Warriors set to bloom as rugby leaves defence hole
Takeover good move but not if it’s the ARL I can’t wait for a takeover. But no one gets filthy rich owning a NRL club. Presumably Fale realises that.
It’s game on if the energeticsounding Hawaiian businessman Richard Fale buys the Warriors, because the door is still wide open for league to become the dominant sport in Auckland.
If it all stacks up, I can’t wait for a flamboyant American-Tongan takeover. It could be exciting.
New Zealand rugby’s failure to prioritise a successful Blues team might make sense to Super Rugby boffins, but as a business decision it is borderline negligent. Rugby has spent years inviting league to become the footy code of choice in the biggest and commercially strongest region.
After a great start by Steve Kearney’s team in 2018, and a major ownership change in the offing, it feels as though the Warriors are finally responding to rugby’s generous invitation. Much of the positivity must be linked to their brilliant young captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, already perhaps the club’s greatest signing.
His early elevation to the captaincy was an insightful move by coach Kearney, and the inspiration and momentum Tuivasa-Sheck has been giving the side from fullback is staggering.
From a distance, it also feels as if new CEO Cameron George is finally providing the hard-headed, clearsighted leadership this usually woeful club has been crying out for.
No promises here, and the Warriors are more than capable of making a joke out of positive predictions, but something seems to be brewing in Penrose where new fitness man Alex Corvo has whipped the slackers into shape.
It goes without saying that the All Blacks will be the dominant sports force in the foreseeable future, but rugby has left a yawning canyon in Auckland when the test team is in hiatus.
Trouble is, the Warriors have spent most of their history digging a mighty big hole for themselves.
Enter Fale, a Utah-born Hawaiian politician, whose consortium is apparently ready to stump up $24 million for the Penrose plodders from Eric Watson.
Hallelujah. This is what professional sport is all about, and a dose of American sporting values would be great in our land. We’ve been beaten down and conditioned by the boring Kremlin-style rugby system — dominant rugby behaves as if its audience, the whole country, owes the game a living.
And the thought of the Auckland Rugby League — Fale’s rival for the Warriors ownership — taking control of the NRL team should send shivers of fear through the sports community. It would be a disaster for the amateur arm of this sport, via trust money, to start running the only professional club.
Here is one major reason why. The Warriors now have quality players built and honed by Australian clubs in three of the four key positions. Building a team around established NRL players from other clubs should become enshrined in the Warriors’ way of doing things.
You can bet your bottom dollar the ARL believes otherwise, and league scribes tell me it wants the local competition to eventually replace the Warriors reserve grade team.
There’s another, more emotional, reason I hope the ARL doesn’t get near the club. The thought of Warriors owner Watson scooping $20m out of the local coffers is sickening.
Watson may have “rescued” the Warriors in 2000 but he also got the deal of the century, the New Zealand Rugby League even throwing $150,000 his way when Cullen Investments acquired 75 per cent.
Eighteen years on that same club, which is in a similar state to when it was virtually given away back then, is worth around $24m, according to Watson. That sums up the sorry incompetence of local league administrators.
Those Carlaw Park trust millions should be used smartly to secure and strengthen local league, not handed over to Watson.
Bottom line: Auckland league can aim to produce Warriors players whether it owns the Warriors or not.
Watson wasn’t always a terrible owner — the fans were let down a lot of the time by those who ran and played in the football team. His ownership era got some things dead right such as the appointment of director John Hart, the rugby icon, who was crucial to the eventually successful Ivan Cleary reign.
But Watson has to take significant responsibility for the constant failures and some of the club’s truly crazy behaviour.
He wasn’t a dynamic or visionary owner and was often overseas, his stint as hands-on chairman revealingly short-lived. And I’m among those who — with the benefit of hindsight — believe that personal gain, rather than a well-constructed desire to drive the Warriors ahead, was behind his ill-fated partnership with Owen Glenn.
Watson wanted the kudos and benefits but his heart wasn’t really in the club ownership.
This is because Watson, in the final analysis, is a ruthless businessman. NRL clubs are relatively bullet-proof by world standards thanks to the combination of a low salary cap and reasonable NRL grants. But no one gets filthy rich owning a NRL club. Presumably Fale realises that.