NRL 2022: New Zealand Warriors host first home game in more than 1000 days v Wests Tigers, league unveils NZ survival plan
New Zealand saved the NRL during Covid times. League is about to return the favour with an unprecedented survival plan set to reinvigorate the sport across the ditch.
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The NRL and Warriors are working on a plan to rebuild rugby league in New Zealand, by flooding the country with unprecedented levels of content that includes All Stars, Test matches and more NRL games than ever before.
The survival plan has emerged amid the confronting reality from Warriors CEO Cameron George that the club’s three-year absence from New Zealand will “take years to get over.”
Within the rebuild mission is a likely gift to New Zealand from the NRL which will see the annual pre-season NRL Maori and Indigenous All Stars clash played outside of Australia for the first time next year.
It means that New Zealand would be feted with the game’s best players and will act as the official launch pad for the new 2023 season.
An official All Stars announcement is imminent with NRL CEO Andrew Abdo flying to Auckland to hold executive meetings with the New Zealand Rugby League.
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On the agenda is the NRL’s plan to bookend the 2023 season in New Zealand by rekindling the rivalry of International rugby league between Australia and the Kiwis, as well as Pacific Nation teams, with end of season Test matches.
The Kangaroos haven’t played the Kiwis in a Test match since 2019.
THE REBUILD
It’s been 1,038-days since the Warriors last played an NRL match in New Zealand.
On Sunday, the Warriors host the Wests Tigers in front of a sold-out Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland.
The decline in junior league participation (both boys and girls), Warriors memberships, corporate support and TV ratings in New Zealand, following the Warriors two-years and 10-months spent based in Australia due to the Covid-19 pandemic has proven debilitating to rugby league‘s constant battle for relevance in a rugby union obsessed country.
“I’m also the chairman of New Zealand racing and if we didn’t race for three years, all of our owners would start to invest in harness racing,’’ George explained.
“Then, if we started racing again, it would take a few years to bring them all back and bring all the commercial interest and support back.
“We can’t just do it overnight.
“When I say it’s going to take years, it’s going to take years for us to get the whole flow-on effect of three years of limited or no footy in the junior ranks.
“That’s also why we wouldn’t launch into an NRLW team this year.
“Because we need to target 2025 as that year (for NRLW) and with the NZRL, get our women’s programs flourishing again over the next two years because even our girls have hardly been playing.
“It’s the rebuild of a whole sport over here.’’
FLOOD THE MARKET
The pre-season All Stars and return of end-of-season Test matches in 2023 are ways the NRL can secure valuable radio, newspaper and TV coverage, outside of what would normally be, left simply to the Warriors 12 home games each year.
George is working with the NRL operations team to entice six NRL clubs that will be without a home stadium next year due to the FIFA Women’s World Cup to bring their home games to New Zealand.
FIFA has exclusive access to Sydney’s Accor Stadium, Leichhardt Oval and Sydney Football Stadium, Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, and Melbourne‘s AAMI Park during June to August next year.
Wests Tigers’ Leichhardt Oval will be used as a training base – and already, the Tigers have shown interest in taking a game to NZ.
The impacted Sydney stadiums will be taken over for up to nine weeks based on the number of games to be played there, with FIFA permitted to take them over up to a month before the official matches begin.
“The reality is, it’s got to be about bringing in more individual content,’’ George said.
“I’ve been reaching out to those clubs in that (FIFA stadium) situation next year.
“If the clubs or the NRL could assist with a further five or six games in New Zealand next year, that would be 17 to 18 games in one season here in New Zealand.
“That would be outstanding.
“Teams could be funded to take a game to Christchurch and play the Warriors. We could then go to Dunedin the next week.
“That would put content all around the country and it would engage and inspire with the addition of footy festivals connected to each of the games.
“It’s not just about the Warriors winning out of this, it’s about a win for everyone wanting to grow the game.’’
WARRIORS FOREVER
Yet to win a premiership, the Warriors are often viewed by Australian-based footy fans as the NRL’s poor cousin.
Washing through eight coaches over the past 10-years and just one finals appearance over the same period, the Warriors existence is consistently questioned by fans, who argue for the return of the North Sydney Bears or a Perth-based team, instead.
However, NRL CEO Andrew Abdo says the Warriors are pivotal to the code’s growth.
“The Warriors boast a footprint, not just for rugby league in Auckland, but across all of New Zealand,” Abdo said.
“The NRL is committed to having a team in New Zealand, not only for the huge amount of talent that we see in the NRL, but for the ongoing growth of rugby league in the pathways systems across New Zealand.
“It has been a hugely challenging three years for the Warriors players, staff, administration, their fans and members.
“But every club has its ups and downs and the NRL won’t be abandoning the Warriors or rugby league in New Zealand.’’
ANOTHER NZ TEAM
Abdo has meetings lined-up in Auckland with the game’s most influential figures in New Zealand this weekend.
He wants to discuss revitalising rugby league across the country, but also the possibility of an 18th team based out of New Zealand.
“I’m meeting Auckland Rugby League, New Zealand Rugby League, Maori Rugby League, Sky Sports and the Warriors,’’ Abdo said.
“I want to engage with all of the stakeholders about the growth of rugby league in New Zealand.
“The end game is a possible 18th team, but it doesn’t have to be.
“It’s really about the Warriors getting back and playing at home, getting their women’s team back in the competition, creating more opportunities within schools and junior rugby league clubs to strengthen talent development.
“And it’s about us taking other content there.’’
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