Keep the faith ‘T

his will be the greatest story in rugby league,” Warriors CEO Cameron George said in an email to Australian Rugby League Commission boss Peter V’landys this week as his side prepared to embark on one of the stranger chapters in the sport’s history.

If everything goes to plan, the Warriors will today take a chartered flight, carrying 50 players and staff, to Australia, where they will be based for many months as they compete in the pandemic-hit NRL.

The intended NRL restart date is locked in for May 28.

Two rounds have already been played and there will be 18 more, with all teams playing each other once, plus five additional games.

A lot has happened — or in the case of the sporting world, not happened — since the Warriors last took the field, a round-two 20-6 defeat in Canberra on March 21. After two defeats, they sit 15th in the 16-team competition with just one try in 160 minutes of action.

They were long odds to win a maiden NRL title before the season. They must be even longer if the season gets back under way and the NRL becomes the first professional sport to restart in a post-Covid world.

In a strange way, this could work in the Warriors’ favour despite facing a situation similar to the Crusaders, who had to play away from Christchurch after the devastating 2011 earthquake, including a game in London, in a remarkable run to the Super Rugby final.

The Warriors won’t play a home game this season, it seems.

The difference is that the Crusaders are perennial winners and the Warriors are . . . well, not. Could this situation change all that?

“I feel like our club is being asked to do something no one in the world is doing anywhere,” George told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking on Thursday.

“This has galvanised the mindset of a lot of people in our club. It’s different and maybe that’s what we need. For 25 years, the normal approach hasn’t been a great success for us.”

As the old club mantra says — it’s a matter of faith.