Warriors - 2020
The Warriors became the NRL's unwitting face of a global health crisis during a season like no other.
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As pundits gazed into their 2020 NRL crystal balls, the Warriors featured in more wooden spoon predictions than Top 8 forecasts after the previous season’s substantial regression.
The club repeatedly came up empty in bids to bolster its roster, with reported approaches to the likes of David Fifita, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Sitili Tupouniua, and eventual recruits Matt Lodge and Kurt Capewell each rebuffed.
Penrith’s back-up hooker Wayde Egan was the Warriors’ only significant pick-up for the new campaign, replacing unwanted veteran Issac Luke. Blayke Ayshford hung up the boots, while fellow fringe players Ligi Sao and Chris Satae took up Super League deals. Long-serving Wallabies conditioner Craig Twentyman arrived as Head of Performance with Alex Corvo – lauded for his role the Warriors’ 2018 upswing – leaving Auckland.
In an otherwise muted off-season, a video published on the club’s website depicted CEO Cameron George delivering a stirring, expletive-laden call to arms to the playing group about proving the doomsayers wrong.
But the season ahead – and indeed the ensuing three-year period – would be anything but nondescript for the Warriors, who were destined to become the NRL’s unwitting face of a global health crisis that dramatically impacted every facet of sport and society around the world.
Gains: Wayde Egan (Penrith), Jamayne Taunoa-Brown (Norths Devils)
Losses: Blayke Aysford (retired), Issac Luke (St George Illawarra), Ligi Sao (Hull FC), Chris Satae (Hull FC)
Heavyweights and surrogate hosts of the NRL Auckland Nines’ 2014-17 lifespan, the Warriors sent an inexperienced and low-profile squad, led by 21-year-old Isaiah Papali’i, to the revived pre-season tournament in Perth. They were sent packing in pool play via losses to Newcastle (34-0) and Sydney Roosters (14-8). The Warriors missed the final of the four-team NRLW tournament, edging out the Roosters before going down convincingly to the Dragons and Broncos. Adam Blair captained a Māori All Stars side also featuring Kodi Nikorima to a 30-16 win over Indigenous All Stars on the Gold Coast a week later.
One of the more insipid Warriors opening-round performances – a 20-0 road loss to the Knights, with second-rower Eliesa Katoa’s strong debut a rare positive – unfolded in the shadow of the rapidly-evolving COVID-19 situation in Australasia.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced travel restrictions and a 14-day self-isolation mandate on the same Saturday afternoon, forcing the Warriors to make the hurried decision to remain in Newcastle following the match. The Australian government followed suit the next day, scuppering the NRL’s plan to jet players’ families across the Tasman.
FAST FACT: The Warriors created history as the first team to make a successful Captain’s Challenge in a premiership match. During the Round 1 defeat to Newcastle, skipper Roger Tuivasa-Sheck challenged a knock-on decision against his team. The replay showed a Knights player had touched the ball first and the call was reversed.
The Warriors’ Round 2 match against Canberra, slated to be part of a novel Eden Park double-header alongside a Blues-Brumbies Super Rugby clash, was relocated to Gold Coast’s Cbus Super Stadium while the team prepared in Kingscliff on the NSW North Coast. Played in an empty stadium on Saturday afternoon with crowd restrictions in place, the Raiders cruised to a 20-6 win against Stephen Kearney’s stranded outfit.
The previous day, Warriors players had reaffirmed their commitment to remain in Australia amid the uncertainty. But governments in NSW and Queensland shut down all but essential services and closed the border separating the states on the following Monday, leaving the NRL with no option but to halt the competition indefinitely. The team returned home to their families with the future of the 2020 season up in the air.
On April 9, the NRL revealed a targeted restart date of May 28 for their restructured 20-round schedule. Though the announcement was dubbed anywhere from overambitious to irresponsible in some quarters, the NRL and its Project Apollo taskforce ultimately pulled off a minor miracle to relaunch on time and become one of the world’s first major sporting competitions to resume.
