Why 2022 will make or break the Warriors
Mat Kermeen
Forget the ‘next year will be our year’ slogan, the Warriors need success right now before the ‘lets gone’ catchphrase becomes an unwanted reference to the club’s credibility as an NRL contender.
Where the Warriors finish this season will shape the future of the club. It really is that important.
That’s some serious responsibility on the current playing group, still reeling from the loss of fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, but it’s the reality of the club’s delicate Covid-19 induced situation.
Reports of teenage superstar Reece Walsh feeling uneasy over his future at the Warriors prove why 2022 is one of the most critical crossroads in the club’s 26-year history.
To cut to the chase, the chances of the Warriors winning the NRL in 2022 aren’t that much better than Liz Gunn reappearing on a 6pm mainstream news bulletin, but making the grand final isn’t the critical metric of success when you’ve only made the top eight once in the last decade.
But with one of its better rosters in recent memory, boosted by playmaker
Shaun Johnson’s homecoming, coach Nathan Brown’s Warriors need a finals appearance – that should be within reach – at the minimum to keep
attracting the recruitment targets the club needs to finally deliver its longsuffering fans a grand final victory.
Winning a finals match is a pass mark that will dramatically shunt the club back onto the tracks of success and help carry the kind of players the club needs, in 2023 and beyond, into town.
This isn’t just about Walsh. It’s about the next young group of emerging Australian stars – or established ones for that matter – taking the gamble to move their lives to New Zealand to join the Warriors.
If the team fail to make the finals – in their last season based in Australia – and Walsh wants out, what’s the selling point to other highquality Australian players?
The club has already landed former Warriors junior and Parramatta Eels forward Marata Niukore and Sharks half or fullback Luke Metcalf for 2023. If they miss the eight, Brown’s 2023 job security will be shaky at best, creating more uncertainty for potential signing targets.
Add in the complicating factor of Addin Fonua-Blake, Aaron Pene, Euan Aitken, Marcelo Montoya, Bayley Sironen, Ben Murdoch-Masila, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Matt Lodge having not lived in NZ during their time at the club. What if two or three decide it’s not for them, by next year? Especially in an NRL era where seemingly any contract can become null and void under the wide and varying ‘‘personal reasons’’ bracket. Some players can’t wait to be based back in Auckland, but there’s bound to be one or two who have fallen in love with either the Australian lifestyle, Australian partners, or the trappings of not traversing through international travel every other week.
If the club is struggling, will Lodge, who has a player option in his favour for 2023, choose to move his young family across the ditch?
If Metcalf can burst his way into a starting role at the Sharks under Craig Fitzgibbon, the Toby Rudolf backflip narrative will be at the forefront in every Warriors’ fan’s mind.
There’s also the ever-present threat of Redcliffe Dolphins recruitment manager Peter O’Sullivan – who held the same role at the Warriors until last October – peering through the fence. As always, the NRL transfer merrygo-round will be in full swing later in the year and the Warriors will need to attract new signings for 2023 without paying massive overs. On a low, it will be nigh on mission impossible but if 2022 brings a finals run in September, that conundrum disappears completely. Warriors chief executive Cameron George often talks about accountability across the playing group and football department and the truth is it’s never been more critical for the club’s future. Everyone loves playing for a winner and the Warriors need to show they can be that before leaving Australia.