Sir Peter Leitch Club at MT SMART STADIUM, HOME of the MIGHTY VODAFONE WARRIORS
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Sir Peter Leitch Club AT MT SMART STADIUM, HOME OF THE MIGHTY VODAFONE WARRIORS 9th August 2017 Newsletter #182 Kids are loving their BLK Kiwis Shirts! But whoops... we gave the wrong draw date. So we are extending it. Check it out inside! Waiheke Rams want to thank BLK These guys are looking smart! These young league stars from sport and Sir Peter for our great Suburbs rugby league love their tshirts. shirts. Main photo: Kids at Redoubt north school enjoying their new shirts. New Draw Date 30th August! BLK T-Shirt Giveaway To celebrate the upcoming RLWC BLK have given us 100 prize packs consisting of 2 Kids T-Shirts. Yes! We have 200 t-shirts in total to giveaway. To score your pack enter now. Don’t forget to give us your size so we can do our best to try get it for you. Kids sizes available: 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 & 16. To enter: YOU MUST subscribe to Sir Peter Leitch Club Newsletter. BLK T-Shirt Giveaway Name: Then post a stamped addressed P.O Box 54295 Address: envelope with your name, address, phone The Marina 2144, Phone Number: number and email to the address on the Manukau, Auckland Email: left. New Zealand T-Shirt Sizes: Winner will be drawn on We ship internationally! 30/08/2017 Did Anyone Really Expect Anything Different? By David Kemeys Former Sunday Star-Times Editor, Former Editor-in-Chief Suburban Newspapers, Long Suffering Warriors Fan ATURDAY NIGHT loomed and I had to work, and for the first time ever I did not even bother to hit Srecord so I could watch when I got home. That in itself is a bit sad really. So low is my expectation that I totally expected to be beaten by a Knights side coming into a match with a little bit of confidence having beaten St George a week earlier. So I have no idea if they were as bad as the press would have me believe, because I did not see the game. So it was interesting to compare a couple of things from the papers. In a pre-game preview Marvin France said what we all knew, that with only pride to play for, things could get a whole lot worse if we failed to get past the last-placed Knights. Therefore there is only one possible conclusion, things just a lot worse. To be fair, as unpopular as it is to state it, Shaun Johnson, Ryan Hoffman, Bodene Thompson and James Gavet, were all out, and no side would cope well with that level of injury. But we were, me excluded, tipped to win this one. Poor Marvin summed it up, win for the few fans who have not already given up on the side. During the week big boss Jim Doyle was on the radio, and was widely slated, though god knows what anyone expected of him other than a defence of his organisation. I thought he was excellent. We heard all about maintaining standards refusing to quit, and pride in the jersey but there it was on Sunday morning, my old mate Dave Long, a thoroughly decent bloke who would like nothing better than to write about a winning side, instead beginning his report with news we have been put out of our misery, the defeat confirming no finals footy. It was stating the obvious, since virtually no one believed that did not happen weeks ago. It was retro round in the NRL and the Warriors brought back all their bad habits for the occasion. “This wasn’t a gutsy performance where they battled away, showing superb skills but narrowly lost to a more talented team, it was just dreadful.” That’s five on the bounce, and even old faithfuls like me can’t see improvement on the horizon. A Depressing Tale When we played the Cowboys and Sharks, at least we had the consolation we gave it all against better teams. That is all I ever ask really, that we do that, try the very best we can. But against the Knights our, according to Long, last tackle options were poor, and we gave away dumb penal- ties against a side that was sloppy in its own execution. Considering the Knights are on track, even after two wins, to pick up the wooden-spoon for a third straight year, it is all pretty depressing stuff. More on the next page... Sir Peter Leitch Club Newsletter Page 3 Finding A Positive Maumalo and Shaun Johnson. That’s the nucleus of a good side. If every cloud has a silver lining, it is hard to find it at the moment, but all the same, there have been some Charlie In Limbo signs of improvement. He might not be the best prop in the game, but most Defensively we are tracking in the right direction, of us Mt Smart tragics have a soft-spot for Charlie even if it does not really feel like it. Gubb. Against the Sharks and Cowboys we were decent His time with us is up at the end of the year, and he enough. Only the most miserable would fail to con- won’t be offered a new deal, but his future is in doubt cede that the boys did not give everything they have. anywhere, because of NRL salary cap uncertainty. The evidence is that the Sharks’ Andrew Fifita, who usually runs for enormous metres, was kept in check. Happy Frank Endacott is Charlie’s man, and he says there a few clubs interested, and even more Super Even against the Knights, Nathaniel Roache provided League teams. plenty of energy, okay I admit it, I sneaked a peek at a replay, and Isaiah Papalii put in a decent shift. Gubb would like to stay in the NRL, and in 37 games, while not always a world-beater, he hasn’t looked out Forgotten man Jazz Tevaga did not look out of place, of place either. and Ben Matulino was pretty good – pity he’s leaving. The big problem is going to be any NRL club interest- Papali'i made his debut against the Knights in round ed is going to have to fit him in under the cap, and no one, and the former schoolboy rugby star finally got one knows yet what that number will be, with negoti- game number two on Saturday. ations taking forever. Kearney has high hopes for the youngster. “We So How Do We Fix It? realise he's got a great deal of potential and it's just a matter of making sure we give him an opportunity.” The vultures continue to circle but I seldom hear anything constructive (an allegation you could throw Surely Ata Hingano is another youngster who fits at me and it would stick) about how we actually im- into the potential-plus category. prove the situation. Tohu Harris will be at the club next year, and there It’s all the culture is wrong, the coach is wrong, the seems to be plenty of conjecture Adam Blair might players are wrong, the tea leady is wrong... follow him in. What frustrates is the notion that it is a very compli- The prop is under contract with the Broncos until the cated problem. end of next season but coach Wayne Bennett has giv- en him permission to talk to other clubs, and Blair's It isn’t. own management have asked for a release from the The team just isn’t good enough. last year of his contract. You don’t have to be Wayne Bennett to figure that We are said to be prepared to offer a four-year deal. out, but it is a bit harder to know what to do about it. “At the moment he's contracted to the Broncos, but if he gets a release there's a good chance he may end up Players have contracts, so you can’t just bin everyone, with us, Doyle said. much as some of the more pissed-off among us might like to. Blair would add experience and aggression to our pack, and I for one would not be broken-hearted The salary cap is meant to even things up, but we all know there are clubs that regard it as a guideline. If we were to benefit from the situation at the Bull- Every club could spend about $7million this year. dogs, where it is said players will have to be shed with a salary cap blunder looming. I’d welcome James If you spend heaps of it on big name players, that’s Graham that is for sure. good if they deliver, and terrible if they don’t. We still have Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Simon Manner- Continued on next page... ing, Isaac Luke, Solomone Kata, David Fusitu’a, Ken Sir Peter Leitch Club Newsletter Page 4 Continued from previous page... would almost certainly take time to come to the same conclusions Doyle has already reached. It’s especially bad if you do that, and leave yourself not much for the rest of the players you need. But what do I know? I just want to stop with the blame game and think about how to move forward. If you spend a little bit on some and they deliver, that’s good, if they don’t, that’s really bad. Player Of The Year? So ask if our big name players delivered? David Fusitu’a has still only played 53 first-grade games but I will be surprised if he is not in the con- Manu Vatuvei, Issac Luke, Jacob Lillyman, Shaun versation for our player of the year.