The New Zealand Government granted the Warriors a travel exemption to return to Australia. On May 3, a charter flight took 48 players and staff away from their families and into the relative unknown – to Tamworth, in northeastern NSW, where the team quarantined for two weeks. In a show of solidarity, the other 15 NRL coaches agreed not to resume training until the Warriors could start training themselves in their secure ‘bubble’. After clearing quarantine requirements, the squad relocated to a base in Terrigal on the NSW Central Coast.
Praise and gratitude for the Warriors’ sacrifice and commitment poured out from every section of the game – but optimism for the team’s prospects of being competitive were low, given the scale of the challenges confronting them. Season-ending injuries to front-rowers Leeson Ah Mau and Bunty Afoa had provided yet another setback, though fringe Raiders forward Jack Murchie was granted a release to join the Warriors. But a remarkable performance in the NRL’s restart round indicated the Warriors were not the inevitable — if sympathetic — wooden spooners many assumed they would be.
WARRIORS’ GREATEST GAMES – ROUND 3, 2020: WARRIORS 18 DEFEATED ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS 0 AT CENTRAL COAST STADIUM, GOSFORD The Warriors emerged from more than two months of uncertainty and hardships imposed on them by the global pandemic to shut out St George Illawarra 18-0 at their surrogate (and empty) home ground in Gosford. Rookie forwards Jamayne Taunoa-Brown and Eliesa Katoa scored first-half tries, before five-eighth Kodi Nikorima crossed to seal an emotional victory in the second stanza. But the most extraordinary aspect of the win was the Warriors’ incredible control, completing 46 of 48 sets – an unprecedented 96 percent completion rate – and remaining error-free until the 75th minute. Indefatigable lock Tohu Harris was immense with 211 metres and 48 tackles, while fellow senior leaders Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Adam Blair were also integral to one of 2020’s most unlikely results.
The Warriors followed up their stunning display against the Dragons with a 26-0 loss to rising force Penrith and a 37-26 defeat of North Queensland, with centre Peta Hiku grabbing a hat-trick in the latter.
But a dismal 40-12 thrashing from Souths a week later had unexpectedly dramatic consequences. The Warriors’ brass announced coach Kearney’s brutal sacking the next day.
By hook or by ‘Mooks’
The decision to axe Kearney blindsided fans, experts and the Warriors players alike – the NZRL Legend of League’s leadership was credited with holding the group together during the shutdown period and the team’s arduous road back to playing. Two wins and two losses since resuming hardly seemed grounds to axe a coach who still had more than two and a half seasons to run on his contract. “It’s been a huge shock and we’re still pretty upset by the news,” Tohu Harris told NRL.com. “I’m feeling for ‘Mooks’ and his family now. I feel personally that it wasn’t deserved.”
Chairman Rob Croot and CEO Cameron George explained the controversial decision was based on dissatisfaction with performances over the previous 12 months and a need to make a definitive call to assist with the club’s 2021 recruitment. They also insisted it would be unfair to wait until the team returned to New Zealand to sack Kearney when his fate was already sealed behind the scenes. The justifications largely struggled to pass the ‘pub test’, while assistant coach Todd Payten was installed as interim coach.
An experienced forward in Wests Tigers’ 2005 premiership triumph, Payten coached the Tigers to an NYC title in 2012, was an assistant to Paul Green as the Cowboys surged to NRL grand final success in 2015 and took over from former Canberra teammate Andrew McFadden as Kearney’s right-hand man in 2019. But it was an inauspicious first assignment in charge for the 41-year-old as the Warriors crashed 50-6 to Melbourne in a match relocated to Sydney due to spiking COVID-19 cases in Victoria (the Storm would also spend the rest of the season based interstate). “When things go against us we aren’t tough enough to dig ourselves out of it,” Payten said post-match, refusing to blame recent upheavals. “I question whether — across the park — we had players that were willing to put their bodies on the line.”
