General Warriors Football Advisory Board

[Stone]

With the appointment of Stephen Kearney as new Warriors head coach, the promotion of NZ league legend Stacey Jones to assistant coach, the retention of former Warriors head coach Andrew McFadden as an assistant coach & the possibility of yet another coach with international experience coming on board we also have the formation of a new Football Advisory Board initiative which will oversee all football operations at the club

The Football Advisory Board

Eric Watson - Warriors Owner & Chairman of the Board

Jim Doyle - Warriors Managing Director

Owen Eastwood - Warriors Board of Directors - High Performance Consultant - Lawyer
Also had previous associations with the All Blacks through Adidas, Chelsea FC, the South African Cricket Team, the military command group of Nato, City Football Group (working with Manchester City, New York City and Melbourne City), the Scotland rugby union team, the executive committee of Investec and the Football Association (working with the England national football teams)

Les Archer - Board Director (??? the one guy I couldn't find much on)

Sir Graham Henry - Head Coach (Union)
- New Zealand 2004-11
- British & Irish Lions 2001
- Wales 1998-2002
- Blues 1996-98
- Auckland 1992-97
- Kelston Boys High School 1982-91
- Auckland Grammar School 1973-81

Eric Mangini - NFL Coach
- San Francisco 49ers - Defensive coordinator 2015
- San Francisco 49ers - Tight ends coach 2013-14
- Cleveland Browns - Head Coach 2009-10
- New York Jets - Head Coach 2006-08 - AFC Coach of the Year 2006
- New England Patriots - Defensive coordinator 2005
- New England Patriots - Defensive backs coach 2000-04
- New York Jets - Defensive assistant 1997-99
- Baltimore Ravens - Offensive assistant 1996
- Cleveland Browns - Offensive assistant 1995

Awen Guttenbeil - Former Professional Rugby League Footballer
- New Zealand Warriors - 170 Matches 1996-2006
- Castleford Tigers - 20 matches 2007-08
- New Zealand - 10 Matches 2002-05
- Tonga - 3 matches 1995-2008

I'm far from being an expert, but that looks to be quite a diverse list consisting of some pretty heavy hitters as far as impressive credentials are concerned

From my perspective, I believe coupled with the new coaching setup of Kearney, Jones & McFadden this new Football Advisory Board initiative is a great new direction for our club

I think it unequivocally shows us supporters that the Warriors management are not just going to settle for the status quo & that they are willing to shake things up by thinking outside the box in their methods

My only complaint is that this move could've & probably should've happened a few years ago, but apart from that I'm genuinely excited & happy with the swift decisive response the club has taken so far after this latest season review

Now it's just up to the Warriors players to live up to their part of the bargain because the management definitely seem to be living up to theirs

 

[Lord Gnome of Howick MBE]

Now it's just up to the Warriors players to live up to their part of the bargain

And there lies the problem.

 

[Stone]

And there lies the problem.

Yep I hear you bro, already mentioned in another thread that if the players can't fire up for all of this then they may as well pack it in & hang up the boots

Kearney's landed a 3 year deal though so he has plenty of time to put the broom through them & reshape the squad as he see's fit if he feels that's what is necessary, as has already been mentioned on another thread also

At this stage I'm just happy that the management has taken strong, swift, decisive action so that we all at least have something somewhat positive to contemplate & debate over the offseason

I'll start worrying about the playing group when it's time to start worrying about them ... in other words Round 1 2017 lol

 

[Blindside]

So Kearney has a 3 year deal with no performance targets?
Another rebuilding phase? What is this, the 14th in a row?

 

[eudebrito]

Were Heidi Klum and Sheamus too busy for this board? What other famous visitors to Mt Smart have we had, the seahawks place kicker?

If EW wants to feel like a real sports management expert and pay the great redeemer and a failed NFL coach to bat around ideas about high performance, good luck to him.

And good luck to Awen, did they draw his name out of a hat when they were picking someone who has actually been involved in the NRL?

But if they solve the issues of poorly developed raw material, being subject to a borderline corrupt officiating and judicial system and a culture of acceptance of mediocrity, then great idea boss!

 

[Lord Gnome of Howick MBE]

And good luck to Awen, did they draw his name out of a hat when they were picking someone who has actually been involved in the NRL?

He is supplying the required pain killers.

 

[Navigator]

They forgot to name the sniper who will hide in the roof of mt smart and on game day takes out any snr player not putting in.....

