By PETER JESSUP
This time last season Graham Lowe was threatening to whip the Warriors with barbed wire and promising a top-eight position, and coach Mark Graham was threatening to resign if they didn't get one.
By comparison, the 2001 season is low-key, and the approach has certainly allowed the new management, and coach Daniel Anderson, to work quietly towards their goals without distraction.
Nothing wrong with aiming for the stars, but after four false starts it would have been a bit much for the new-look New Zealand Warriors to blow their own trumpet.
Their problems this season are evident:
* First-choice props Joe Vagana and Terry Hermansson have gone. Replacements Mark Tookey and Jerry SeuSeu and buy-ins Jason Temu (Knights) and Richard Villasanti (West Tigers) were fourth-choice.
* They lack a long-game kicker.
Combined result: they will struggle to make ground in their sets of six and will play too much of the game at the wrong end of the field.
They will be in worse trouble if Ivan Cleary can't stay injury-free, because the Warriors will need his goal-kicking accuracy, which is in the low 80 per cent range. That also assumes the great unrealised talent, Awen Guttenbeil, can at last make a full season.
There are big positives for this side, too:
* No expectation, no external pressure and, with Eric "The Wallet" Watson in the stands, no financial worries.
* Kevin Campion, the hard nut they've long missed (Graham would have been better off playing). When Dean Bell left after season one, the Warriors lacked a player who would call for the ball near the attacking or defensive line and tell his teammates he would show them where the opposition tryline was.
But Campion's a man who will, with his wealth of experience, two grand-final winner's rings and a tackle-your-heart-out approach.
* The centres look better than they have since Bell departed. David Myles was one of the great improvers last year, Richie Blackmore terrorises Australian defences with his size and Shontayne Hape is a promising talent.
Anderson has already signalled his intention to give local talent a run and has picked up some young, promising players who were shunned by the previous administration, most notably five-eighth Motu Tony and half Channerith Ly.
Others already there have to step up big-time this year, particularly Ali Lauiti'iti, who has the ability to break any defence from 10m out (and will need to this year because the Warriors could struggle to score), and Logan Swann, who has in the past tackled himself to a standstill and thus lacked on attack.
The biggest danger for this side is that they look to veterans Campion, Cleary and Blackmore, and the mercurial Stacey Jones, to do all the scoring work.
The second-row and back-row talent in Lauiti'iti, Guttenbeil, Swann, Campion and Jason Death rivals that of any club. They should link well off Jones and five-eighth Cliff Beverley, hit the opposition backs and off-load.
Beverley is in his preferred position after Graham thrust him to fullback last season, where he was found out under the high ball. He has worked hard to earn Anderson's respect and is reportedly best at the 20m-repeat "beep" test sprints, completing 15. He is sure to be targeted defensively by the opposition's big men, but in the past his problems looked more like lack of technique and confidence rather than nerve or ability. Much will depend on him.
The Warriors' record at home is 36 wins and one draw from 68 games. Last season they won six, lost six and drew one at Ericsson.
Their best hope for a reasonable season in 2001 is to turn that single statistic around, to turn Ericsson into the unpalatable cauldron it should be for visiting Aussies.
Last season the Warriors played 26 games for only eight wins. They lost six games by a margin of two points or less and drew two others. They didn't score a single drop-goal, but both the Wests Tigers and Parramatta stole games from them that way. The only sides they beat away from Ericsson were the lowly rated North Queensland Cowboys and the Northern Eagles.
They have a competitive squad, but depth will quickly become an issue should key players be injured.
But really, the Warriors' season will by September again have been decided by the bit that's been lacking since 1995 - the proverbial top two inches. It's crucial that they make a confidence-boosting start against Canberra, because only four of their first 11 games are at home.
* Prediction - 10th.
NRL teams - How they line up
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.