McFadden asked to tackle defence

Warriors coach Stephen Kearney has paired himself up with the man he replaced, Andrew McFadden, to fix arguably the club’s biggest problem area: defence.

Given McFadden was demoted to an assistants role after the Warriors crashed out of finals contention in 2016, such an arrangement may appear awkward to those outside the club.

But the reality is that Kearney has always been on board with ‘Cappy’ remaining at Mt Smart.

Kearney also has Warriors legend Stacey Jones and former England boss Steve McNamara on his coaching staff, who have been tasked with shaping the attack.

But Kearney and McFadden have their work cut for them on the other side of the ball, with the Warriors the third worst defensive team in the NRL last season, leaking more than 600 points and 101 tries.

‘‘We’ll sit down and go through it as a coaching group but I’ve made it so it’s Steve and Stacey’s responsibility to look after the attack and myself and Cappy to look after the defence,’’ Kearney said.

‘‘We need to improve on every aspect of our game, particularly the defensive part of the game, and it’s been a real focus for us over the last four weeks.’’

Since his appointment in September, Kearney has regularly spoken about building a culture that fosters success. That starts by setting the benchmark high on the training paddock and after almost a month of pre-season, the former Melbourne and Brisbane assistant coach feels the players are responding well to his ideas.

‘‘I’ve been pretty fortunate to be in some clubs that I think have pretty good cultures and know what winning looks like,’’ he added. ‘‘So for me it’s about having a certain standard and behaviours that go with that and making sure that we’re all striving to achieve that standard every time.

‘‘And the guys, I must say, have been really receptive. I think everyone, yourself [the media], the fans, players, we all want the best for the football club so it’s been a process where they’re all keen to want that to happen.’’

Apart from the Kiwis contingent, most of the squad has resumed pre-season and prop Albert Vete has certainly noticed a change in mindset at training.

Kearney made it clear what was expected of them on day one and Vete says everyone has been working hard to impress the new coach. ‘‘Everyone’s fighting for a position because we’re not too sure with what ‘Mooks’ (Kearney) is going to do with the team,’’ Vete said.

While star signing Kieran Foran was present at training yesterday, there was no update on his contract situation with the club still working with the NRL to register his one-year deal.