Key figures need to take ownership at the Warriors

It’s easy to write the Warriors off in 2020 but there is one change that could be their saviour, writes former Kiwis, Queensland and Manly coach Sir Graham Lowe in the first of his regular columns for Stuff.

It’s pretty easy to write the Warriors off in 2020. After all, most of the time during the 2019 season they looked like one of the worst teams in the competition and wouldn’t have looked out of place with the wooden spoon.

What will be different for the fans this year?

The Warriors’ recruitment has been left in the dust by other clubs and has not secured any marquee signings. This will have disappointed many fans. So at first glance, what has improved? I would say nothing.

But there has been one very big change – it is starting this season with Autex as the sole owners.

Last year there was a joint ownership arrangement between Autex and the Carlaw Heritage Trust, which is an arm of the Auckland Rugby League. Like many others, I watched this joint venture closely hoping to see a visible change at the club because surely there needed to be change.

What I saw was no change and then a short marriage ending with divorce when Autex made their move. And nothing can compete with the emotion of rugby league ownership battles.

But out of the ruins of this battle the Warriors’ future might have been made more solid than ever before.

Autex breathes an expectation and a fire in the belly rarely, if ever, seen over the last few years at the club.

In case some see my comments as a conflict, I need to lay my cards on the table and tell you Autex used to be a sponsor of the education programmes my business delivers.

However, this sponsorship ended last year.

But back to my point about fire in the belly. Autex owner and chief executive Mark Robinson and their managing director Rob Croot are both men who will be expecting success. They will not shy away from tough decisions should they need to be made. Some of these tough decisions may come earlier than expected.

This will give some at the club little time to improve. But they are lucky at the moment because I would guess the honeymoon period is still happening for Autex. This is understandable because it is easy to like good people and the club is full of good people.

Head coach Stephen Kearney is a great person, as are his coaching staff.

But the Warriors need someone to become a great coach and there can be no doubt the acid test is on Kearney this season.

As far as the players go, like previous years there are plenty of good players. However, what these players need is someone to bring the best out of them. Autex have shown faith in the coach to do this and I hope for Kearney’s sake he can.

The key player for me is Adam Blair. He’s the sort of guy I would have liked in any of my teams back in the day. He’s tough, skilled and has flair. On his day he is capable of matching it with any of the forwards in the NRL. Sure, he may be getting to the end of his career, but it is still in him to lead from the front.

Consistency may have been an issue with Blair over the last year or so and this is an area where I’d like to see Kearney’s influence by demanding it of his experienced forward. The coach must get the best from his players, whatever it takes.

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is a genuine match-winner and it is important he remains injury free because without him on the field, it is hard to see the Warriors beating anybody.

But what I am most hoping for is an improvement on how they play the game. I’m looking for innovation and flair. This is the only way forward.

Every Australian club in the NRL will have improved during the off-season. That’s what they do. It remains to be seen if the Warriors have improved and can finally deliver on their potential.