Chris Rattue: It's time for Warriors to use their only 'edge'

Eliesa Katoa and the NZ Vodafone Warriors after they lost their match against the Canberra Raiders in the NRL. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

I'm not sure if the prospect of the Warriors being given the honour of raising the curtain for our top sport is good or bad.

Should they be part of an NRL re-start in late May, it's a chance for them and league to dominate the deserted sporting stage.

But a team of empty promises playing in empty stadiums isn't the most enticing of prospects.

Here's a mission statement for the Warriors.

Whenever the wonky Warriors resume battle in the NRL they have one final card to play, and that's the way they play rather than making unrealistic title claims.

When Autex Industries' Mark Robinson acquired a stake in the Warriors in 2018, and made Trump-esque statements about the club's immediate title prospects, you could only wonder where he had been for the past 50 years.

"We expect to be in the finals each of (the next three) years, and we're expecting to get one, maybe two (titles)," was the quote of quotes.

Warriors owner Mark Robinson. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

Of course Robinson knows league well, his father having made Autex one of the game's most loyal and important sponsors.

So he would have known there is absolutely nothing in either New Zealand or the Warriors' past which suggest a league team from this country will ever come close to anything more than sporadic triumphs.

I was certainly among those who long believed the club could chariot the game into a new era of sustained success, but as a consistent top four club rather than hauling in endless trophies.

Clubs far better than the Warriors don't even rack up titles - indeed, the Roosters have just broken a long trend by winning two premierships in a row.

But I sadly gave up on the idea of a Warriors club living in the upper NRL echelons and changing the face of Auckland sport a while ago. The fact is, it just isn't going to happen.

The dream died, replaced by a hope the club survives, and finds a healthy niche based on harsh realities and hard work.

Which is an attitude I hope Robinson is adopting, at odds with his public profile.

Around the Auckland league scene, where he is an enthusiastic backer and supporter of the Pt Chevalier Pirates, Robinson is known as loud and proud.

Flamboyance and confidence has its place, but on the field it is hard won.

Over 25-plus years of quite outrageous ups and downs, the one consistent thing about the Warriors is that they have never had a consistent way of doing things.

Stephen Kearney talks to his players. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

The Warriors have had some marvellous players over the years, from Phil Blake skipping over the hard grounds in year one, to the magic of Ali Lauitiiti, the lost promise of a player like Sione Faumuina, the brilliance of Wade McKinnon and Brent Webb, the great Stacey Jones, and on and on and on. They've had a fair share of characters.

That's what this team must be about. That should be the mission statement.

The Warriors can't afford to play the sort of turgid football which has dotted the current era.

They've got to cleverly promote flamboyance, ball movement and star quality. It is their only edge, and the only way to draw a crowd.

The players themselves called on coach Steve Kearney to release the handbrakes after the 2019 season, according to elder statesman Adam Blair.

The major point is this. Playing creatively takes a lot of clever planning, great scouting, solid administration. Grand statements, player power and suddenly altered techniques give results that last for about a week.

The great things teams like Melbourne do have been years in the making. There are no shortcuts, just a lot of smarts and hard work.

And the Warriors have a fantastic example of what success is all about in Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, one of the most respected sports people in the land.

If ever the club has been given the chance of a re-boot, it is now, with the pressure to perform reduced by the new virus-dominated landscape.

The changes need to be clear, intelligent, consistent, deep seated and rooted in reality.

I'll have to be honest and say, from a distance, Robinson worries me as the sole owner. His overly bold initial predictions set the alarm bells ringing, and very loudly. They sounded like a lot of scary things from Warriors-land in the past. Nothing has allayed those fears unfortunately, particularly as the club has repeatedly missed out on good players they targeted.

We've had enough Warriors off-field drama and broken promises in a quarter century to fill a century. The NRL is a tough arena where talk is cheap.