KEY POINTS:
It's a select band of league players who can say they twice were Warriors. A band, in fact, of just four - Richard Blackmore, Tony Tatupu, Nigel Vagana and now, the franchise's returning second-rower, Logan Swann.
Few people were more surprised than Swann when, after three years in
the relative wilderness of Super League, the Warriors' third-highest appearance-maker was offered a chance to return to the club where he came through the junior ranks a decade ago.
With his two-year deal at Warrington nearing an end in October, Swann received a text from his manager Frank Endacott informing him of the Warriors' interest. After a brief chat with Endacott, the club emailed Swann a contract that he immediately signed and faxed back.
"It was the quickest deal I ever did," a lean, tanned, super-fit-looking Swann says, folding his angular frame into a chair in the boardroom of the club's Mt Smart Stadium headquarters.
He's not exaggerating. In late 2000, when current owners Cullen Sports took control of the club and cancelled the players' contracts, offering instead massively-reduced deals, Swann was the last hold-out.
While Stacey Jones broke ranks early to sign a new deal and Joe Vagana slammed the phone down on coach Daniel Anderson and headed for Bradford, Swann simply refused to sign and waited.
Eventually, on the eve of the new season, the club offered him a deal on a par with his original contract. Three years of relative success followed for both player and club. A first finals appearance in 2001 was followed by the Minor Premiership and a losing grand final tilt against Sydney Roosters. In 2003, Swann's final year before heading to England, the club made the major semifinal.
By that stage, though, the cracks were already appearing. The club he has re-joined hasn't threatened to make the play-offs since he left.
"I thought they would have kicked on and kept making the top eight," says Swann. "But there was a bit of a recipe for disaster looming."
The chief chef was Anderson, whose relationship with the players had soured. Anderson, who had worked miracles to turn the ailing club's fortunes around, had fallen out irretrievably with most of his senior players. A devotee of long-time Parramatta disciplinarian Brian Smith's coaching philosophy, Anderson believed he would get the best out of his players by never letting them feel too comfortable.
He was wrong.
"I just bit my tongue and kept it to myself," recalls Swann. "There was a lot of moaning among the players about the mind games Daniel was playing with individuals but we had fun with it. We would always laugh it off and take the mickey out of one another if we were called into his office.
"It was always going to come to a head but I didn't think it was going to go as bad as it did. I thought they'd continue to make the play-offs for at least the next two or three years."
But they didn't. Anderson tried to stop the rot by clearing out a number of senior players, most notably fan-favourite Ali Lauiti'iti. Eventually it was the coach who fell on his sword, followed by CEO Mick Watson. The departure of the Australian duo may have cleared the way for Swann's return, but it is an entirely different club he comes back to. Just six players from Swann's final year remain on the books, and two hadn't even made their first-grade debuts when he left.
"On my first day back in the country I went to watch the boys train at Glover Park and I thought, 'Man, who do I know here?"'
Those feelings of unfamiliarity quickly vanished. Swann is enjoying living back in the same Glen Innes house he occupied before, and popping round to his parents' place for meals.
And, after marking time for the last two years at a Warrington club dominated by a cabal of hard-drinking, soft-training senior players, he is thriving being back in a more professional set-up.
"I didn't learn a lot at Warrington. If anything, I went stale. I guess I was going through the motions a bit. There just weren't structures in place to bring out the best in individuals. It was a bit tough with some of the senior players in that team running amok."
Skipper Lee Briers, for example, once went AWOL for two weeks after a particularly heavy session. "The mental toughness, the professional culture and the winning attitude needed to get anywhere just wasn't there."
Given the clear-out that has taken place over the last three years, some would question whether re-signing a 32-year-old is a forward step. But coach Ivan Cleary, a teammate of Swann's during the successful 2001-2003 period, said he was a natural replacement in terms of experience and positional fit for the departed Awen Guttenbeil.
"It's also a nice thing to be able to bring back a guy who spent a lot of time at the club and who had a lot of success here to finish his career."
Not that Cleary's decision was based on sentiment. The second-year coach's preference for solid players who can follow instructions over more combustible types was evident last year when he sidelined Kiwis international Clinton Toopi in favour of the raw but steady Simon Mannering.
A prodigious junior who played three tests for the Kiwis before making his first-grade debut, Swann has displayed greater maturity in latter years, including a more judicious approach to offloading the ball - but he is unquestionably a flair player.
"I am still that player," agrees Swann. "You do try to play to the strengths and weaknesses of the team. With the players around me this year, if the opportunity presents itself, then I am going to look to offload the ball.
"We have got good support players in Wade McKinnon and Jerome Ropati and they are always going to be looking for that second-phase ball - and I'll be looking for them."
Which suits Cleary just fine. "I want him to play his natural game," he says. "That is part of the reason he was so attractive to us. He pretty much has all facets of the game covered and that's the sort of guy we like here."
Swann has also slipped neatly into a mentoring role with the club's younger players. "Sometimes, when you have been around for a while and played a lot of games, you get thrust into a leadership role, but Logan is really relishing it, so that is great," says Cleary.
Although impressed with the new management and coaching regime, and the abundance of young talent at the club, Swann won't be fully drawn on the team's prospects this year.
"I'd like to reserve judgement on that and let the team do the talking during the season. But we have some very capable individuals here. The mental toughness and professional attitude is good, so there is a recipe for success.
"It's starts at the top and there are some great people steering the ship. That is what you need in any sort of successful business. We are definitely training well, everyone is fit and healthy and the attitude is good. Take that into a season and anything is possible."
Having been relatively injury-free over the last three years - knee ligament damage suffered in a try-scoring debut for Bradford against Penrith in a world club challenge victory and a popped AC joint last year aside - Swann is confident his body will hold up to the rigours of the NRL.
If it does, he's hoping to have his one-year deal extended through 2008. And, if he does that, it's likely he'll pass Guttenbeil to sit behind only Stacey Jones on the club's all-time appearance list.
* The Warriors' community carnival week climaxes tomorrow when a trial line-up takes on the Auckland Lions side that will play in the Australian Premier League competition. The match, at Mt Smart Stadium No 2 ground, kicks off at 2pm.
Swann's Way
Born: December 10, 1975
Height: 1.93m
Weight: 111kg
Clubs: Otahuhu Leopards, Warriors, Bradford Bulls, Warrington Wolves
NRL: Matches: 134 (Third highest on Warriors all-time appearance list). Tries: 34, Goals: 1
Super League: Matches: 71, Tries: 23
Honours
* 2002 NRL minor premiership, Grand Final (lost to Sydney Roosters).
* 2004: (Bradford) World Club Challenge (beat Penrith Panthers), Super * League Grand Final (lost to Leeds Rhinos)
Kiwis
* (1996-2004) 28 matches, 3 tries.
* Played in 2000 World Cup final loss to Australia
* Note:Just six players remain at Warriors since he last played for the club in 2003 (Lance Hohaia, Wairangi Koopu, Jerome Ropati, Evarn Tuimavave, Epalahame Luaki and Louis Anderson)
