back in 07.

Squad for the final trial game has been announced:

Wade McKinnon
Denan Kemp
Manu Vatuvei
Aidan Kirk
Jerome Ropati
Brent Tate
Aaron Heremaia
Joel Moon
Nathan Fien
Stacey Jones
Leeson Ah Mau
Russell Packer
Steve Price (captain)
Sam Rapira
Ian Henderson
Lance Hohaia
Jacob Lillyman
Simon Mannering
Ben Matulino
Ukuma Ta'ai
Micheal Luck

Looks good doesn't it.

I suspect some of the weak defence seen in the last game will be improved by Luck and Lillyman coming into the squad now.

^^^ What are the odds on St George? Would not be surprised if they win the comp this year.

As for Lauaki, he's just like his big bro. All brawn and no brain. Later.

Was just looking at it before, if it's still at $9ish next week when I have spare cash I'll jump on it too.

Look at this guy ^^ all lurking and shit.

I'm liking the new jersey eh... nothing like the cricket top what so ever.

I'm feeling positive about this season eh, in saying that, I know we will have 5 or 6 weeks somewhere during this season question there ability and stuff, but that's a warriors season for ya

And thank fuck for that!

The black one does look sharp now that I've seen it on the players. Definitely in a similar style to what Canterbury are doing for all the European and some of the South African teams.

iLike.

Yeah I've warmed to it a bit more now.


Reminds me of the Stormers uniform.

Im pretty sure the warriors still start hard and fast this season. Draw looks pretty good early apart from the trip to Manly.

So Witt has been officially been told he is not part of the picture by Cleary. News headline stated "Crowd favourite to leave" .....and my brow furrowed until the heard the report and it turned out to be Witt. Crowd favourite with who? The cheerleaders? Bye Witt. Nice kicking btw.

Where's that?

Witt was pretty popular with the crowd, his kicking exploits of course are a given but he also spent a lot of time in the community, did a lot of work with kids. He was usually one fo the first to put his hand up when the Warriors did charity work...

Witt was definitely a favourite. I will miss him prancing in like a horse to kick.

I won't miss all the women gushing about him though.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10558866

Warriors 34 Titans 12

Smashed em bro! The Titans didn't score until the 59th minute. They were without Prince though...

LOl @ THE BLUES BILLBOARD JUST AROUND FROM EDEN PARK/CNR BOND ST AND NEW NORTH ROAD


surely that wont stay up for long......

What does it say?

Manly were looking good against Leeds this morning in the World Club Challenge. Were winning 26-14 I think when I left to go to work. Anyone know what the final score was?

28-20 according to the Herald. Leeds scored in the final seconds.

Perhaps I am reading too much into this? idk


http://www.theblues.co.nz/


wait a few seconds while the ads click over, tell me what pops into your head

Hahaha, it's hard not to read too much into that Maesty.

Especially since the guy in the background of that pic looks well, kinda dead

I see what you mean. The other lol is that it's basically Auckland rugby begging to get some supporters along to their games.

Not sure if been mentioned, but a nice touch.

lol I hadnt even clicked to that bit, but that makes it even poorer form. Surely the ad-peeps must have realized how that could be taken the wrong way?

/predict someone from the Fai family will have a bleat, media will pick up on it and the ad will ce censored

Auckland rugby = winners
Warriors = losers

yeh it must be hard watching rugby go down the toilet

MEANWHILE IN BIZARRO WORLD...

Good luck to them.