Saturday, November 2

Are the Warriors the dark horse for 2025?

After a celebrated 2023 season under Daily M Award-winning Coach, Andrew Webster, 2024 was a frustrating campaign for the New Zealand Warriors, unlike any they have ever experienced. But this along with several other factors means they will go into 2025 as the smokey of the season. Here’s why:

Leadership

The Warriors will boast an abundance of on field leadership, arguably the strongest since the days of Wiki and Price. Consider the fact that they already have captain Tohu Harris, and will now have Kiwis captain and four-time premiership-winning prop, James Fisher-Harris joining the squad. They also have former Warriors captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. Not to mention stand-in captain and State of Origin rep (and Warriors player of the 2024 season), Mitch Barnett. They also have Kiwi’s reps in Marata Niukore, Charnze Nicol-Klokstad, DWZ, and the ever-versatile former Kiwi, Dylan Walker. That is probably more on-field leadership and experience the Warriors have ever had. Wade Egan has also developed into a well-rounded leader, assuming he can avoid some of the concussions and niggly injuries that have plagued him for the past two years. Big tick. 

Close but no cigar

While the Warriors finished 13th, their season was not as bad as it appears on paper. Dig a little deeper and they were a few whiskers from making the top 8. They lost 7 games by 6 points or less (two of which were golden point), and one draw. Win half of those, and they’re in. For context, no other club lost that many games by six points or less, in 2024, or 2023. In fact, the Warriors have never lost as many games by such a slim margin in their previous 29 regular seasons in the NRL. That alone shows that the standards hadn’t dropped completely, and a bit more consistency in player rotation, leadership, and reffing standards, will see the Warriors being more competitive in 2025. 

Te Marie Martin

The Warriors attack floundered with an out-of-form Johnson losing most of his games, having been unable to train mid-week because of an Achilles injury.  Should the Warriors improve their attack, they win more games than they will lose. Te Marie Martin is a bit of an enigma, in the sense that he often doesn’t seem to follow the script, but he makes things happen. He won 5 of the 7 games he played at half-back in 2024, with the two games he lost arguably coming down to Harris-Tevita’s laughable kicking. With Johnson retiring and assuming Webster gives TMM first crack, and Metcalf with a pre-season under his belt at No. 6 alongside Martin, then the Warriors along with the leadership already mentioned, could not only cause a lot of upsets but go deep into the finals. Oh, and just to add a little intrigue to 2026, there’s a young 19-year-old training with the first-grade squad in 2025 who goes by the name of Jett Cleary. 

James Fisher-Harris

Regardless of whether he’s bestowed with the captaincy over Tohu or Barnett, what Fisher-Harris brings cannot be underestimated.  The mana, the standards, the tenacity, and steel he will provide in the Warriors defensive line is going to be huge. Would you argue with him? He may take a few games to learn the new playbook and find his feet amongst a group of new players, but once he does, Fisher-Harris will add immense value to shoring up the Warriors defensive line. The Warriors defence dropped from 2nd best in the comp in 2023 to second worst in 2024, based on how many tackles within their 20M zone before opposition scored a try. It fell from 21 tackles to 9. Resiliency under Fisher-Harris will help restore confidence and concentration. 

Headspace

In a NZHerald interview, Stacey Jones conceded, “I can’t go into too many details, but there were players having problems away from the game and probably not in the right headspace.” That‘s a very bitter pill for fans to swallow, after the fact. We’re generally oblivious to these private issues and it leaves one speculating as to the origin and nature of which players and possible issues he’s referring to. You can’t help look to the dramas surrounding Addin Fonua-Blake,

Or Dylan Walkers personal issues. But who knows? One thing seems apparent – Webster needs to get his house in order and in doing so, the Warriors will be better for it in 2025. Psychology and a growth mindset in sport is often a defining factor. 

Development

Covid impacted every NRL clubs player development but the Warriors took by far the biggest hit. Now with a season of development complete, we’re already seeing the likes of Leiataua, Sifakula, Helasima, Zyon Maiu’u, Taine Tuaupiki, and Graham Moala-Taufa all getting a taste of NRL in 2024, and the Warriors will be better for in in terms of their depth next season. Some of these players are only 20 years old if that. There are also the likes of Paul Roache and Kalani Going continuing to push for a spot. I like the look of Hanson who has a big boot on him too. And as mentioned, Jett Cleary is waiting in the wings. The future is looking bright and another pre-season will ensure these players are better for it and ready to take their shots if and when the opportunities arise. 

Officiating

Dear Jason Parish, please dust off your X account and get posting. Because in 2024, the Warriors were consistently on the end of some of the most dubious officiating in the club’s history – and that’s saying something. Bet your ass it made a difference having the likes of Parish calling it out in 2023. So let’s go, Denan Kemp! Some of the calls this season were unconscionable. Like… you must have just sustained a major brain injury to have made some of them. It wasn’t just the clangers though. It was the momentum killers and the sneaky 6 agains for no apparent or consistent reason. The Warriors were punished with the 6 again ruling which the captain can’t challenge and likely doesn’t have the time to get a decent ruling on in order to be able to. These calls usually come down to holding in the tackle, or offside, where the decisions are usually up to the referee’s discretion. I would say that if you went back over the season games, the Warriors would almost certainly have the biggest ten metres imposed against them by referees in comparison to their opponents, and usually suffered more 6 agains than their opponents in each game. If the Warriors can find ways to overcome the unconscious bias and get a higher standard of refs for the games, it will go a long way to providing them with a more level playing field. Because the standards in officiating for the Warriors and shithouse and their fans, management, owner, and players deserve better after the sacrifices they’ve made. 

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