Stuff Digital Edition

Rebuilding Warriors a welcome challenge for promoted Hodges

David Long

Some may say that as head coach, Nathan Brown has the most important job at the Warriors; others could argue it’s CEO Cameron George who holds that honour.

However, the future success of the Warriors lies mostly in the hands of Craig Hodges, the club’s new general manager of football.

After the departure of Peter O’Sullivan to the Dolphins in late October, the Warriors had a rethink about how they operated and decided to promote Hodges.

Hodges isn’t a like-for-like replacement of O’Sullivan, as he’ll oversee more of how the club operates than O’Sullivan did, and, if anything, he’s more of a replacement for Brian Smith, who was let go at the end of the 2019 season.

Hodges says the job was never something he aspired to, but when it was offered to him, he jumped at the opportunity.

‘‘It’s not something I thought about doing,’’ Hodges told the Sunday Star-Times.

‘‘But when Cameron and Mark Robinson [Warriors owner] sat me down and spoke to me about it and went through the role, how they envisaged it and how they thought my strengths and experiences would suit it, I went away, had a think about it, slept on it and the more I thought about it, the more excited I got.

‘‘I thought it was an opportunity to contribute to the club, the team and staff and a chance to shape what we’re trying to do.

‘‘So I got to the point where the decision was a no-brainer for me.’’

It’s a change of career path for Hodges, who had two stints as caretaker coach at the Titans before joining the Warriors.

But it’s one Hodges has accepted and he feels he can still contribute a lot to the Warriors, but now in a different way.

‘‘I love coaching, but the part I love about it is assisting people to develop, as men and as players,’’ he said.

‘‘I feel like I can still do that in this role, but I get to do it with staff and players, not just on the footy side of things.

‘‘My personality is that once I commit to something, then I’m all in, I won’t be looking over the fence wishing I was still doing the coaching.

‘‘If I thought I was going to be like that I would have stayed coaching.’’

As well as recruitment, Hodges will oversee all departments of the club, apart from the coaches, who’ll still report to George.

For recruitment, there will be a small committee, consisting of Hodges, Brown and George, and Hodges says they’re working on finalising next year’s squad.

‘‘When you look at our roster at the moment, we haven’t got a lot of positions vacant or cap space for the next year or two,’’ he said.

‘‘We’ve got Marata Niukore coming and Luke Metcalf [in 2023] and we’ve got a few guys coming off-contract that we’d like to extend.

‘‘We won’t be looking to make huge changes to our roster over the next season or two.

‘‘We’ll be looking to add a couple of key components to it and we’re going through that now, analysing what we need and what type of characters and persons we need and what size of player too.’’

Player development should be the biggest concern for the Warriors, although not all the blame lies with them. The Covid19 pandemic, which is set to affect a third straight season in the NRL, has hit player development hard.

Because of border restrictions, the Warriors haven’t been able to field any age-grade teams or a reserve side and a number of young players have moved to Australian clubs, where there is a clearer pathway for them.

Back in New Zealand, Tony Iro and Stacey Jones tried to bring through players without there being any meaningful competition for them to play in, and even encouraged youngsters to play first XV rugby to get their game-time up.

The number of future NRL stars the club has lost because of this won’t be known for a few years, but given there is light at the end of the Covid tunnel, it’s imperative the Warriors make up lost ground.

‘‘The challenge for us is to build a pathway and development system that our young Kiwi players want to be a part of, where they feel

they’re going to get the education required and feel there’s a genuine pathway through to our NRL side,’’ Hodges said. ‘‘Over the next few years that should be a real measurable for us. That stuff doesn’t happen instantly, it’s like planting a seed and then waiting for the tree to grow.

‘‘There’s a lot of work we can do to help the tree grow, but it takes time to get it done.

‘‘There’s work happening behind the scenes and an enthusiastic owner who’s keen to support that space, and a CEO right behind it.

‘‘We have some genuine opportunities to make improvements in that area. It’s an exciting space for not only us as a club, but for young rugby league players in New Zealand.

‘‘What they’ll see over the next short period is some real opportunities at our club, to come in, be developed and upskilled.

‘‘Just like our NRL side, they’ll get what they earn. If they want to work hard and have the qualities we need, not just in football, then they’re the type of people we’re looking out for.’’

Sport

en-nz

2021-12-05T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-05T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282565906427139

Stuff Limited