Why NZ franchises fail in Aussie leagues

We grinned smugly as the Wallabies crashed to successive rugby losses this year.

We sat glued to the Ashes, fascinated and grinning as the Australian cricket juggernaut was toppled.

A couple of hiccups at the top level of Australian sport provides a temporary panacea for New Zealand fans before returning to their painful week-in week-out medicine.

The Warriors recently ended near the cellar of the National Rugby League again, leading to a management cleanout.

And it may be early in their seasons but the Breakers and Knights find themselves stone cold last in the Australian basketball and soccer leagues. Some of the early pastings suggest they will keep hold of the wooden spoons acquired last year.

For so long the bigger Australian domestic competitions were regarded as an oasis by rugby league, soccer and basketball officials in this country. But reality quickly dawned.

Poor results and off-field problems have become regular fodder, coaches and management keeping the clubs' turnstiles busier than the often meagre crowds.

Some critics believe the Australian welcome mat has done more harm than good, pointing to the demise in status of New Zealand's own domestic competitions, starved of quality players and sponsorship.

So why are the three Auckland-based franchises, who with some restriction can pluck the best players from their country, bettered routinely at club level?

The commercial gulf between New Zealand and Australia counts most against the Auckland-based franchises according to Bill MacGowan -- a former chief executive for both the Warriors and New Zealand Soccer.

"We're starting from a base that's not comparable," he says.

"The size of the player base the Australians can pull from is just enormous. I don't know if the Kiwi public really understands that.

"And the commercial support for the clubs and the money that's there is way beyond what the New Zealand sport market can drag up."

It has forced all three to become privately owned, leaving them exposed if the bottom line isn't reached.

The Auckland Rugby League owned the Warriors when MacGowan was in charge and found they couldn't keep pumping money into the club. With those lessons learned, New Zealand Soccer under MacGowan forged a non-financial shareholding in the Football Kingz -- who preceded the Knights.

"Let's hope that private investors are happy with the results on and off the pitch. Then and only then will be when they keep investing money," MacGowan says.

In 11 years of rugby league toil, the Warriors remain title-less. They have reached the playoffs three times and only twice been a genuine premiership force.

Born in 1999, the Kingz opened with a couple of promising mid-table seasons under the guidance of the iconic Wynton Rufer but slumped. In a new competition this year their successors the Knights continue to struggle.

The Breakers are in just their third season but their prospects look grim given a roster featuring several of the Tall Blacks' best players came up well short in the first two.

Between the white lines, MacGowan believes the New Zealand teams were at a distinct disadvantage having to cross the Tasman every second week.

"People pooh pooh this but the travel is a huge, huge issue," he says.

"You expect top athletes to be performing at their peak when their body's telling them they should probably be asleep, it's incredibly difficult."

When it came to recruitment MacGowan found it was never easy convincing Australian stars to uproot their lives and move to Auckland.

Picking the right players was also crucial.

"For all these sports, the imports have to prove they're better than the locals. That's critical for fan base attraction and retention."

Former Kiwis coach and Warriors part-owner Graham Lowe says more Australians would cross the Tasman if it was to join a successful outfit.

Lowe reckons the biggest natural obstacle for the Warriors could also be infecting their soccer and basketball equivalents.

"Because of the one team-one country environment, they're big fish in a little sea," Lowe says.

"The clubs in Sydney are under totally different scrutiny. There are a couple of hundred journalists all looking for a different angle every day.

"The Warriors are removed from all that and any criticism often forces them into a siege mentality. That just doesn't happen in Sydney."

Lowe has personal axes to grind when addressing other problems at the Warriors but is convinced the club's recent cleanout can be nothing but a positive.

"They've disrespected and underestimated the value of football experience," he says.

"They've tried to solve football problems in a corporate way and it doesn't work."

The old chestnut that Australian sportspeople are simply a more competitive breed than New Zealand's, only riles up the Brisbane-domiciled Lowe, who has coached at varying levels in both countries.

"Kiwis are very competitive people as well," he says.

"That sort of phrase is often used as an excuse. I don't think there are any excuses for the way the team (Warriors) have performed."

MacGowan and Lowe say the answer to what ails the New Zealand franchises is simple -- win.

Auckland crowds have the potential to expand considerably, particularly at Knights games, MacGowan says, but they don't want to go home on a downer each time.

"You can be really smart outside the playing field, you can have all the sponsors and whiz-bang stuff but results are what put bums on seats. Now we just have to see them."

- NZPA