Warriors abandoning plans to return home
AUCKLAND: The Warriors have shelved plans to return home in June and could be based across the Tasman for the remainder of the 2021 NRL season.
It is understood the club is working through the final details of plans to extend its stay in Australia for at least two months.
They are still hopeful of one or two games at Mt Smart before the end of the season, but they would be flyin, flyout matches, with both teams on New Zealand soil for only a few days.
The Warriors, who face Parramatta on Sunday in Brisbane as part of the NRL’s Magic Round, had earlier planned to vacate their Central Coast base after the round 15 match against Newcastle on June 19.
Players and staff would fly home in the days following the match, then start the process of reestablishing or, in some cases beginning, their lives in New Zealand.
The round 16 clash with the Dragons on July 2 was previously earmarked as the first Mt Smart match.
That idea is now firmly off the table.
There have been a series of meetings involving players, coaches, staff and senior management over the past two weeks to discuss and communicate the latest strategy.
While there had been some hope of a June return when the transtasman bubble was announced on April 19, that has been steadily extinguished.
The random Covid19 outbreaks in four Australian states since then have been an illustration of the ongoing uncertainty, and the hazards that would be involved in decamping from their Terrigal base.
It is a risk that the club is not prepared to take, given the drastic ramifications of being stuck on either side of the Tasman following a sudden border closure.
Coach Nathan Brown has also been heavily involved in the process, and is unlikely to want to risk uprooting the team, especially while it remains a strong contender for the top eight. —