KEY POINTS:
The Warriors are plummeting down the NRL table and if past form holds, the Mt Smart Stadium crowd figures will tag along for the ride.
Remedies are in short supply. The hopes raised by last season have, inevitably, been exposed as false.
The Warriors don't have a strong
enough squad for this caper - it was only their remarkable injury luck which gave them a leg up in 2007. What to do, because a drastic change of course is needed.
As a long time supporter of the local game it hurts to say this, but even a moderate reliance on players from this country isn't working.
After the tumultuous days of Mick Watson's stewardship, new chief executive Wayne Scurrah was brought in to create stability. A steadied ship is now becalmed with a violent storm approaching.
There are those within the club who feel they are still paying for poor management that preceded them, and this may be so. But the past is written in stone and can't be undone.
One specific question to the current management is this: Was it really wise to sign up three young forwards in Sam Rapira, Evarn Tuimavave and Epalahame Lauaki, when history says that the odds of finding genuine, NRL class troops within New Zealand are extremely slim. The Warriors could have spent more wisely and shopped across the ditch, yet continue to stock up from within.
You can only shake your head at claims that the new breed, the Russell Packers and co, might change the club's course, because there is nothing in the past that gives credence to this future.
Lauaki - error and penalty prone with little feel for the game - was the leading candidate to go. At last look, he was off to play in a local park.
Bugger parochialism. One decent Australian forward would have more than equalled two of those blokes, and that's how the Warriors and Ivan Cleary need to think from now on.
This is a judgment call, and certainly open to challenge, but the Warriors are a case where the coach is being let down. Cleary is a remote man from a media standpoint, not easy to warm to or evaluate. Perhaps persuaded by the club's location, he has been part of the local-dominated signings.
A guide on his coaching credentials though is that some players - and crucially they are mainly of Australian origin - have played superb and committed football under him while others appear lacking in the ticker and brains department.
A dismal attack against Cronulla was the nadir. Some of our blokes are more peace activists than warriors - they'd be more at home saving the whales than facing the Sharks.
Moreover, how many quality NRL players have the Warriors produced directly out of local ranks since 1995? How many have gone on to fabulous and longstanding careers here?
There was Stacey Jones but who else, and in Jones' case you could argue strongly that he would have been an even greater player if schooled at another club.
Whether it is the club's fault or there is something amiss in our DNA, I don't know? Ultimately, the reason doesn't matter - the best players emerge out of Australia and it is imperative the Warriors get more of them.
An interesting point is how genuine, top rank Australians have been welcomed in New Zealand at a club founded on controversial foreign signings. There isn't a more popular sportsman in the country than Steve Price, Micheal Luck just about owns the clubman of the year title, and Brent Tate is a Price special.
Tate has been another fine buy, a man who fights for every last centimetre in defence and attack. No wonder he needs whiplash protection.
More Australians are the only answer, for results and to set new standards which the locals will have to reach if they want careers here. If it's good enough for Simon Mannering, it's good enough for the rest.
The Warriors can't afford to keep sliding like this, which means they can't afford to keep dipping into a dodgy well.
The club's four finest players of the past two seasons have been Price, Luck, Tate and Wade McKinnon. Before McKinnon, there was Brent Webb.
There is a common thread there, and one that needs to be grabbed more firmly.
While watching these hit and miss products of New Zealand rugby league - with Mannering an exception - I often think back to my schoolboy hero Kenny Stirling. He wasn't outrageously talented, but he was the bravest of the brave.
At times Stirling almost carried the game in the dark 1970s, when many of those around him lacked the same dedication.
They virtually scraped Stirling off Carlaw Park so he could announce his retirement.
There were tough men who played the game in this land, the sorts who form the backbone of NRL squads. But apart from Mannering, I can't see any of them in Warriors colours now.
Quite frankly, the glittering rugby league talent pool that supposedly exists in this country is one of sports greatest misnomers. Very few bona fide Kiwis are making lasting, title challenging impressions in the NRL.
We actually produced higher quality players in the past, when our local competitions were much stronger.
There was just one Kiwi, Steve Matai, in last year's grand final starters. Even the much vaunted Sonny "Money" Bill Williams is suffering from a grandiose attitude.
At the opening of State of Origin telecasts, the broadcaster lists players' junior clubs - Mt Isa Townies, Redcliffe Dolphins, Goodna Eagles and so on. You get a sense of how important these places are for Aussie league.
You imagine little clubs and towns full of kids with big rugby league dreams and the desperation to match, guided and inspired by history, not to mention caring, demanding and knowledgeable coaches. These players are fired in tough environments, and only the very best fight their way to the top.
The Warriors need to scour Australia to secure the club's future, which will in turn give our best prospects - and I'd include the much-maligned monster Manu Vatuvei in this - quality surrounds to prosper in.
So, negotiate through the salary cap constraints, don't throw good money after bad through parochialism, quickly offload the obvious failures, and get at least three or four more high grade Australians here. In all seriousness, can anybody put up a reliable alternative?
* Is there anything more pointless than a debate about who did what to whom in a rugby scrum? The tit-for-tat argument between England and the All Blacks contains more boredom than actual scrums do. All is never what it seems in a scrum. Do we really believe that the All Blacks are saints or that England are not sinners. The day a coach declares his pack scrummed illegally is the day to believe him when he says an opponent did wrong. Scrum shenanigans are to be celebrated rather than analysed.
* Three cheers for Sean Fitzpatrick. The legendary All Black captain says the only way to maintain the status and quality of the All Blacks is to pick overseas players, that it is ludicrous for instance to send out a test team without Carl Hayman in it. Even more importantly, Fitzpatrick says giving favoured "sabbatical" status to players like Dan Carter threatens team ethos. The NZRU may ignore failed footy players like this columnist when it is suggested to them that maintaining individual rights protects team unity, but can it ignore one of our greatest rugby warriors on this. The answer: of course they can and no doubt will.
* What a golf tournament. What a player. The US Open, where Rocco Mediate and Tiger Woods had a sensational 19-hole playoff duel, was sport at its nerve jangling finest. This column has chipped at Woods because of his boorish behaviour. But fair play, the guy is a golfing genius, if that is not too weak a word. Injured and even written off, he endured for a 14th major title. His planning, dedication and talent is unsurpassed. Some of Woods' strongest challengers appear to have been dining out over-enthusiastically, while he is in prime shape. The Jack Nicklaus record of 18 majors is a cinch unless that knee is really stuffed.
* If Tiger ever takes a break, his Kiwi caddy Steve Williams could hook up with compatriot Michael Campbell, to give the former US Open winner's crashing career restorative starch. I jokingly suggested this to a Herald colleague. "Campbell should caddy for Steve Williams," came his gruff reply.
* A final word for Dutch football - may the men in orange triumph at the European championships. Skilful Dutch football has given the world so much, and every now and then they produce a team to die for. Holland are notorious bridesmaids though and you suspect a team that pressures their back four will succeed. But maybe this tournament will be a rare triumph.