 

[Johnnyray]

With the appointment of Stephen Kearney as new Warriors head coach, the promotion of NZ league legend Stacey Jones to assistant coach, the retention of former Warriors head coach Andrew McFadden as an assistant coach & the possibility of yet another coach with international experience coming on board we also have the formation of a new Football Advisory Board initiative which will oversee all football operations at the club

The Football Advisory Board

Eric Watson - Warriors Owner & Chairman of the Board

Jim Doyle - Warriors Managing Director

Owen Eastwood - Warriors Board of Directors - High Performance Consultant - Lawyer
Also had previous associations with the All Blacks through Adidas, Chelsea FC, the South African Cricket Team, the military command group of Nato, City Football Group (working with Manchester City, New York City and Melbourne City), the Scotland rugby union team, the executive committee of Investec and the Football Association (working with the England national football teams)

Les Archer - Board Director (??? the one guy I couldn't find much on)

Sir Graham Henry - Head Coach (Union)
- New Zealand 2004-11
- British & Irish Lions 2001
- Wales 1998-2002
- Blues 1996-98
- Auckland 1992-97
- Kelston Boys High School 1982-91
- Auckland Grammar School 1973-81

Eric Mangini - NFL Coach
- San Francisco 49ers - Defensive coordinator 2015
- San Francisco 49ers - Tight ends coach 2013-14
- Cleveland Browns - Head Coach 2009-10
- New York Jets - Head Coach 2006-08 - AFC Coach of the Year 2006
- New England Patriots - Defensive coordinator 2005
- New England Patriots - Defensive backs coach 2000-04
- New York Jets - Defensive assistant 1997-99
- Baltimore Ravens - Offensive assistant 1996
- Cleveland Browns - Offensive assistant 1995

Awen Guttenbeil - Former Professional Rugby League Footballer
- New Zealand Warriors - 170 Matches 1996-2006
- Castleford Tigers - 20 matches 2007-08
- New Zealand - 10 Matches 2002-05
- Tonga - 3 matches 1995-2008

I'm far from being an expert, but that looks to be quite a diverse list consisting of some pretty heavy hitters as far as impressive credentials are concerned

From my perspective, I believe coupled with the new coaching setup of Kearney, Jones & McFadden this new Football Advisory Board initiative is a great new direction for our club

I think it unequivocally shows us supporters that the Warriors management are not just going to settle for the status quo & that they are willing to shake things up by thinking outside the box in their methods

My only complaint is that this move could've & probably should've happened a few years ago, but apart from that I'm genuinely excited & happy with the swift decisive response the club has taken so far after this latest season review

Now it's just up to the Warriors players to live up to their part of the bargain because the management definitely seem to be living up to theirs

" - In the Great Hall of the Justice League there are assembled the world's seven greatest superheroes, created by the cosmic legends of the universe - Eric Watson ! Owen Eastwood ! Jim Doyle ! Les Archer ! Graham Henry ! Eric Mangini ! Awen Guttenbeil ! And those three Junior Superfriends, Kearney, Stacey and Cappy ! Their mission - to fight injustice ! - To right which is wrong ! And to serve - all Mankind !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "

 

[Stone]

I knew the F.A.B (lmao) would have it's knockers & that's fair enough, it's obviously a debatable topic

But c'mon boys, if all you're going to put forth from your side of the debate is anecdotes posing as a poorly constructed attempts at comedy or hasty conclusions backed up by no critical reasoning whatsoever then I'm claiming victory by default lol

Here's the way I see it, after spending 5 long years in the no finals wilderness the Warriors had to do something different & rightly or wrongly (remains to be seen at this stage) this move is most definitely that

And I don't just mean something different from what we've previously been doing for the last 5 years, I mean something different & unique to our team altogether cos we have to deal with unique challenges that no other team in the entire NRL has to deal with

We have the travel factor, we have a mere fraction of the talent pool to choose from compared to the Australians, we have piss poor development systems & talent scouting systems compared to the Australians, we have to deal with seemingly biased officiating just to name a few & we are not going to be able to deal with these unique challenges by just doing what the Australian clubs do cos none of them have to even deal with these challenges in the first place

That's why I applaud this move by the club cos instead of just doing the same old shit we've always done the management has instead sat down done an end of season review & quickly devised a plan of attack moving forward which involves bringing together a group of men who have had varying different levels of success in their respective fields (I gotta admit though, the first thing I thought when I saw Guttenbeil's name on that list was ... meh ... but that's just as much to do with personal reasons as it is anything else)

As far as the F.A.B goes, well we don't even know what they're actual function is going to be yet, they may leave the bulk of the actual on field performance issue to Kearney while they concentrate on things like drastically improving the clubs development systems & talent scouting systems etc, at this stage who really knows, not me that's for sure

Will this move 100% pay off for us, again who really knows, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt & get behind this initiative at this stage cos the far worse move from my perspective would've been if the club just sat on it's hands for a few months & then came out & did the same old thing they've always done hoping for a different result

 

[Navigator]

What i was more about is:
we have a head coach,
2 assistant coaches,
an nfl coach,
and a unknown international,
what about a football coach or or or uhm I know a NETBALL coach.
and what then are we still going to have a defense coach.

seems like alot more people to spread the blame over thats all

 

[AusWarriorsFan]

I love the idea. Im just bemused by the people on the board. Henry I can understand and thats all. Why the NFL coach, just for success? Awen?????? A lawyer?

