Warriors bidder eyes culture change

Paul Davys says he’ll fix the Warriors culture problem if he becomes their owner, and has given Eric Watson a deadline of Friday to accept his offer.

The Auckland businessman went public on Sunday that he wanted to buy the NRL club from Watson, who has owned the club to some degree for 17 years.

Davys has been in negotiations with Watson for a while, but says he needs to know one way or the other by Friday on whether Watson will accept his offer, or he’ll walk away.

‘‘I will know by the end of the week whether Eric has accepted my deal,’’ Davys said.

‘‘If he hasn’t by the end of the week then it’s probably better for the club and myself to move on.’’

Davys has a large stake in the childcare company ChoiceKids, but says if he does buy the Warriors he plans to be hands on.

First priority for him would be to improve attitudes at the club.

‘‘I look at the Warriors and see that there’s a culture problem there,’’ he said.

‘‘There’s no doubt about that, I think any rugby league fan can see that, the current coaching staff can see it, the players can see it.

‘‘But it’s hard to change a culture if you don’t know how and sometimes you can end up scratching your head on what to do.

‘‘But I think I’ve got a fair idea and a fair amount of knowledge on how to build a culture, so that’s what I can bring.’’

Davys is a man who knows his league, while his business partner at ChoiceKids is NRL player agent Peter Brown.

If he does buy the Warriors it’s unknown where that would leave managing director Jim Doyle, who also has a 10 per cent stake in the club.

It could also mean that Stephen Kearney won’t be around next year.

Davys would look closely inside the club to see what’s been going wrong and said he’d need to have a sit down with Kearney. ‘‘I don’t know Steve,’’ Davys said. ‘‘I know he’s passionate about the club, that he’s been the Kiwis coach and has worked under some great coaches.

‘‘So you can only assume that Steve has a fair amount of knowledge in coaching.

‘‘But until I sit down with Steve and we haven’t sat down and talked yet, I’m in the dark.

‘‘I just know that the Warriors aren’t winning and there’s a need for a culture change and whether that’s Steve’s fault or not, I don’t know.’’

Few people would have known much about Davys until it came out on Sunday that he’d made Watson an offer.

He says he’ll still be a ‘‘Neville Nobody’’ until the deal goes through, but he didn’t have any problem with it coming out that he was interested.

‘‘I think it needed to be done because there was a lot of noise coming out from behind the scenes, so coming out is fine,’’ he said.

‘‘We’ve been honest with what’s happening and I’ve been honest with my intentions.

‘‘The Warriors has the palm of New Zealand rugby league in its hands, so it needs to be healthy and doing well.’’

Davys would be involved in the daily activities of the Warriors and says his desire to get involved isn’t solely driven by making a profit.

‘‘Any businessman doesn’t want to lose money, but I don’t think you look at the Warriors as just a business,’’ he said.

‘‘There’s a duty of care to the rugby league community to make sure we’ve got something young kids and even adults are aspiring to. So there are young kids wanting to play there and adults wanting to watch.

‘‘It’s one of those businesses where you’ve got to have one hand on your wallet and one hand on your heart.

‘‘Having an owner-operator in there working in the business naturally increases productivity and maybe there is an opportunity to make some profit out of it.’’