Buzz: Warriors coach Andrew Webster finding riches in rejects

The general wisdom in rugby league is that a team requires a star-studded spine in order to be a finals contender - Warriors coach Andrew Webster is proving that wrong.

The Warriors are proof you don't need to spend big to win in the NRL.

Rich in rejects

Not every NRL team needs a multimillion-dollar spine to challenge for a premiership.

The NRL’s most improved football team - the New Zealand Warriors - are the proof of that in the latest NRL Rich 100 list.

Their three highest paid players are a front-rower, a second-rower and a lock forward – Addin Fonua-Blake, Marata Niukore and Tohu Harris.

Only one spine player – veteran halfback Shaun Johnson - is on decent coin ($600,000), still about half what some of the great playmakers are earning.

The rest – five-eighth Luke Metcalf, fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and hooker Wayde Egan are nowhere near Rich 100 players.

The Warriors (L-R: Wayde Egan, Shaun Johnson and Marata Niukore) are proof you don't need to spend big to win in the NRL.

All are rejects from rivals clubs – Johnson (Sharks), Nicoll-Klokstad (Raiders), Metcalf (Sharks) and Egan (Panthers).

You compare them to Melbourne Storm - Harry Grant, Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes and Ryan Papenhuyzen.

Or the Panthers spine from last year’s premiership winning team – Api Koroisau, Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai and Dylan Edwards.

Somehow rookie Warriors coach Andrew Webster has managed to build a top-four contender this year around a lively forward pack more than big-money playmakers.

This is a serious football side that has firmed on the TAB from $51 to $21 since round 10.

Warriors coach Andrew Webster. Picture: Getty Images

We spoke to Webster, the Dally M coach-of-the-year favourite, after his side flogged a hopelessly out-of-sorts St George Illawarra 48-18 on Friday night.

It was a game in which his three highest paid players dominated in the engine room - Fonua-Blake (173m), Harris (154m) and Niukore (146m).

Webster has done a magnificent job with this side

Not bad for someone who humbly describes himself as “a very slow and very ordinary footballer” in his playing days as a lower grader at the Tigers and Parramatta Eels, who turned to coaching because of his inadequacies as a player.

“I realised at a young age I lacked talent but I felt like I knew the game really well,” he said.

“So I wanted to transition into coaching as soon as I could. I’ve been doing it since I was 23.”

He did six years as an assistant at Hull KR then returned home to work under the likes of Ricky Stuart, Michael Maguire and Ivan Cleary.

“I’ve taken the best bits from all of them but then tried to be myself,” he said.

The team is now perched just outside the top four with three of their next four games at home.

However Webster refuses to take credit for the current Warriors roster that was mostly in place by the time he had signed.

Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad has been superb for the Warriors so far in 2023. Picture: Getty Images

“Our spine mightn’t be everyone’s cup of tea but I love what they can do,” he said.

“You can call them rejects from other clubs but they’re certainly not at our place.

“Wayde Egan is among the top four hookers, Charnze is very similar to Dylan Edwards.

“As for Shauny, he’s playing great footy. You can’t just tell him to run the ball. You’ve got to put people in motion around him.

“He is in a good place and playing off the back of a really good forward pack.”

Of his big-money forwards who dominate the NRL Rich 100 list, Webster says: “The identity of the Warriors has been flamboyant for a long time.

“But this pack works really hard and has a point of difference.

“Tohu is a really good passer, Addin Fonua-Blake runs hard and has great footwork, Marata Niukore is super aggressive off the back fence and runs as hard as he can. We’ve got a nice balance. Everyone in the team is buying in and working hard.”

Webster says there were no goals set at the start of the year.

“We want to win a comp like everyone else in the NRL,” he said, “You try to win as many games as you can and the rest will sort itself out. We didn’t set any goals at the start of the year and we still haven’t. I just said on day one, let’s work as hard as we can and have some fun.”