Chris Rattue: The hole is too big - time to close the failing Warriors down

Mike Hosking talks about the Warriors fan sale.

A famous letter from the Mt Albert club to Aussie league bosses was the spark which led to the formation of the Warriors.

Here's' another letter, to the NRL. The Warriors are detrimental to the game in this country, with no chance of rising from the ashes. The dye is cast, the future hopeless. It's time to shut down the club down, and let other NRL clubs and Aussie-based Kiwi stars blossom on this side of the Tasman again.

The insurmountable problems for the Warriors includes these: The best local players won't go there anymore, and the wider audience has gone. There will never be enough Australian players - those capable of turning the club around - willing to risk their careers here. The party, if there ever was a party, is over, as another ridiculously bad season drags to an end.

Sadly, the Warriors are in terminal decline, but will be allowed to dawdle on, wrecking dreams, sucking up the oxygen.

Significantly, owner Eric Watson - who was bullish when he took over as chairman early last year - has quit the post and is willing to sell the club.

It was also no surprise to read the Herald on Sunday claim that captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck may leave the club when his three-year contract expires next season. Warriors CEO Jim Doyle sold the former Roosters fullback a dream - Tuivasa-Sheck could help lead a league revolution in New Zealand. But RTS has been powerless to halt the decline and instead become part of the madness.

There are revolutions at the Warriors for sure - called ever decreasing circles. It's a crying shame.

The Warriors were set up for three primary reasons: to give local fans a professional club to follow, provide a great route into the Australian competition for the best local talent, and to capitalise on the new audience already uncovered by television coverage of the old Winfield Cup. What on earth could go wrong? Absolutely everything, as it turned out.

Here's a question: If Sonny Bill Williams had gone to the Warriors, would he have ever become the Sonny Bill Williams he turned out to be? Answer: Possibly, because he was that talented, but possibly not.

Just as importantly, would Jesse Bromwich, Issac Luke, Alex Glenn, Tohu Harris, Sam Kasiano, Adam Blair, Jason Nightingale, Shaun Kenny-Dowall etc. etc. have all made it as stars in the NRL had they started off at the Warriors. Answer: No chance.

Here's another one: How would Shaun Johnson be regarded had he gone to a club like Manly or Melbourne or Brisbane? Answer: An NRL superstar, a potential all-time great, rather than the befuddled magician who remains at the Warriors.

Auckland has proved too much of a comfort zone for most players, after floating through the junior ranks. Simon Mannering - recruited out of schoolboy rugby union in Nelson- is simply a rare exception to the home grown rule.

I have followed and loved rugby league for five decades, initially fired by the exploits of the 1971 Kiwis, and drawn in by Des White's atmospheric, croaky-voiced radio commentaries of club games.

The 1970s turned into tough times for league, but it's hard to remember the game being in a sadder state than right now.

There is so much rot in the Warriors woodwork they will never build a squad which can win enough games in Australia to challenge for a title. Endless mismanagement has turned what should have been a jewel in the crown of New Zealand sport into its biggest single failure, a hopeless NRL straggler.

Rugby continues to leave an inviting gap in Auckland, and the Warriors continue to find a hundred different ways not to take it. The trouble is, the hole is so deep now, they will never get out.

So let the club slide into oblivion.

There are plenty of Australian clubs willing to host games in New Zealand, and those matches can replace the Warriors as a league presence and give Kiwi sports fans a smorgasbord of NRL games to watch live.

If each club put in a special effort over here, kids and other fans could have more contact with their heroes than currently occurs with a local team.

The only other option I can see is relocating the Warriors to Australia while still playing "home" games in New Zealand. Finding a location would be the tricky part, because Sydney is over-stocked with NRL clubs. But it's a concept worth considering. As for the Auckland-based Warriors, the game is up. It's a dead-set tragedy.