Tea Ropati cleared on all charges

Yes its true - not guilty on all charges.

I was thinking about the case this morning and the question that popped into my head was, would the Whiskey bar be happy about the case or unhappy? On the one hand no one could ever dream of this much free publicity, on the other hand, do people want to go and drink at a crime scene? I think I have been to the Whiskey once and it struck me as an extremely tiny but extremely trendy place where the punters did not seem overly impressed with my presence. That was over five years ago now, I have no idea what it is like these days. In fact if anyone would care to comment on the Ponsonby scene generally these days I would be interested.

The Warriors are in their midst of their now familiar brutal summer training regime, including beach runs at bethels beach, a training trip to Te Kaha on the east coast, and a cross training exercise from Takapuna beach to Rangitoto island. This is good stuff and the Warriors as always should be aiming to be the fittest as well as one of the biggest teams in the NRL. Its a fast game these days and recent years have shown that having a giant pack (forward pack that is) is not going to overcome speed, skill and intelligent play at the finesse positions.

A little over two weeks until the first preseason game vs the Knights so the wait is nearly over for Cleary Year III to kick off.

fun and games

Hello everyone. The offseason continues. However there are a few matters to discuss, notably Tea Ropati and the NZRL coaching fiasco.

I think Tea Ropati's crimes have been public knowledge for some time however name suppression was only lifted quite recently. Its an ugly story and consensual or not - it is a bad bad look and your reputation is over dude. When your defence is premised on the basis that you, your alleged victim and your friends have been quote "binge drinking, taking cocaine and marijuana" so as to justify or excuse your deviance, the damage is done. Maybe you and Brent Todd can form a disgraced ex-players support group and hang out?

As for the NZRL if this was some form of farcical TV sitcom it might be ok - unfortunately the NZRL are not actually meant to be a joke and are supposedly managing the future of the national side and the game in NZ generally. Kemble has now gone - maybe Bennet can clean house and bring some sense to the madhouse?

Warriors trials start soon - three games in February - so not long to go now.

This is for all my peeps

I wonder if many of you are back at work today like me, finding the office dull and quiet and pondering those things that are a little more interesting on the web. This stikes me as a fine time to start stoking the fires of Warriors fandom as we zero in on NRL 2008 and Cleary Year III after an interminably long off-season.

With the addition of Tate at centre the Warriors shape up well after a strong finish to 2007, with the exception of a couple of lacklustre playoff performances. In fact after perhaps the worst alltime year for New Zealand sport, the Warriors may be the only feel good story coming out of 2007. In addition if anyone else like me, still feels slightly queesy at the thought of watching Rugby Union, the Warriors are the antidote.

The 2008 NRL draw has now been released. Those of you who live in Auckland should seriously consider becoming a Warriors season ticket member, you can see all the home games for as a little as NZD270. Warriors open the season Monday 17 March against the Storm, which could be a rude awakening, followed by the Eels on Sunday 23 March and Manly Monday 31 March. So an early opportunity to find out if you like Monday night football or not. I guess the only downside is having to wait all the way through the weekend for the game, and potentially having the team play two games in six days or less in a worst case scenario.

I have got Setanta pay TV at the flat now in London so I will be locked and loaded for Cleary Year III, finally able to watch the Warriors play live every now and again.

Please let me know your thoughts for the year ahead, discussion points include the potential starting line up, whether Hiho can ever recapture his form of 2001-2002 and how Tate will gel with the boys.

Hope you all had a great xmas and new year. Let the 2008 games begin.