‘IT’S GOING TO BE A GREAT DEAL FOR US:GOOD FOR New Zealand Warriors

Over the course of their 28 years in first grade, the Warriors have experienced enough close calls and tumbling bureaucratic disasters to give hope for the future. In the third round of the 1995 season, they defeated the Western Suburbs Magpies, but their historic victory was wiped out when their coaching staff sent out an extra interchange player by mistake. The team ultimately lost out on a finals berth due to the two premiership points that were taken away from them.

The late 1990s code war, in which the Warriors sided with the breakaway Super League, hampered the growth of the fledgling team. The NRL sold Eric Watson the club license for $1 in 2000, and the Warriors underwent years of turbulent ownership drama and financial near-oblivion. The rebranded team played in its first grand final in 2002, losing badly to the Roosters.

After a string of terrible years marked by poor results and a salary cap controversy in 2006, they had a fantastic run in the finals in 2008 and their second grand final in 2011, where they were defeated by the highly decorated Sea Eagles team. Even with the rise of players like Johnson and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, the 2018 Dally M medal winner, they have only participated in one finals game up until this year.

The NRL’s efforts to assist its lone non-Australian club have fluctuated over those 28 years, from sporadic to tokenistic. The Australian teams that came to play the Warriors had to pay for their airfares for the first few years that they were in business. Auckland has never hosted the Warriors’ yearly Anzac Day game against the Melbourne Storm.

However, New Zealand rugby league faces more challenges than just the Warriors. The perception in the community that the Australia-focused NRL constantly takes more from the game in New Zealand than it gives back has plagued the code.

Warriors CEO Cameron George stated in September 2022, “The big thing that’s missing here from the NRL’s perspective [is] the game here in New Zealand.” “The game benefits the NRL as a whole so much. From a playing talent standpoint, this environment produces a lot of talent across all clubs in the NRL.

There are several ways that resentment over the NRL taking New Zealand for granted comes to the surface. Māori All Stars co-captain Joseph Tapine made a statement earlier this year regarding the persistent issue of Australian broadcasters and commentators mispronouncing the names of Māori and Pasifika players. The allegation made in May by NZ Chief Executive Jason Paris that the referees are biased against the team touched a nerve.

The unpaid debt the code still owes the Warriors from the lockdown era was the only thing that eased this grievance. Rugby league establishment flocked to the Warriors during their two and a half years of exile, showering them with praise. But after almost three years of empty stadiums, the NRL rejected the Warriors’ request to play more games in New Zealand in order to begin rebuilding the sport. The Warriors have only gotten an away game in Hamilton from the Wests Tigers and a “Thank You NZ” sticker on the back of the Broncos’ jerseys in round 13 as payment for their 1,073-day ordeal.

To be fair, the NRL’s New Zealand equivalent has long been associated with inept management. A government report in 2009 revealed that the NZRL had been mismanaging the local game for almost ten years. Chair of the Auckland Rugby League Cameron McGregor said in 2018 that since then, “the game has gone backwards.” The NZRL owed over NZ$300,000 for unpaid debts resulting from the highly anticipated Test match between England and the Kiwis in Denver that same year, despite the game drawing 19,000 spectators.