There was no shortage of backbone in the Warriors’ follow-up performance, however, rallying to beat the embattled Broncos 26-16 despite the suspension absence of Tuivasa-Sheck and the loss of Nikorima four minutes in. Blair comforting tearful fellow Kiwi and former Broncos teammate Alex Glenn at fulltime was an indelible memory of the match. But a narrow defeat to the Titans and a 46-10 rout at the hands of the Sharks, as a gleeful Shaun Johnson toyed with his ex-clubmates, left the Warriors sitting in the bottom four at the halfway point of the season. Ken Maumalo, who was superb against the Broncos, David Fusitu’a, Agnatius Paasi and top-grade newcomer King Vuniyayawa opted to return to Auckland for compassionate reasons, seemingly leaving the jettisoned Warriors in further disarray.
Hang on, help is on its way
The Warriors received dispensations from the NRL to draft in loan players from rival clubs. With the NSW Cup and Queensland Cup competitions cancelled, the arrangement was mutually beneficial, providing fringe first-graders with an opportunity to get back on the field. Auckland-born Roosters forward Poasa Fa’amausili was with the Warriors from the restart and played four games, while Penrith firebrand Jack Hetherington (before copping a four-game high-tackle suspension), and a pair of Parramatta players, prop Daniel Alvaro and winger George Jennings, all provided outstanding service in six-match relief stints. The quartet carved out a small but cherished niche in the club’s history, while they all secured contracts with new clubs on the strength of their excellent short-notice contributions for the Warriors.
A gallant 18-10 loss in an ill-tempered clash with the Roosters proved a turning point. Captivating back-to-back wins in Sydney over Wests Tigers (26-20) and Manly (26-22) further illustrated a newfound resolve. Veteran playmaker Blake Green exited to join Newcastle after the Tigers clash, but Chanel Harris-Tavita stepped into the No.7 jersey for the first time in 2020 and was the best player on the field against the Sea Eagles.
But there was a more significant off-field development in between those two victories. Payten, with his stocks soaring, rejected the Warriors’ offer to take on the head coach role fulltime — bizarrely revealing the decision to the rugby league world live on Fox Sports panel show NRL360. “I told the club that I’m going to turn it down, it just wasn’t the right opportunity for my family and myself at this time,” he said. “It was not an easy decision, something I agonised over for a few days but in the end it was the first time I put my family first in a decision.” Payten, whose wife’s cancer treatment factored heavily into the decision, was confirmed as the Cowboys’ 2021 coach a few weeks later, replacing the sacked Green.
Just three days after Payten’s rebuff was made public, Cameron George announced ex-St George Illawarra, Huddersfield and Newcastle mentor Nathan Brown would take over as Warriors head coach at the end of the year on a three-season deal — to a predominantly underwhelmed response from the fanbase. Brown had spent time with the Warriors’ coaching staff in the off-season, but the rapid nature of the appointment set off alarm bells and his unsuccessful 2016-19 tenure at Newcastle hardly inspired confidence. The affable Brown’s impending arrival was accompanied with the equally big news that Phil Gould was coming on board as a club-wide consultant.
Meanwhile, Payten remained focused on the task of keeping the Warriors in the hunt for an unlikely finals berth. After another gutsy loss – 18-12 to runaway competition leaders the Panthers after trailing 16-0 at halftime – preceded consecutive wins over the Bulldogs and the in-form Knights, which catapulted the Warriors to outright ninth with four rounds remaining.
Tamworth its weight in gold
The Warriors had performed an emotional haka for the Tamworth locals before departing the town in May, while their jerseys were embroidered with ‘2340’ – Tamworth’s postcode – throughout the 2020 season as an ongoing tribute to the community’s role in the club’s campaign. Honouring their quarantine hosts once more, the Warriors took their Round 16 clash with Newcastle to Tamworth – and produced their most dominant performance of an unimaginably disrupted season. The Warriors put on a second-half clinic at Scully Park in powering to a 36-6 victory over the finals-bound Knights, with man of the match Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and winger Adam Pompey, who was aided by the silky skills of centre Peta Hiku, scoring brilliant doubles.
