With over 300 NRL games and 51 tests for the Kiwis, there aren't many better qualified than Adam Blair to guide the next generation of homegrown rugby league stars.
Blair has been appointed coach of the Warriors U-19 SG Ball side for next season, where he'll shoulder the responsibility of trying to rebuild their junior ranks and pathways that were ripped to pieces by COVID-19.
The 36-year-old said he's certain he's the right man for the job and can't wait for the challenge.
"I'm not beating myself up or p*ssing in my pocket," Blair told Newshub."I've played this many games and these kids are going to get all of that knowledge and experience I've had, which then will help the organisation, which then will help the top team be better."
The proud Kiwi and Northlander - who came through the famed Melbourne Storm system - already knows exactly what he'll drill into his players both on and off the field, to prepare them for a potential career in the NRL.
"My mentality comes from the Melbourne Storm days, when Craig Bellamy said to a lot of us kids coming through, 'I just want mentally tough players and defenders. If you can do that then you're in my team'."
"My mentality is similar to that where we know they can attack, we just need to fine tune those areas. If you can defend well, then you'll be in my team.
"Those are the messages I have when I sit down with the group of kids when it comes to pre-season, these are my standards, this is what we need."
It's hoped in the coming years players with this attitude, as well as a died-in-the wool passion for the club, will flow into the top team.
"The important thing around that is, you want kids that want to be a part of the Warriors - full stop," Blair insisted. "So, if you don't want to be there and there's another club chasing you and you decide to go there, then so be it.
"If it's us and the Roosters and you decide to go, we don't care, because we want players who want to be at the Warriors."
Those words will be music to the ears of Warriors fans, after being battered and bruised by another season where recently, players' efforts and attitudes have been called into question.
The club's most successful periods have come when they've been packed with talent that's come through the junior systems, with more than 50 percent in teams that made the 2002 and 2011 Grand Finals.
"It's important that we guide these kids' mentality on," noted Blair. "This is who we are as a club. If you want to be here, you want to be here. If you don't, see you later we'll find someone else. That's the mindset we have to have."
But of course, the Warriors aren't the only ones looking up and down the motu for the next Shaun Johnson or Dylan Brown, and not everyone will be picked up by the Warriors. Recovery post pandemic will also take time.
"It's not an easy fix," he admitted. "We're already four years behind Australia when we start in this competition. We know that. But what we can do, we can be the change. We can't focus what's happening at the top because right in front of us are kids that want to be there."
"Our job is to get them prepared and ready so when they get an opportunity to move into first grade, they're NRL ready. "
Moulding an NRL player and preparing someone to compete in the world's best competition isn't easy. Junior teams and reserve grade sides matter.
Their importance has been reiterated through COVID-19, with the likes of current youngsters Rocco Berry, Eliesa Katoa and Viliami Vailea, among others, having to "learn on the job", as former coach Nathan Brown once put it, such has been the cruel blow of the pandemic to some of the game's rising stars.
Blair will ensure his players are better prepared to hit the ground running in first grade.
"My role again is to help these kids understand what that looks like, so that it just becomes normal when they're up there.
"It's having the right people in there teaching these kids what they need to know and learn so when they get to the top, they just need to fine tune that stuff."
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