Tua v Cameron

Its Always Sunny at Mt Smart

Why do the Warriors always turn on their veteran players? The latest saga sees Steve Price dropped as captain for vague and uncertain reasons. Now we have a host of rumours, that he has fallen out with and lost the respect of the rest of the squad, that the management want him to quit rep football but he refuses, and that he is seeking an early release to join the Broncoes on a one year deal.

Steve Price himself coming out today and denying all the rumours but again voicing openly the tension between himself and the club over the demotion and the representative football issue.

My favourite quote about the various other rumours being "There have been plenty of [other wholly untrue] things that have been much more difficult to deal with," he says. "When you hear that you're gay, you've moved out on your wife and are living with your lover, that you're a rapist ... I don't look at them as challenges but things that make you able to adapt and understand things a lot better. At the end of the day, not everything goes your way."

Why Why why do the Warriors always do this? The unceremonious dumping of ageing stars is so poorly managed. We all know these guys cannot play forever but why treat you one of your most talented players with so little respect. The rep footy issue is a problem - Price will never be available for a full season - even without rep footy his body won't deliver 26 rounds plus playoffs.

There is turmoil here behind the scenes and the Warriors need to clean house. The tone of the Price interview has him talking about guys in the squad being "weak" and "gutless" for talking about him behind his back. Who is he referring to? This is the kiss of death for team bonding.

This kind of internal dissension can destroy a team quickly so the management need to decide, do they really still want Price? If so they need to back him publicly and reprimand and punish those who are bad mouthing him or failing to support him within the squad. If they don't want Price, release him and move on. One way or the other I don't care but what I cannot stand is going into a new season with open dissension, a lack of clarity on the issue and no clear public statements from Cleary or anyone else in the management. Lets get this all out in the open now before we lose another season down the tubes.

Time to get this blog back on the road with some all time Warriors highlights

Travelling

Hello all

I am travelling for a few months and no doubt the blog will end up way out of date. I checked up on the Warriors in an internet cafe in Italy just now and I see they lost to the Dragons and their season is slipping into oblivion so we will have to hope for better next year.

The herald seems to have done a countdown to oblivionb calculation all their own and have concluded that the point of no return has been reached with the boys needing to win all their remaining six games for a mathematical shot at the playoffs.This seems unlikely. See you in a few months.

The run home

Saturday: v Panthers (a)

Aug 9: v Titans (h)

Aug 15: v Eels (a)

Aug 23: v Raiders (h)

Aug 28-31: v Bulldogs (a)

Sept 4-6: v Storm (h)

Maximum points possible: 29

Warriors 13th on 17 points

Sitting eighth (bottom playoff spot): Cowboys 22 points

All Whites v Iraq

No Warriors this weekend so all my hopes are on the All Whites squeeking out a pride win over Iraq in the confederations cup in SA. Unlikely maybe (All Whites are paying NZ$9 to win) but vaguely possible. Its also now clear that the dream matchup vs North Korea will not happen for the All Whites in their World Cup qualifiers, instead it will be home and away against the winner of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Iraq have in recent seasons been much more successful than either of these teams - but NZ need to prove they can last against these kind of teams. Even nil all would be a good result against Iraq.

Another win another week

Nice win for the boys. Although winning ugly at home is not that nice really. A win is a win and I cannot complain but you need to be able to beat top sides with quality which is evidently not what the Warriors have at present.

Still I guess I should not be too bitchy when the season is still alive and Locke is shaping as a prospect. He, Hohaia, MCK and Mannering are the bedrock of this side and they need to hang on until Tate returns. Price is a god but will leave us all soon.

Countdown to Oblivion

Well first up terrible lost to the Sharks leaves the Warriors playoff hopes hanging by a thread. Second if you have not yet watched the Pepe Silvia video below, do so now before the really depressing reality of the Warriors season sets in. Third and on an upbeat note I am loving the prospect of the All Whites having to play North Korea for a shot at world cup qualification. Frankly if the All Whites go to the 2010 football World Cup this blog (in content at least) may temporarily become an All Whites World Cup supporters blog.

Now back to the ugly reality of the Warriors season. At the halfway stage - the Warriors have played twelve games and had one bye. They have won four games (8 pts), had one draw (1 pt) and had one bye (2 pts) for a total of 11 pts. To make the top eight they need a minimum of 28 pts. So they are 17 big points short of the promised land at this stage. There are 13 rounds remaining in the season. The Warriors have one further bye (round 15) so that takes the points required down to 15. But they have only 12 games in which to get those points. So its basically 8 wins required from 12 games. We have all seen the Warriors do the seemingly impossible in the past - but this quite frankly looks bad.

Warriors form line for rounds 1-13 is:
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