Warriors left in the dust

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 have 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 to the club. 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 programs 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.