End of season mode

Hello All

Well what can I say, nothing to report on the Warriors front. Months of offseason stretching out in front of us.

Warriors had their end of season do and Rovelli won Rookie of the year and Price player of the year. Seems like fair results to me although Cleary looks to have gained a bit of weight in the photo to the right.

Of course there is the NRL grand final and Melbourne and the Broncoes are to face off in an NSW free final. I can never get too excited about these games when the Warriors are all over the for the year but it is a big sporting occassion and if anyone has thoughts please feel free to put them down here.

League tri-nations is coming up - kiwi squad has been named - but I have trouble getting enthusiastic about it.

And of course Harbour won the Ranfurly sheild, I look forward to seeing them defend it for longer than 1 game.

Also I hear Lowe was seriously in the running for the Sharks job but got passed up for Ricky Stuart. That decision seems like a no-brainer for the Sharks, do you really want to appoint captain insano to run your franchise?

Anyway you lucky people in NZ are heading to Spring now so that must be nice for you.

I am having fun fun fun at work as per usual. Big news for the peeps is the upcoming 10km run in Amsterdam that I have somehow signed up for. The training has been average at best to date and only two weeks to go till the big day, Sunday 15 October 2006.

Also a date to watch out for is judgement day for double JJ - 11 November 2006 - when James James"Judgement Day" Dellow will step into the ring to box for real against ..............another accountant yet to be announced. Check out the JD training blog for awesome progress pictures.

Brain explosion frenzy

I love reading the NZ press I can't beleive what is happening at home. National and Labour sex scandals would be awesome, if only the thought of any of the protaganists actually having sex wasn't so horribly foul.

Anyway the real gold is the fact that now the warriors season is over the general public are picking up the mantel and having chronic brain explosions of their own, in fact the competition is close for brain explosion of the week, but I think the winner is the Christchurch chronic gambler turned repeat armed robber whose lawyer actually described his offending in court as the consequences of a quote "brain explosion". Brilliant.

However the close runner up is Clint Brown - so drunk in Taupo of all places that he managed to get beaten to within an inch of his life and lose his job.

If those in NZ have input on the playoffs that would be good I see Brisbane have qualified and St G are favourites going into a semi final with Melbourne. I had thought Melbourne were running away with the title but apparently St G are favourites - I guess their form has been pretty good lately then? I am so far away from knowing at the moment it is really poor form on my part. I have been stuck in the office for far too long with no time for internet surfing.

Seems like a long time till the NRL 2007 kicks off but I will try and keep the blog alive over the extremely long off season. Warriors off season news should start kicking in around new year.

Comments always appreciated and idle premiership chit chat is also worth a shot.

Season wrap up

Well another long hard NRL season comes to a close for the Warriors with a tough Loss to Brisbane in Queensland. While the big boys head off into the playoff sunset the Warriors are left to rue their points deduction and kiss goodbye to Brent Webb.

A few bright points coming out of a season with Cleary stamping his authority on the team and bring in effective and cheap Australian talent. Hohaia looks to showing some of the form that might make him a bright hope for the future and he is still a young player. Axing the boozers is a very clear message to this team that Cleary wants a serious tone to prevail at the club and I like it.

As an aside to the Sione axing Cleary is now shopping for another lock and it looks like the options are fairly limited. Anyone have any creative ideas on this one?

Herald reports that the Warriors seeking to sign Sonny Bill when he comes off contract at end of 2007 - apart from the fact that Sonny has demonstrated for all to see just how fragile his body is - this is a recipe for salary cap disaster unless the Warriors axe Price and Wiki. That could be a possibility at the end of 2007 with Price off contract but it would be something like the biggest league contract ever to sign him and he might not even play a match.

Overall if we look at Cleary Year One in perspective it starts to look like a pretty good season:

Year Coach Owner CEO W L D Win % Table Playoffs
1995 Monie ARL Robson 13 9 0 59.09% 10th* none (*2 point deduction for 14 players on field)
1996 Monie ARL Robson 10 11 1 45.45% 11th none
1997 Monie/Endacott ARL MacGowan 7 11 0 38.89% 7th none(SL)
1998 Graham Tainui+Lowe McKewen 9 15 0 37.50% 15th none
1999 Graham Tainui+Lowe McKewen 10 14 0 41.67% 11th none
2000 Graham Tainui/Watson McKewen 8 16 2 30.77% 13th none
2001 Anderson Watson Watson 12 12 2 46.15% 8th qualifying final
2002 Anderson Watson Watson 17 7 0 70.83% 1st grand final
2003 Anderson Watson Watson 15 9 0 62.50% 6th semi-final
2004 Anderson/Kemp Watson Watson 6 18 0 25.00% 14th none
2005 Kemp Watson Watson 10 14 0 41.67% 11th none
2006 Cleary Watson Scurrah 12 12 0 50.00% 10th* none (*4 point deduction for salary cap breach )

Cleary is up there in the top four seasons ever for the Warriors - together with 1995, 2002 and 2003 - a bit sad really but these are the only four seasons that the Warriors have won 50% or more of their games. 1995 and 2006 would have both been playoff years but for points deductions.