Reminiscent of their controversial visit to Parramatta’s home ground in 2019, the Warriors were valiant in a 24-18 loss to the high-flying Eels underpinned by horrendous officiating. The Warriors had trailed 16-0 after Jazz Tevaga was farcically sent to the sin-bin but clawed back before halftime thanks to two mind-blowing tries finished off by Harris-Tavita in the space of two minutes. Their finals bid officially ended a week later via a tough 22-14 defeat to the Johnson-captained Sharks — a result that had an extra sting in the tail as boom forward Toby Rudolf, who earlier in the season back-flipped on a contract to join the Warriors, scored the late match-sealer.
Taking the foot off the pedal would have been understandable, but the Warriors maintained their doggedness until the end. They were run down 26-14 by the fifth-placed Raiders in a testy encounter in the penultimate round, then coasted to a 40-28 win over also-rans the Sea Eagles despite missing the inspirational, industrious Tuivasa-Sheck with a hamstring injury. With Hiku filling in at fullback, makeshift centre pairing Adam Keighran and Hayze Perham scored five tries between them in what would be both players’ last game for the club.
A season of heart-wrenching, heart-warming and goodwill-inducing moments finished in apt fashion courtesy of a haka for the retiring Adam Blair, the polarising 51-Test Kiwi who had played the last 65 of his 331 NRL games – the most ever by a non-Australian at the time – for the Warriors.
Warriors wahine roll with the punches
Former Kiwi Slade Griffin was slated to coach the Warriors women’s team in 2020, but travel restrictions and mandatory isolation requirements forced a complete overhaul of the club’s participation in the third edition of the NRLW premiership. Captain and Kiwi Ferns stalwart Georgia Hale was just one of five survivors from the Warriors’ 2019 NRLW foray to relocate across the Tasman for the October competition, along with Madison Bartlett, Kanyon Paul, Crystal Tamarua and Hilda Peters. Ex-Jillaroos coach Brad Donald took over a squad bolstered by Australian Test players Karina Brown, Kirra Dibb, Shontelle Stowers and Tazmin Rapana, and 2016 Olympics Rugby Sevens gold medallists Ellia Green and Evania Pelite. The Warriors fought hard in losses to eventual grand finalists the Broncos (28-14) and Roosters (22-14), before overwhelming the Dragons (22-10) in what would be the club’s last NRLW outing until 2025.
Harris was a clear-cut winner of the Simon Mannering Medal, while he was named in the Dally M Team of the Year after finishing equal-13th in the overall Player of the Year count. Tuivasa-Sheck’s stoic leadership on and off the field was recognised with the Dally M Captain of the Year gong (as well as the Warriors’ Club Person of the Year and Vodafone People’s Choice awards), while he was the anchor of what seemed a settled spine alongside Nikorima, Harris-Tavita and promising hooker Egan. Hiku’s class regularly shone through, and Pompey, who had been blooded in five NRL games in late-2019, and rookie forwards Katoa and Taunoa-Brown made big strides.
The 10th-placed Warriors could very easily have scraped into the finals. But their level of overachievement — given the team’s circumstances, early-season form, personnel and change of coach — was already beyond extraordinary. They won five of their last eight games; the three losses were by eight points or less. Fans’ positivity, reinforced by the recent announcement of quality recruits Addin Fonua-Blake and Euan Aitken, perhaps could only have been higher if interim coach extraordinaire Payten was staying on-board.
