NZ Warriors chief executive Cameron George has been pleased with his team's pre-season efforts, which included a come-from-behind trials win over Melbourne Storm, but now wants them perform when it counts.
Coach Nathan Brown’s side face St George Illawarra Dragons on Saturday night, their first match of the 2022 season.
The side only had one pre-season trial game - a 30-18 victory over Melbourne - with their clash against Gold Coast Titans cancelled, due to Queensland flooding, but the outing showed George glimpses of their potential and a shift in mindset.
"We had a decision to make with 15 minutes to go against Melbourne, whether we just want to use it as a trial, or did we want to go and win," George reflects. "I think our team showed some attributes that were really pleasing for us all to see, that they wanted to finish with a win."
A disappointing finish to last year, with the club missing out on finals for the third straight season, led to some tough conversations among players, staff and coaches. The desire to win no matter what now burns within the club as a result.
"Every player's been signed for a reason, every staff member's here for a reason, and there's an outcome and there's a purpose, and that is winning day in, day out, whether that’s on the training field or whether we're playing a footy game.
"The message has been extremely clear throughout the off season and it starts this week in a competition sense."
Making a winning start to the season is also crucial. Four of the Warriors first five games are against sides that also missed the top eight last year and they know starting well can set an entire season up for success.
"It's extremely important. You go back to 2018, we were five from five and it really sets the tone for the year
"It sets expectations, it sends you off on a really good start. It's crucial.
“You want to set a standard, you want to set the tone about who we’re going to be this year and this week’s a big challenge for us to make sure we set that right.”
The expectation is clear from the top down. Despite some inexperience in the side, with a new centre pairing of Rocco Berry and Viliami Vailea starting this week, Brown’s asking all his players to hit the ground running, but admits it will be tough.
“They’ve sort of gained their experience of league playing in the NRL," Brown says. "That can probably tell you the task that those three boys [Berry, Vailea and Eli Katoa] in particular have had to go through.
"Learning to play rugby league at the elite level is not an easy task. We’re hopeful they're going to be a lot further advanced this year, but people can't underestimate how difficult it is when they have not played rugby league until they started playing nearly at the NRL level.
“We need them to be NRL players this year, because we want to make the eight and we need them boys to be playing at some sort of NRL level."
Join us at 7:30pm Saturday for live updates of the Warriors v Dragons NRL clash
