With just two games left in their first season back in the NRLW, it has dawned on the One New Zealand Warriors that the 2025 squad has limited time left together.
They face the high-flying Brisbane Broncos in Hamilton on Sunday before winding up the regular season against Wests Tigers in Sydney next week.
As a start-up team the Warriors have made a significant impact on the competition by winning three of their nine games so far and knowing they could have easily won more but head coach Ron Griffiths has a more holistic take on the campaign.
“From day one we’ve honed in on what people see when they watch us play,” he said.
“We feel like we’ve given them the pictures we were chasing and we’ve spoken about the magnitude of the next two weeks and this group never being together again.
“The reality is we have players and staff who won’t be here next year. That’s sport so it’s just making sure they enjoy their time together and keep doing what they’ve been doing.
Match: Warriors v Broncos
Round 10 -
home Team
Warriors
9th Position
away Team
Broncos
2nd Position
Venue: FMG Stadium Waikato, Hamilton
“They’ve been really connected but I think it really hit them this week. We haven’t come up for air. We’ve been midseason and just chewing through.”
Regardless of results against the Broncos and the Tigers, Griffiths rates the season a success.
“There has been four games we’ve been in and we think we could have won all of them,” he said.
“Then you start looking at the roster and who we’ve had out during that period of time. There’s Mya Hill-Moana, due to pregnancy. She’s a world-class front rower and then you’ve got Michaela Brake, Tysha Ikenasio, Matekino Gray, Laishon Albert-Jones and Emily Curtain … we’ve had six first-choice players who have been out for most of those games.
“It shows you how close we are as a club. No doubt we’ll walk away and there will be some moments that we will rue but it’s been a success as far as we’re concerned.”
Griffiths said an undoubted factor in coping with the demands of having a new group based in New Zealand has been the trans-Tasman travel.
“The travel is another layer we didn’t understand the magnitude of,” he said.
“When the players fly back in on a Sunday night or a Monday they have to go back to work on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and possibly Friday on top of what we’re doing so no doubt it has an impact.
“It can also have a positive impact. If they can get the rugby league-work balance right I think having something to take them away from the pressures of NRLW is good but it has to be managed right.”
