Warriors divide to conquer as team trains across two countries
At the end of each week of preseason trainingwarriors players based in Auckland and thensw town ofkiama gather to listen as the coaching staff read out GPS data for the two squads.
According to assistant coach Craig Hodges, whohas been working with the Australian-based players, it is one of the highlights of the week as each group wants to out-perform the other.
“They are loving the fact thatwe have another group in another country that is doing all thesame training and they compare times, and compare distance covered and metres-per-minute, and all of those things,” Hodges said.
“Eachweekwhenthe times goup from the othermobover the ditch, our boys can’t get there quick enough to see where they fit and, anything they win, they are very happy to point out to us.”
With border restrictions and a shortened pre-season leaving the Warriors little choice but to split the squad into Australian andnew Zealand groups until thenewyear, coach Nathanbrown and his staff have needed to be innovative.
Brownis inauckland with the majority of the squad and most of the club’s resources, while Hodges and fellow assistant Justin Morgan are overseeing training for upto 18 players at Kiama until the two groups cometogether intamworthon January 3.
At a teammeeting attended by Nrl.com this week, Hodges and Morganshowed the players vision from the previous day’s session and similar drills performed by the group training in Auckland.
“It has been good becausewe watch their clips and they watch ours sowecan keep track of thenew Zealand-based boys,” prop Kane Evans said.
“It actually makes itmorelike a competition so it is driving everyone to be a better player. All the footage is connected through an app andwe can just watch their sessions compared to ours.”
Evans is one of sevennewfaces in the Warriors squad for next season and all except Tongan forward Ben Murdoch-masila, whois yet to report for pre-season duties, were training in Kiama.
Former Dragons centre Euan Aitken still lives in Corrimal but stays at Kiama during theweekfor training, while forward Jack Murchie makes regular visits to his mother in nearby Gerringong and head of rehabilitation and athletic performance Mark Andrews is from Minnamurra.
“Never before has annrlsquad been split in half for pre-season so it is a unique situation but it has been enjoyable,” Aitken said.
“For me, going to anewclub, usually you’d have to meet40people on your first day but it has only been a small group so it has been easy to buildsome relationships and get around everyone.”
Hodges said having two smaller groupshad meant that trainingwas moreskills focused than usual, while itwasalso good for team bonding.