But as the Warriors returned to New Zealand and their families, any notions of a return to any sort of normality for season 2021 had evaporated by the end of the year. The New Zealand government declined the Warriors’ application for players to travel freely between the countries and in early-December the club confirmed the team would relocate to Australia for the start of the season. The Warriors’ gruelling COVID odyssey would continue for another two years.
WARRIORS - 2020 NRL PREMIERSHIP SCORES
RD 1 (A) – Knights 20 d Warriors 0 at McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle
RD 2 (H) – Raiders 20 d Warriors 6 (Nikorima penalty try; Harris-Tavita goal) at Cbus Super Stadium, Gold Coast
RD 3 (H) – Warriors 18 (Taunoa-Brown, Katoa, Nikorima tries; Nikorima 3 goals) d Dragons 0 at Industree Group Stadium, Gosford
RD 4 (A) – Panthers 26 defeated Warriors 0 at Campbelltown Sports Stadium, Sydney
RD 5 (H) – Warriors 37 (Hiku 3, Herbert, Katoa, Pompey, Lawton tries; Nikorima 4 goals; Nikorima field goal) defeated Cowboys 26 at Industree Group Stadium, Gosford
RD 6 (A) – Rabbitohs 40 defeated Warriors 12 (Fusitu’a, Paasi tries; Nikorima 2 goals) at CommBank Stadium, Sydney
RD 7 (A) – Storm 50 defeated Warriors 6 (Herbert try; Harris-Tavita goal) at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, Sydney
RD 8 (H) – Warriors 26 (Maumalo 2, Paasi, Egan, Papali’i tries; Harris-Tavita 3 goals) defeated Broncos 16 at Industree Group Stadium, Gosford
RD 9 (A) – Titans 16 defeated Warriors 12 (Tuivasa-Sheck, Maumalo tries; Harris-Tavita 2 goals) at Cbus Super Stadium
RD 10 (H) – Sharks 46 defeated Warriors 10 (Maumalo, Egan tries; Tuivasa-Sheck goal) at Industree Group Stadium, Gosford
RD 11 (H) – Roosters 18 defeated Warriors 10 (Maumalo, Katoa tries; Pompey goal) at Industree Group Stadium, Gosford
RD 12 (A) – Warriors 26 (Hiku 2, Lawton, Harris tries; Nikorima 5 goals) defeated Tigers 20 at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
RD 13 (A) – Warriors 26 (Herbert 2, Katoa, Jennings, Hiku tries; Nikorima, Harris-Tavita, Herbert goals) defeated Sea Eagles 22 at 4 Pines Park, Sydney
RD 14 (H) – Panthers 18 defeated Warriors 12 (Tuivasa-Sheck, Herbert tries; Herbert 2 goals) at Industree Group Stadium, Gosford
RD 15 (A) – Warriors 20 (Murchie 2, Pompey, Tuivasa-Sheck tries; Nikorima 2 goals) defeated Bulldogs 14 at Accor Stadium, Sydney
RD 16 (H) – Warriors 36 (Pompey 2, Tuivasa-Sheck 2, Jennings, Tevaga tries; Harris-Tavita 6 goals) defeated Knights 6 at Scully Park, Tamworth
RD 17 (H) – Eels 24 defeated Warriors 18 (Harris-Tavita 2, Perham tries; Harris-Tavita 3 goals) at Industree Group Stadium, Gosford
RD 18 (A) – Sharks 22 defeated Warriors 14 (Murchie, Pompey tries; Harris-Tavita 3 goals) at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, Sydney
RD 19 (A) – Raiders 26 defeated Warriors 14 (Hiku 2 tries; Harris-Tavita 3 goals) at GIO Stadium, Canberra
RD 20 (H) – Warriors 40 (Keighran 3, Katoa 2, Herbert 2, Nikorima tries; Harris-Tavita 4 goals) defeated Sea Eagles 28 at Industree Group Stadium, Gosford
Won 8, Lost 12 – Points For: 343 Points Against: 458 – Ladder Position: 10th (of 16)
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