What we need is a Phil Gould (not him exactly like him 15 years back) type Aussie NRL expert at club management and team management who can instill NRL mentality to the club. Until we get that we are never going to win a premiership.

 

[Johnnyray]

I love the idea. Im just bemused by the people on the board. Henry I can understand and thats all. Why the NFL coach, just for success? Awen?????? A lawyer?

What we need is a Phil Gould (not him exactly like him 15 years back) type Aussie NRL expert at club management and team management who can instill NRL mentality to the club. Until we get that we are never going to win a premiership.

Dude I agree. Having a group of unique and seperate talented people working towards shared common goal might sound good in theory but in practice it never works as I know because I have seen it fail way too many times before. Let's put it this way, there's reason why Gilligan never made it off the island and why cast of Lost ate co-pilot. Like you've already said they would be better to put together team of available rugby league coaches and former rugby league CEO's, with Graham Lowe in the preferred Phil Gould position. I mean I'm American and as much as I like the idea of former NFL coach coming in and playing part in development of this club, I know honestly that they still would be better off bringing in someone like former Kiwi Ferns coach Lynley Tierney-Mani. That's what I would be doing ...

 

[snake77]

And good luck to Awen, did they draw his name out of a hat when they were picking someone who has actually been involved in the NRL?

He was probably the lucky guy walking past when they were discussing it.

Has the function of this group been discussed anywhere? I'd say they would be the ones doing reviews etc seeing as Eastwood is included. I would say these will be the guys concluding if the coach needs to be sacked but we already do that efficiently if you look at the last 24 hours.

Once the Kearney news dies down it will be interesting to hear Doyle's thinking on this if he hasn't discussed it in an interview I've missed

 

[Stone]

Some interesting points

What I'd like to see is the FAB play an ancillary role to the core coaching group offering them whatever support they need to perform to an optimum level

In other words, Kearney & co should be able to go to them & ask for whatever they deem necessary in relation to whatever challenges arise, as opposed to the other way around where you have say SGH pulling Kearney & co aside telling them what they need to do

Then behind the scenes I would like to see them taking care af all the logistical type things that a coaching group shouldn't really have to concern themselves with, will that be how it plays out ??? ... impossible to say at this point, but I hope so

As I said earlier, we are in a unique position within the NRL because we are the only Kiwi based team in the comp & from my perspective that is simultaneously the source of both our greatest strength & our greatest weakness & we have yet to unlock the formula to consistently maximize the former while minimizing the latter

That's why I don't really believe that just emulating the Australian way of doing things will ever really work for this franchise, cos the simple fact is we are not them & they are not us

Daniel Anderson & Mick Watson tried to implement that & for all the initial improvement & short term success they delivered, in the end it blew up in their faces like Hiroshima & finished up as an unmitigated disaster that saw one of our greatest locally developed players, Ali Lauititi, sacked while he was in his prime & also our greatest player to date, Stacey Jones, almost walk out on the club he loves in utter disillusionment

Look at our countries (and arguably the worlds) undeniably greatest sporting team the All Blacks, they don't ever sit there looking at the rest of the union world asking themselves how can they can emulate what everyone else is doing, they look at themselves first & foremost & say what can we do with what we've got to stay a step or two ahead of the competition

I get the whole too many cooks in the kitchen thing as far as the FAB goes, but then to quote another well known phrase ... many hands make light the work

I semi coach & train in Mixed Martial Arts & in our sport we have a plethora of coaches & systems that support every aspect of the fight game, head coaches, boxing coaches, kickboxing coaches, muay thai coaches, taekwando coaches, wrestling coaches, judo coaches, jiu jitsu coaches, strength & conditioning coaches, mental training coaches, recovery specialists, nutritionists, time management support, etiquette training, agents etc & that's just for our relatively small gym here in Auckland which pales in comparison to what the big time gyms in other parts of the world utilize

And even though our gym is definitely a team MMA is still essentially an individual sport not a team sport like rugby league, so it makes sense to me that a professional rugby league team should have just as many, if not even more, support systems in place as MMA does

