Faither Interview: Michael Witt - Warrior #134

Born in Toowoomba, QLD, Michael was not only a talented Rugby League player from a young age but was also a Champion Junior Boxer. Witt played 179 First Grade games in both the NRL (94) and English Super League (85). Over the course of his 179 Career Games he represented 6 Rugby League clubs over a 12 year career (Parramatta 27, Manly 20, NZ Warriors 43, Crusaders RL 42, London Broncos 43 and St George 4).

Golden Point Record

Faither Report Card - 2016. Part 2 of 5

Continuing on with our 5 part series of the NZ Warriors Report Card for 2016, let's take a quick look back and briefly recap the grades that players received in Part 1.

Ryan Hoffman - GRADE: C
Bunty Afoa - GRADE: B
Matt Allwood - GRADE: C-
Blake Ayshford - GRADE: B
Raymond Faitala-Mariner - GRADE: N/A
David Fusitua - GRADE: A-

Faither Report Card - 2016. Part 1 of 5

As the 2016 NRL Season winds down to an end, it's a good time to look back over a season that offered so much promise for the NZ Warriors yet delivered that all too familiar feeling of let down come seasons end, leaving fans ponder what went wrong and wonder if we'll ever get it right. 

Largest Home Attendance

Faither Interview: Richard Villasanti - Warrior #87

Born in the ACT, Richard Villasanti or "Villa the Gorilla" as he was affectionately
known, enjoyed a First Grade career spanning 8 seasons in which he played 116 games for 4 clubs (6 with Balmain Tigers in 1999, 7 for Wests Tigers in 2000, 96 for NZ Warriors 2001-06 and 7 for Cronulla Sharks in 2006). Richard also played 1 international for Australia and in doing so became the first Warriors player to represent the Kangaroos.

Only Time Will Tell With Stephen Kearney

The recent appointment of Stephen Kearney is a step in the right direction for the New Zealand Warriors. There was little doubt that the status quo wasn't working and even former coach Andrew McFadden admitted to being made head coach too early.

Kearney has his detractors and its been interesting to see a lot of fans baulk at the decision to hand him the top job. The main sticking point is his record at the Parramatta Eels. What people tend to forget is that

Faither Interview: Joe Vagana - Warrior #18

Highly regarded as one of the best props in the business during his playing days, Joe is a veteran of 115 games for the Auckland Warriors between 1995-2000, 239 with the Bradford Bulls between 2001-2008 as well as making 2 Test appearances for Samoa in 1995 and 27 for New Zealand between 1996-2006.

Consecutive Wins/Losses

Time to step up Eric Watson. Again.

Huge fan of Eric Watson. Before he bought a 75% stake in the Auckland Warriors the club was in all sorts of strife on and off the field. Poor results on the field saw record low crowd numbers, sponsors ditching the club and owners unable to keep feeding the bottomless pit that the club had become. That was until a mystery buyer the media had dubbed the White Knight stepped in and offered to underwrite the club. The aftermath wasn't pretty.

Biggest Losses

Thomas Leuluai - We Wish You Didn't Have to Leulueave

A Tribute to Tommy - Warrior #105

As his 2nd stint with the NZ Warriors draws to a close, Tommy will always be remembered as one of my favourite players to pull on a Warriors jersey,  a bloke who punched well above his weight, a player who week in week out would roll the sleeves up and get through the "dirty work" that so many others tend to avoid, one of the best defensive halves in the game who could put on as big a hit as someone twice his size ON someone twice his size, a versatile player who could fill a number of key positions at an exceptionally high standard and one of the most under rated halves to play the game.

The Fall and Fall of Andrew McFadden

After three years at the helm of the New Zealand Warriors and three years of missing finals footy its time for Andrew McFadden to do the honourable thing and fall on his sword.