Anyway Cleary Year One bodes well for the future and I like to think of it like the Anderson 2001 season where he scraped the team into the playoffs in eighth spot only to take them to the grand final in 2002. That is where I want to see Cleary Year Two end up!

It would be great if everyone would add their comments to their post on their impressions of the season that was. I want to see more comments than ever before on this blog for a single post - lets get some dialogue going - this should be alot more like talkback than it in fact is.
Lastly it is very sad to see Steve Erwin pass away in a ghastly sting ray accident. He was a real character and a global superstar.

Sione is off the wagon

In a shock development the Warriors have terminated Sione Faumuina's contract for just one too many alcohol related indiscretions. This one apparently at an aftermatch lounge function after the Roosters game in which Sione played no part due to a "wrist" injury. Is that an injury of the kind where the wrist can't help itself but lift lion red cans towards the mouth of the victim?

Only a few details on the final straw incident have been made public so if anyone has any nuggets of goss gleamed from their inside sources - such as anyone who was lucky enough to be in the aftermatch lounge in question during the incident - please divulge them here.

I suggested in a previous blog that the mystery wrist injury was in fact a cover story for Sione going to rehab however the apparent presence of the boozer at the Roosters game kind of debunks that theory. Who will take up the challenge of taming this wild man - Manly?

In addition there are rumours in the UK press as well as the Aussie press that following the dumping of Ricky Stewart by the Roosters that Daniel Anderson will be taking up the job after having taken St Helens to the absolute pinnacle of UK league winning everything there is to win and doing so in a dominating style.

And in a final note the Warriors have extended Cleary's contract as coach of the Warriors till the end of 2008. Well done to the management on that one looks like a good choice.

Warriors kick chicken butt

My goodness what a stunning end of season run this is turning into. Thanks heaps for the post from the Wellington Warrior (as a comment to one of the posts below) about his trip to the Roosters game. Sounds like it was awesome! Nice choice of game to attend - a bit lucky really!

Broncoes away to finish the season - should be a bruising encounter!

Strong end to season

I am getting really slack about posting which is a bit unfortunate for those few of you out here who actually read what I put on this site.

Warriors seem to be in a fairly strong run of form of late with a very impressive win over the NRL minor premiers the Storm following on from a win over the Cowboys. Win loss ratio is now 11 and 11 so the boys have managed to hit the 500 mark. In fact they are sitting in 10th. Cleary continues to argue that they still have something to play for although I can't figure out what this is he certainly seems to have figured out how to get the best out of this Warriors unit. Only two games remain starting with a tough test vs the Roosters followed by the Broncoes away.

This weeks game v the Roosters will the last home game for Webb and the Pedestrian.

Once the season is over we can take a look at where this Warriors season ranks in the history of the franchise and I think you might be surprised how highly it does in fact rank.

And for those of you who care - its Tea Ropati.

The struggle goes on

Hi all.

Well I know I have been slack on the posting but the Warriors need to do a little more to keep me interested.

I was pleased to see the win over Cronulla although it is entirely meaningless at this stage of the season. As I sat basking in the London sun I took some pleasure in the fact that it was so unpleasant and cold during the Sharks match in Auckland that one of the poor Sharkeys got hypothermia in the changing sheds afterwards.

So sad to see that Webb is leaving, although he will clock 100 games for the Warriors this weekend vs the Cboys. Ropati thinks there is a still a lot to play for and in pride terms he is right but lets not fool ourselves. Unfortuantely Koopu is injured so will miss a match for the first time in 52 games.

The ramifications of the Faumuina alcohol fiasco are still doing the rounds. Not sure this drunken performance, as bad is it apparently was, can top Latu's debacle for the title of brain explosion of the year but I am prepared to listen to argument on the point. One point in the F mans favour is that he was actually in the Warrirors squad at the time of his indiscretion whilst Latu had already been axed.

Anyone who has any info on who this person might be please post it to this blog, if you are worried about violating the name supression order just email me and I will post it as the suppression order doesn't apply here.

On a lighter note Monty Betham has been suspended for two matches after delivering a classic Betham punchy performance in UK superleague.

Gorillasanti also continues to deny allegations that he stole $6000 from a team mates room whilst touring with the Kangaroos in 2003. This is interesting on two counts, first that people are still talking about it - this was three years ago. And second because some fool in the Aussie team not only had $6000 in cash on him but left it in his hotel room.

And just to keep the scandal ball rolling - the Broncoes have sacked Brett Seymour and Neville Costigan over their involvement in off-field incidents. Halfback Seymour had recently been accused of headbutting a woman in a Brisbane pub while Costigan was this week charged by police with drink driving. The Warriors should sign these guys as soon as possible.