Fresh hope for Warriors, again
Time arrives for players to produce on the field, writes David Long.
The training is finished, the talking is almost done and at 4pm today a new era for the Warriors will begin.
There is always too much enthusiasm about how things might go before the first game of every new season for the Warriors.
Since 2009, that hope has lasted just 80 minutes.
But with Stephen Kearney as the new head coach and a more than useful bunch of assistants there’s a genuine feeling that target No 1 can be achieved at Mt Smart Stadium, which is to start a campaign off with a win.
Stacey Jones, who has moved from coach of the reserve grade NSW Cup side last year, to being one of Kearney’s assistants, feels that they’ve ticked every box they needed to in preparation for the game and indeed season ahead.
‘‘We believe we’ve done everything right,’’ Jones said.
‘‘There will be times in the game when your processes go off plan, but we feel that if we stick to what we’ve been training at it will help us put together a really good performance.’’
The Warriors looked impressive in their trial game against the Titans two weeks ago, winning 26-6 and since then they’ve looked to iron out the remaining wrinkles.
‘‘We focused on attack on Wednesday, defence on Thursday and kept things pretty tight and we’ve had the captains run (yesterday),’’ Jones said of the past week’s training. ‘‘The boys are pretty excited about playing at home, not over the top or anything like that, they just went about their business of the 30-40 minute captain’s run and made sure we stuck to what we’ve been doing for the last three to four months as far as pre-season training went.’’
The TAB has made the Knights $5 outsiders for this game and that’s not surprising given how dreadful they were last season, but if the public are writing the Knights off, Jones certainly isn’t.
‘‘What happened last year for them was about building,’’ he said.
‘‘They probably always thought they were going to have a tough year and it showed.
‘‘But they were able to blood kids in their team and get experience from that. What they did to Canberra [winning 44-0 in a trial game] was a real wake-up call for everyone in the comp, that Newcastle are going to be a good team.’’
Jones and former England coach Steve McNamara are in charge of the Warriors’ attack this season and key to how well the team go in this department will be the wingers, Tuimoala Lolohea and Ken Maumalo.
They’re both aged 22, but are different types of players. Lolohea can beat defenders with his ability to change direction quickly and pick the perfect lines to run. Maumalo is also fast, but his size means he can be more direct with
We believe we’ve done everything right. Stacey Jones
his attacking.
‘‘Both Ken and Tui have had really good pre-seasons,’’ Jones said.
‘‘A big focus in the pre-season was on what our backfield players did in bringing the ball back into play,’’ Jones said.
‘‘Ken is more robust with the ball and Tui has got more footwork and we’re excited that they’re going into round one with some good form.’’
The outcome of this contest will be hugely significant for their fans. A win breaks the seven-year streak of opening day losses, it shows the public that the team are heading down the right track and that there is a reason to be hopeful this year.
A defeat and the critics will be out in force and those three words that must infuriate everyone at the club will be heard again. And those words? Same old Warriors.