The PNG Government is behind this bid in a big way:

PNG Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has also pledged $10 million to help build a new stadium in Port Moresby and a further $250,000 to assist the PNG bid team, headed by Gold Coast chairman and veteran league official Paul Broughton.

It’s true to say that there are plenty of competing bids from within Australia – Central Coast, Central Queensland and a second Brisbane side, not to mention outposts such as Adelaide and Perth.  Also not to mention a second NZ team but more on that later.

The usual mantra WIIFM applies.

As far as the NRL is concerned, the answer could well be “plenty”:

PNG Minister for Sport Philemon Embel wrote to Gallop saying: “The passion of six million PNG people for rugby league is undisputed. Unlike the Australian-based possible expansion teams, a PNG team will increase revenue to the clubs.

“The New Zealand Warriors increase revenue to the NRL by at least $10 million a year. PNG would do the same.”

This last point is something that our retard … oops, retro friends across the ditch forget when they call for the Warriors to be kicked out of “their” National League.

It’s not just a case of ditching the Warriors (boom boom) but losing ANOTHER team – the Warriors pay their way along with another team.  Or should that be we pay, largely through Sky.

I can’t see the Kumuls flying soon but it certainly would add another dimension to the NRL plus yet another weak team that the Warriors can lose to.

Not that many sleeps to go until the real rugby season starts.

After a dire season in 2009, the Warriors are clearly (or should that be Cleary?) trying to make some changes.

The big one of course is replacing Steve Price as Captain. Reading the press, you’d think someone had shot the guy.

Yep, he’s an icon, but he’s 35, still wants to play Origin, and is starting to reach the stage where injuries are becoming more frequent.  He won’t be around in 2011.  He’s yesterday’s man.

Simon Mannering is 23 and the future of the Club.

It would be a no brainer if Pricey wasn’t the most loved Aussie in NZ since … since … . Ever.  (There is no other!)

The press are all over this like the swine flu in both NZ and OZ.  The Daily Telegraph has tried to make it an issue to generate some web traffic:

THE Warriors have sacked Steve Price as captain.

Price is a champion player, leader and bloke.

The decision is a disgrace.

That’s subtle.  No mention of the facts about his age, his SOO commitments etc.

Interestingly, Dean Ritchie is getting some back on this one:

This is simply called succession planning, the hallmark of smart team management, and an excellent strategy in developing team harmony.

Not that disgraceful after all.

Mate you must be deadset kidding yourself. Its the best decision for the club. What happens next year when he retires and we’re left with no captain? The club is bigger then any 1 player and I don’t care who they are or what right people think they may have. He is a champion player, bloke and leader but we need to prepare our next leader/s. If that means he loses the captaincy in his final year then so be it. He needs to man up, get out of the papers and just concentrate on preparing the Warriors and Simon Mannering for a future without Steve Price.

You go mate!

Not everyone agrees of course:

Often at the same time and in the same place.

So you might be surprised to find out that barely a month after the 2009 NRL Grand Final, the Warriors are among a number of teams back in “pre-season training” for 2010.

It was only 29 days ago when 3.6 million television viewers tuned in to watch Melbourne beat Parramatta in the Grand Final. The first cricket Test of the summer is 24 days away from starting, yet the Sydney Roosters, New Zealand Warriors and South Sydney will this morning start training for their 2010 campaigns.

Yep, Xmas is still almost two months away and the first round of 2010 NRL is around 4 months away and the poor bastards are busting their guts.

Don’t worry, but Ivan will give the boys a couple off days off over Xmas:

Former Cronulla five-eighth Brett Seymour will start training today with his new club in New Zealand, but Warriors coach Ivan Cleary has arranged for his players to have another short break over the Christmas-New Year period.

Let’s just hope the Warriors didn’t organise a piss up for the new boys!

Someone from the Warriors should be taking notes.

You do have to wonder about whether there was ever any chance of Steve Kearny becoming the Warriors coach.

As for the Eels, they went well beyond what could have reasonably been expected, coming from 8th to play in the Grand Final.  In doing so, they went one better than the Warriors history breaking effort in round one of the playodds last year, ironically beating the Storm.

Speaking of irony (no, not Tony) it shouldn’t be a complete surprise that the Eels’ style of play has been compared to the Warriors of 2002 who – it must be said – fell one at the final hurdle.

Daniel Anderson clearly is more than a capable coach and appears to have learnt a little to relax a little more from his stint at St Helens.

Let’s hope the Warriors backroom boffins take note – playing an open game doesn’t need to at the expense of making it into the playoffs.

In fact, the reverse is the problem with the Warriors – if you’re to miss out on the playoffs, then you really need to give the fans something to cheer.

Let’s hope the lessons from 2009 are well learnt at Warriors Central.

Mind you, a bad season for the Warriors is the equal of a good game of rugby these days.

In particular, one of the big issues has been the Warriors drop out of the top 8 and to the bottom of the ladder, although safely out of reach of the wooden spoon.

(As bad as the Warriors have been in the past, that’s one award that has thus far eluded the Club).

So let’s check out last year’s Top 8 and compare with this year’s position.

1. Storm – 4th in 2009  – down 3 places
2. Sea Eagles – 5th – down 4 places
3. Sharks – 15th – down 12 places
4. Roosters – 16th – down 12 places
5. Broncos – 6th – down 1 place
6. Raiders – 13th – down 7 places
7. Dragons – 1st – up 6 places
8. Warriors – 14th – down 6 places

The biggest winners were

• Bulldogs – up a massive 14 places from 16th to second
• Titans – up from 13th to 3rd, 10 places

So as bad as the Warriors year has been, they are by no means the worst and indeed the Roosters and Sharks fall has been most spectacular.  Arguably, the Raiders performed worse than the Warriors based on the places at the end of the normal season going down 7 places to the Warriors six.

