Warriors packing prime beef
Club harking back to glory days with athletic monsters in the middle who can get team going forward
The Warriors have assembled the NRL’s biggest roster in a back-to-the future plan they hope will end with a repeat of one of the most successful campaigns in club history.
Nathan Brown’s 2021 squad has been bolstered by 342 kilos of primerib props in the form of Addin FonuaBlake (118kg), Ben Murdoch-Masila (114kg) and Kane Evans (110kg), along with the return of towering wingers David Fusitu’a and Ken Maumalo.
Flying in the face of predictions the NRL’s latest rule changes and sixagain shake-up would lead to smaller players being prioritised, the Warriors will have nine players tipping the scales at more than 110kg this season.
It will be the most of any club by some margin, with Manly (seven), Wests Tigers and Cowboys (six), Melbourne, Brisbane and Parramatta (five) following next in the big man stocks.
Veteran recruitment manager Peter O’Sullivan points to both
Melbourne’s monster forwards last season and the Warriors’ heydays of serious size meeting skill as a catalyst for the “conscious decision” to bulk up.
The Warriors’ most successful era came at the turn of the century when the likes of Ali Lauiti’iti, Awen Guttenbeil, Jerry Seuseu, Richard Villasanti and Mark Tookey ran riot en route to the 2002 grand final.
Those athletic big men were marshalled by champion half Stacey Jones and backed up by hulking outside men Francis Meli and Clinton Toopi, a recipe O’Sullivan has looked to replicate ahead of Brown’s first season in charge. “Everyone keeps saying the Warriors are a big team based on history, but last season we were tiny,” O’Sullivan told NRL.com.
“We had to change our body shapes and become like the Warriors teams that have had success, those teams with big athletic players.
“Talking about players like that 2002 era, Ali
Lauiti’iti, Jerry Seuseu, they were big sides and you’ve got to go back a fair way to find a big team and a consistently successful team.
“We just weren’t a big team, we’re looking to become more Warrior-like.
“We’ve got big athletic forwards and our big monster wingers out wide.
“Then there’s the creative little fellas and a champion fullback, I think we’ve got the mechanics of the team that we want now and we’ve got that right.
“Now it’s about putting it out on the field and playing for each other.”
O’Sullivan said the NRL’s addition of six-again restarts for offside infringements and other changes aimed at speeding up the game “aren’t a concern at all” given the Storm’s big men set the benchmark once more in 2020.
Melbourne’s premiership was powered by Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Jesse Bromwich, Christian Welch and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, all of whom weigh in at more than 110kg, a mark Tui Kamikamica and Darryn Schonig also top.
As one of the game’s elite props, Warriors star recruit Fonua-Blake also boasts the ability to play 60-odd minutes in the middle.
New Zealand test veteran Tohu Harris regularly churns through 80 minutes, efforts that rising backrower Eliesa Katoa also matched in five of his 13 games last year.
Having Fusitu’a and Maumalo available once more is a significant boost to their go-forward coming out of trouble, after both left the Warriors’ Central Coast base midway through last season on personal grounds.
“Have a look at the team that won the competition, and the teams that went deep in the finals last year, they’re big teams,” O’Sullivan said.
“You obviously don’t chase just size, you chase size with a big motor.
“We’ve got players like Tohu Harris who can play 80 minutes in a heartbeat in the middle if you have to and that allows you to change up an edge if you have to.”