I remember the best days of the Warriors, do you?

Who should the warriors sign?

Just had a great afternoon out at Piha. Its great to back in NZ. The weather over this xmas week has blown me away. This country has a lot going for it and the outdoors is a jewel in the crown that cannot be ignored.

As for the team, God knows who the Warriors should sign this offseason. They have the cap room to make a major move but should they go big now or wait till next offseason?

These are big questions with no clear answers right now. Paramatta clearly have a problemo and its name is Jared Hayne, too much talent located in one player wins games but eats salary cap space.

So we are talking about relatively big name Eels stalwarts like Luke Burt being on the trading block not to mention lower tier Eels players who are flying under the rader such as Krisnan Inu, who looks like a utility back of the future.

Development of Locke this year will be a an interesting thing to look forward to. Wade Mac will have to produce or will face an ignominious exit.

And if the xmas season has jaded you right out just sit back relax and listen to this.

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.