Just on Mangini the NFL guy, I'm not a follower of the NFL but I recently watched an awesome TV series called All or Nothing: A Season with the Arizona Cardinals & a couple of the things that really stood out for me in that series was the insane amount of pressure & expectation everyone involved in that sport has to constantly deal with & the absolutely ruthless way those cats go about their business, so from my perspective if Mangini was able to hang in that environment for two decades at the level he did then I think he could quite possibly contribute a fair bit to the Warriors on multiple levels

 

[pantera nhl]

They forgot to name the sniper who will hide in the roof of mt smart and on game day takes out any snr player not putting in.....

i will do that

 

[pantera nhl]

With the appointment of Stephen Kearney as new Warriors head coach, the promotion of NZ league legend Stacey Jones to assistant coach, the retention of former Warriors head coach Andrew McFadden as an assistant coach & the possibility of yet another coach with international experience coming on board we also have the formation of a new Football Advisory Board initiative which will oversee all football operations at the club

The Football Advisory Board

Eric Watson - Warriors Owner & Chairman of the Board

Jim Doyle - Warriors Managing Director

Owen Eastwood - Warriors Board of Directors - High Performance Consultant - Lawyer
Also had previous associations with the All Blacks through Adidas, Chelsea FC, the South African Cricket Team, the military command group of Nato, City Football Group (working with Manchester City, New York City and Melbourne City), the Scotland rugby union team, the executive committee of Investec and the Football Association (working with the England national football teams)

Les Archer - Board Director (??? the one guy I couldn't find much on)

Sir Graham Henry - Head Coach (Union)
- New Zealand 2004-11
- British & Irish Lions 2001
- Wales 1998-2002
- Blues 1996-98
- Auckland 1992-97
- Kelston Boys High School 1982-91
- Auckland Grammar School 1973-81

Eric Mangini - NFL Coach
- San Francisco 49ers - Defensive coordinator 2015
- San Francisco 49ers - Tight ends coach 2013-14
- Cleveland Browns - Head Coach 2009-10
- New York Jets - Head Coach 2006-08 - AFC Coach of the Year 2006
- New England Patriots - Defensive coordinator 2005
- New England Patriots - Defensive backs coach 2000-04
- New York Jets - Defensive assistant 1997-99
- Baltimore Ravens - Offensive assistant 1996
- Cleveland Browns - Offensive assistant 1995

Awen Guttenbeil - Former Professional Rugby League Footballer
- New Zealand Warriors - 170 Matches 1996-2006
- Castleford Tigers - 20 matches 2007-08
- New Zealand - 10 Matches 2002-05
- Tonga - 3 matches 1995-2008

I'm far from being an expert, but that looks to be quite a diverse list consisting of some pretty heavy hitters as far as impressive credentials are concerned

From my perspective, I believe coupled with the new coaching setup of Kearney, Jones & McFadden this new Football Advisory Board initiative is a great new direction for our club

I think it unequivocally shows us supporters that the Warriors management are not just going to settle for the status quo & that they are willing to shake things up by thinking outside the box in their methods

My only complaint is that this move could've & probably should've happened a few years ago, but apart from that I'm genuinely excited & happy with the swift decisive response the club has taken so far after this latest season review

Now it's just up to the Warriors players to live up to their part of the bargain because the management definitely seem to be living up to theirs

wheres thefitness & condiontiong guru

 

[davewjnz]

Nice work stone and thanks for the information on the FAB group.
Like anything new it will always come with its sceptics but having such a group in place shows the Warriors are not just sitting about on their hands.
Fans wanted to see change they certainly got that and some.
People will always have their own point of view until proven correct, wrong or otherwise.
Here's looking towards round 1 2017.
Winning that mother will go someway in changing perceptions and assumptions.

 

[davewjnz]

You got dibs on the naming rights on the new group? F.A.B ?
Or did you pick that out of media?
Thunderbirds are GO! lol

 

[pantera nhl]

Nice work stone and thanks for the information on the FAB group.
Like anything new it will always come with its sceptics but having such a group in place shows the Warriors are not just sitting about on their hands.
Fans wanted to see change they certainly got that and some.
People will always have their own point of view until proven correct, wrong or otherwise.
Here's looking towards round 1 2017.
Winning that mother will go someway in changing perceptions and assumptions.

Being fit & Giving it their best consistently will be just fine

 

[mt.wellington]

Having a group of unique and seperate talented people working towards shared common goal might sound good in theory but in practice it never works as I know because I have seen it fail way too many times before.

Ummm do you know how a Board works? This is exactly how its done. Different people with different specialties working towards a common goal...