Part of the explanation is not performance per se but expectation – the Warriors ended up one game away from the GF in 2008 after a history making run in the play-offs.  This lead to massively inflated expectations (which no-one, the Club included, denied were unreasonable).

What the stats show is one thing most journos won’t add to their dissection of the Warriors’ woes – the salary cap is designed to ensure that the same teams don’t dominate season after season and massive changes in results is to be expected.

Indeed, you could argue that the salary cap actually penalises the teams that are consistent and achieve regularly as they struggle to retain their players under the cap.  The Storm and the Broncos have managed to do so by smart recruitment and savage cutting of players when they have to.

Another feature of the Warriors this season has been the strong emergence of the Kiwi players (not Kiwis players, but NZ players playing for a NZ team).  A legitimate criticism of some of the successful Warriors teams in the past has been the number of cheating Aussies in the side – hopefully, in future seasons, the Warriors can succeed with a largely NZ-made team.

I’m not trying to argue that this season wasn’t intensely disappointing.  Rather, the Warriors’ woes need to be put into the context of a competition that ensures snakes and ladders each year through the use of the salary cap.

The season started so well.  A scratchy but deserved win over the Eels (who admittedly didn’t look all that flash at the time) then a great win over Manly.

Stacey was back, the Warriors were motoring, and we could feel the premiership in our grasp.

Then the wheels fell over, the exhaust got munted, and the engine blew into a kazillion of little pieces.

So what went wrong?

Losing more games than we won is a helpful starting place but Steve Deane at the Granny identified 10 things that went wrong for the Warriors:

1. The Jones Factor

2. The tragic loss of Sonny Fai

3. Wade’s Woes

4. Tate that (the loss of Brent Tate)

5. Denan Kemp

6. Ch-ch-changes

7. Mid-season exits

8. Steve Price

9. Not scoring enough points – doh!

10. Coach Cleary

All pretty obvious and reasonable to be fair.

Deane doesn’t excuse Jones from criticism:

As the team’s guiding force and playmaker, Jones has to carry the can for its deficient attack. He didn’t create much himself and he failed to draw much creativity from those around him.

However, he does acknowledge that Jones is not the root problem:

By punting the likes of Grant Rovelli and Nathan Fien mid-season, the Warriors put all of their eggs in the Jones basket. That was the real mistake.

In fairness, when the Warriors played urgent passionate and committed football – as they did in Round 2 v Manly – then Jones looked every bit like the legend he is.  The rest of the year reflected the team effort, not Jones.

For that matter, consider the fact that the two undeniably best halves in the game – Benji and Thurston – won’t even be playing in the semis.

I think the big question mark is now on Cleary.  The first couple of years all went to script ie get into the semis.  (They would have in year 1 except for losing points for the salary rort leftovers.)

However, it would seem reasonable to assume that Clearly made the decision to boot Witt, Rovelli, and then Fien.  He also has to take responsibility for the overall failure of the new recruits to “make a difference”.  Although, to be fair, Moon is starting to land on his feet.

Who knows, Cleary could have benefited from getting the boot instead of an extensions – it doesn’t seem to have done Daniel Anderson any harm.

But if the Warriors fail to make the finals next year, Anderson may be dishing our interview tips to his former fullback.

Bulldogs 10 – Warriors 4.

At least two dodgy decisions so far.  In fact, the Warriors haven’t had the ball since they were on attack and a knockon was incorrectly ruled.

Heremaia off, Henderson on.

What if Heremaia played for the OTHER team?

Heremaia was a Bulldog

Was a good friend of mine …

Bulldogs have all the possession, momentum, penalties, referees etc

Bulldogs mistake.  Warriors mistake.

ANOTHER cheating call.  If Ah Van played at the ball, I’m a cheating Aussie.   BTW I am screaming at the TV but the cheating refs aren’t listening.

Doggies 16-4

Refs have scored three tries so it was only a matter of time before the Doggies scored one themselves.

Refs 16, Doggies 6-4.  Had added the two before the kick.

You are fucking kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Game over.  Blog over.

[At this stage, Stacey bombs after the Warriors get a penalty on the 40 min mark.  Ah Van plays the ball back in the Doggies in goal, Roberts picks up, passes and the Doggies score at the other end!]

Refs 16, Doggies 12.  Warriors 4.

The team name will change to the Penrose Leopards for the first two games of the season and from then will be known as the Penrose Pussies.

Our legal team has told us not to release them to the public but we’ll make all efforts to resist the Warriors’ coaching staff from preventing the public from setting their eyes on the plans.

Here’s the plans:

A.  Kick it to Manu’s wing.

B.  Kick it to Manu’s wing.

C.  Kick it to Manu’s wing.

D.  Kick it to Manu’s wing.

E.  Kick it and hope that Manu get’s to it.

…

Z. And if that doesn’t what, for fuck’s sake, kick it to Manu’s wing!

Kevin Locke
Patrick Ah Van
Elijah Taylor
Joel Moon
Manu Vatuvei
Aaron Heremaia
Stacey Jones
Sam Rapira
Lewis Brown
Russell Packer
Simon Mannering
Ben Matulino
Micheal Luck (c)

Interchange: Lance Hohaia, Evarn Tuimavave, Jacob Lillyman, Ukuma Ta’ai.

Only two cheating Aussies in the starting team and a third on the bench.

Very much a homegrown team.

Let’s just hope it’s not another loss and a home-groan team.