KEY POINTS:
Warriors CEO Wayne Scurrah is "100 per cent" certain there are no more skeletons in the club's closet.
Last year, two weeks before the season opener, the salary cap monster burst out of hiding to derail the side's chances before they'd even started.
"We are playing by the
rules," Scurrah said yesterday.
"All of the salary cap issues are totally cleared up. We are on cap or under cap."
Last year the Warriors were whacked with a four-point deduction and a $490,000 fine when an NRL investigation discovered the club had exceeded the cap for the previous two seasons, largely to lure skipper Steven Price and Kiwis captain Ruben Wiki to Mt Smart. The club never recovered, losing its first two matches to immediately slip off the play-off pace.
Voting with their feet, the crowds largely stayed away and the club tumbled to the bottom of the league's attendance table.
Things could hardly have looked more bleak.
"The night it all came out we were still at work at 2am just wondering how the hell we were going to get this club to survive," said Scurrah of the day the NRL's sentence was handed down. "We had a lot of apologising to do to people including our sponsors, fans and the NRL.
"Just trying to earn some respect back wasn't easy."
The club, which Scurrah admitted had lost touch with its fans and the league community, hit rock bottom by June, staggering to a four-win, eight-loss record at the mid-point of the season.
Last weekend's emphatic 36-6 thumping of the Bulldogs in front of more than 15,000 spectators points to a team in much better health. It wasn't a one-off result, either, with the club having won eight of their last 12 to finish with a 12-12 record, just those four penalty points outside the play-offs.
Today, confidence is high, with an almost palpable warm fuzzy feeling descending on an organisation Scurrah describes as "radically different" from the one that began last season in such disarray.
"We haven't won everyone over but ... we are probably ready to make a big mark in Auckland.
"Obviously we can do all the fancy promotions in the world but the easiest way of winning fans back is by winning games."