Warriors coach Todd Payten clips rival clubs for making it hard to loan players
The Warriors are desperate to borrow or loan players to bolster their squad for the rest of the season, but Todd Payten says rival NRL clubs aren’t as willing to help out in their time of need.
NRL
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Todd Payten has accused his NRL rivals of being hypocritical by failing to help the struggling Warriors in their time of need.
The caretaker coach is on the verge of boasting just 22 fit players to survive the remainder of the season, with the club desperate to borrow or loan players from the rest of the NRL competition.
A frustrated Payten claimed that while rival clubs and coaches were happy to praise the Warriors publicly, he felt let down by their lack of support to help field an NRL-standard roster following offers to borrow untested rookies and very few players of first-grade standard.
“There are a lot of clubs going through injuries at the moment and there are some clubs making it hard to get loan players,’’ Payten said. “At the moment, we’ve only taken a couple of small steps forward in that regard.”
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Asked how clubs are making it difficult for the Warriors, Payten said: “They’re not being open to lending players.”
Payten then added the Warriors “absolutely” felt let down by the rest of the NRL.
“There are several clubs and coaches that will publicly say we’re (Warriors) doing a great thing and would love to help us out and do anything to do it, but when it comes to the crunch, they’re not. So that’s disappointing.”
Asked if he wanted to send a message to his rival coaches, Payten replied: “No.”
The Warriors confirmed last week that Agnatius Paasi, Ken Maumalo, David Fusitu’a and King Vuniyayawa would return to New Zealand following Saturday’s clash with the Roosters.
Their departure will leave the Warriors low on depth.
To date the Warriors have loaned Penrith’s Jack Hetherington and Roosters forward Poasa Faamausili, who stayed for a month before returning to the premiers.
Payten said the Warriors would be forced to use a host of rookies while also revealing that only four players from other clubs had been offered to the Warriors this year.
“We’ve got some good young kids here, so if we were going to get some loan players and put them in our team, I have no problem if they are NRL players,’’ Payten said.
“But at the moment, if they’re giving us players that are untested or fringe players, my thought process is that we’re better off getting some experience into our younger guys for the long-term benefit of the club.”
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Asked how many players of first-grade standard the Warriors had been offered, Payten replied: “Four, that’s over the course of the whole season.
“We’ve got two of them (Hethrington and Faamausili) and there’s one or two others and when I say first-grade standard I’m talking about 20 games (or more).
“If they’re near or at the same level as what we’ve already got, I think we’re better off going in that direction (with our own players).’’