Warriors boss delivers brutal assessment of club’s past culture
AS the Warriors fight to keep Roger Tuivasa-Sheck from switching to rugby union, the club’s chief executive has delivered a brutal assessment of past culture.
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AS the New Zealand Warriors fight to keep Roger Tuivasa-Sheck from switching to rugby union, the club’s chief executive has delivered a brutal assessment of past culture.
Cameron George told The Daily Telegraph he was confident the star fullback had not struck a deal with the Auckland Blues.
But George also admitted there has been several meetings in recent months to iron out concerns Tuivasa-Sheck had relating to the future direction of the NRL’s perennial underachievers.
George conceded the club “all but hit the bottom on a number of fronts” last year.
He said at this point coach Steven Kearney “has my 100 per cent support” but added “the message across the whole organisation is accountability and everyone is required to do their job”.
It is rare to hear an NRL club boss deliver such a frank assessment of internal problems on the eve of a new season but no doubt long suffering Warriors fans will be happy someone is finally saying what most of us have been thinking for years.
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But George didn’t hold back after reports emerged in New Zealand that Tuivasa-Sheck was gearing up to switch codes in time for the 2019 Rugby Union World Cup.
George said he had spoken again with Tuivasa-Sheck’s agent Bruce Sharrock on three occasions this week and was adamant no deal was close to being completed.
“Roger is not a player who is just going to sign for the sake of it,” George said.
“He wants to know that the club is going down the right path.
“We have been having those discussions and we have more to have.
“He wants to know our recruitment strategy.
“He wants to know what is happening off the park commercially when he weighs up all his options.
“But he is certainly the person we want to build the future around.
“I think we have proven to Roger over the off-season that the changes that have been implemented internally have really altered what we had in place in previous years.
“I think he is very happy with the response from the playing group and I believe we can offer a great opportunity.
“And he has a great opportunity with us to be a leader of a club that can go into a new era and he can leave a legacy behind of being the person who led the Warriors to their first premiership.”
George said Kearney had a contract in place for two more seasons but like the players would be judged on results.
The Warriors have employed Brian Smith as general manager of football and brought in respected former Melbourne, Brisbane, Queensland and Australian strength coach Alex Corvo to toughen up the club’s culture.
He said the recruitment Blake Green, Adam Blair and Tohu Harris also meant the time for time for excuses had expired.
“With Brian Smith now in place as our GM of football I am fortunate to have someone who can provide me with expert knowledge around how the coach is actually going on a week-to-week basis,” George said.
“I needed someone there measuring performance in the football department that could give me a true and honest assessment and not just look at the win/loss ratio.
“Brian is absolutely a big fan.
“He is really happy with Steven and what he is doing in the off season.
“He is happy with the improvements Steven has made on the back of last year.
“So at this point Brian is hugely supportive of Steven and we both see him as a long-term proposition.
“At the end of last year I sat there with Steve and said ‘how are we going to fix this?’
“We knew there were some gaps.
“Rather than talk about it we just had to go and find the best.
“Alex Corvo has brought a real sense of toughness and high standards around fitness and training.
“I am telling you, if you don’t meet those standards there are severe penalties for the team to pay, not just the individuals.
“Being three per cent fitter than last year is not cutting it for me.
“I want to be the fittest team in the NRL competition to win it.
“No one can do this except us.
“We have got ourselves into a position where everyone says we are the team that looks good on paper but are shockers on the field.
“Now they can say what they want and people have that entitlement but no one is going to fix it except us.
“We had players playing in our team last year that should have been dropped but we had no depth.
“With what we have signed this year and the attitude we are demonstrating on and off the park as an organisation in the off season, we are going to be one of the toughest teams to beat in every game we go out there.
“There is no reason why we can’t be winning.”