Ugly - its a Manly rout!

Well last time I could bear to look the score was 48-6 to Manly. This is not the type of scoreline any of us want to see and it always brings on the chills associated with the dark era of Warriors history when such scorelines were all too common.

Your thoughts on what went wrong would be appreciated.

Monday morning football - 16-0 down

Well I am following the game on a sportal text feed at work - Monday morning by the way - just went onto daylight savings so 9am feels like 8am.

And at 9.40am the score with 31 minutes played is 16-0 to Manly. This is terrible - what is going on here? This is a pretty big hole for the boys to dig themselves out of - need to score before halftime really bad.

NZ organised crime

Bit of tangent from the warriors I know but check out this article about organised crime in NZ from Christchurch (I know lame city what can I do about it).

Frankly what bothers me about this is there is so little doubt about who is running hard drug distribution in NZ. It is the headhunters at the top with the others gangs working for them nationally. I would suggest, that the government knows exactly who the top people are in these gangs. And to put it bluntly due process does not concern me. I would recommend raiding and then bulldozing their headquarters on mass at 5am nationally and then arrest all the top membership.

The only reason I can see that the perpetrators are not arrested when the police know who they are is that there is enough money involved to prevent real enforcement. If I were an officer in west auckland earning $30k and I am making $30+k on the side from being relaxed about p distribution the economics are simple. Someone needs to make a stand and its not going to be me but its needs to happen now.

My proposal is this - Bring p possession in anything above 1g up to a 2 year mandatory prison sentence. You then give all gangs 48 hours to surrender in amnesty all drug stocks and precurser stocks and surrender all guns and then you raid all the headquarters and tinny houses nationally at the same unannounced time.
We have to do it now before it is too late.

lets go to work

Great win for the Warriors over the Eels in fine Auckland conditions. Vatuvei coping with the pressure and HiHo holding up at fullback. Price injury is a worry as is Ropati. However great to get a win - SMH is now ranking the Warriors eighth in their new power rankings (ala ESPN).

Back at work today after my easter holiday - extraordinarily lame.

Next up Manly on Monday night - maybe I shall finally be able to watch a game on my retro Setanta subscription. As noted previously this is rather like having UHF sky in the early nineties. One sports channel with not a lot on is how I would describe the service. If you like Scottish premiership football and/or 10th division football you are in for a treat.

Fascination

This post has a soundtack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvD6maGRh7c.

Anyway as for the latest updates, not much has changed in Warriors land, other than that we are now only 1 week away from the kick off of Cleary Year III.

As for me it has been an eventful week and it is just going to get more interesting.

Sunday 2 March I ran the 10k at Clapham Common - it actually went quite well as I am by no means a highly trained runner. I did one of these last year and my time was five minutes faster this time around so thats a good improvement.

After that I headed straight out to Heathrow and flew out to Cairo on Sunday night for a series of work meetings on Monday and Tuesday. I had no time to partake in any tourist activities during my visit and spent almost the entire time in an office or a hotel room. However there were a few cultural moments likely being repeatedly awakened by various calls to prayer during the nighttime and the general Mr Matthew formality of the various hotel staff.

Back to London Tuesday night and this week is now just about over. I am going to stay at a cottage in the Cottswalds for the weekend for a birthday party - then back to work Monday and Tuesday before flying on Wednesday to Geneva to bus on to the ski resort at Val-d'Isere in France. Am staying there for three days and then returning to Geneva for two nights before flying onto Moscow. Will be in Russia until the end of easter.

So its pretty full on, I will be in Russia for the Warriors second and third games of the season so you will all have to keep me updated via text and email. In addition I suspect the blog may ended up lagging a bit behind.

As to the season ahead I think the expectations are up there - top eight would be the absolute minimum acceptable result. In fact if we don't make the eight I would fire Cleary. With that said top four is a reasonable goal but the absence of Wade Mac is going to hurt - fullback is such a crucial position - especially for a team such as Warriors that has perenially needed a strong player to provide solidity and leadership from the position (e.g. Ridge and Cleary). Had Wade Mac not been injured my expectations would have been at sky-high minor premiership levels.

Overall with all things considered top four and a home semi has got to be the goal, the Warriors now have the pedigree to be considered an elite NRL club and they should start acting like it.

Those of you in NZ for the Warriors game vs Eels at home on Sunday, March 23, 2008, 4pm should get along there to partake in the free Fat Freddys Drop gig which is being held at the stadium straight after the game - apparently you need to register with the Vodafone Warriors supporters club "onetribe" to go to the gig.

Warriors lose final trial to Manly

Well its been a fairly lacklustre trial campaign with the only win vs a non-NRL Auckland side, the Warriors going down on Friday night away to the Manly Sea-Eagles 24-16.

As always one can't read too much into trial results as the teams try out a lot of subs and combinations and generally don't always play to win.

There little to add other than that this was Tate's first game in a Warriors jersey and Aidan Kirk and Hohaiha split duties at fallback.

As for me - I am doing a 10k run down at Clapham Common on Sunday so that should be interesting - and immediately following that I shall be flying out to Cairo for a series of meetings on Monday and Tuesday. Hope you all have a pleasant weekend - only two weeks to go until Warriors kick off Cleary Year III vs the Storm on a Monday night.

For a guide as to the Storm's current form (and latest squad) I note that the Storm are in the UK tonight to play in the world club challenge vs Leeds Rhinos. Strangely the NRL champs typically lose this game because of the jet lag and the timeing at the begining of the new NRL season but mid-way through the British season. Its a bit of a non-event actually as far as the NRL concerns, but that does not mean I don't I long for the day when the Warriors play in this game.

New Era for Hiho - or another false dawn?

Well the Warriors have strolled home in their second trial, winning 50-0 against an Auckland selection.

One of the talking points is clearly the fullback position and Cleary has opted for Hohaia to take the reins and he appears to have impressed, scoring two tries, albeit against half assed opposition who aren't at NRL level. So that is encouraging, but Hiho is a tough one to rely upon - inconsistent form is his hallmark. At his best, e.g. in his breakthrough early seasons he was unstoppable on attack and impressive on defense, a real star. However where has he been the last few years?

Several tries for players who are yet to acheive an NRL start including Kevin Locke which is a name which is started to turn up more and more. Maybe this guy can be the Warriors rookie sleeper for Cleary Year III?

Anyway the media is clearly of the view in Australia and NZ that the loss of Wade Mac seriously damages the Warriors chances this year. Check out this SMH season preview of the Warriors which has been carried by some NZ papers as well where Brad Walter generally says that "the Warriors boast perhaps the best pack in the NRL" and look improved by the addition of Tate but that the absence of Wade is a season killer.