Our photographer is inside. I am outside eavesdropping, getting an insight into how this team has risen from the dead after being dumped from the top grade last season, seeing around 30 players walk from the club.
"The Rev has asked me to run something on his behalf. Don't know if I can do it as well as he can, but I will give it a nudge after training," Hanley tells his team. "Is that sweet?"
It's sweet. Almost as sweet as the taste of victory before them. This motley crew, mostly teenagers, the smallest, fastest, least experienced team in the grade, have surprised all this season.
"That word there, 'respect'," Hanley says, pointing to the whiteboard. "It sums up our season, who you guys are individually as young men and collectively as a team."
Respect for Hanley reflects off the players' faces. They hang off his every word.
"We are all excited but we don't want to play the game in our heads today, tomorrow or Friday," the coach continues. "We want to do it out on the field on Saturday."
I wonder if he could head over to change a few things at the Warriors.
"Respect our opponents ... no complacency. Remember, we love winning more than we fear losing. I know there are a whole bunch of you who are 18, 19, but you guys have played premier footie all season, you've come through some hard knocks ... like when we were 22-nil down at halftime to Richmond at Grey Lynn and came back and rolled them.
"Respect yourself and your ability, your families; don't feel nervous, don't be inhibited."
Speech over. The men head on to the waterlogged fields.
I hold the changing room door open for them.
"Thanks miss, thanks miss," they say politely. Baby faces, big bodies, shy grins. Just over half the team is Tongan, most of the rest are Samoan.
Hanley and I head to the clubrooms. There's history here, but recent history isn't so proud. There's been past financial mismanagement, and this year's committee is still trying to get the books in the black.
Eleven of those charged with bringing the club some honour on the field are under 19. Winger Frances Toetu, 18, is De Le Salle College's head boy. Inside centre Lui Tia was also head boy at De La Salle, in 1995. He's the oldest in the team, at 34, brought back for his experience. Only three players are over 25.
The "old" hands are the coach and his spiritual sidekick. Mondays and Wednesdays, Hanley and the reverend make a pilgrimage few coaches could match.
Hanley, 41, and Rev Mua, 54, live on Waiheke Island. Around 2pm, Hanley catches the ferry to town, then the train to Mangere, and goes by car or bus to Walter Massey Park to help junior coaches at 4pm.
At 5.30pm he sets up for his side's training. It's finished by 8, there's a chat, he and Rev Mua get dropped at the bus stop, bus back to catch the 10.15pm ferry. Rev Mua catches another bus on Waiheke then walks 2km uphill to get home at midnight. Hanley gets home around 11.15pm.
Pre-season trainings were on Sundays from November. Hanley didn't even have a team - just five players were left after the 2011 exodus. "About two or three players came. I left Waiheke at 10am to set up for a midday training and got home about 3-4pm, missing the best part of the day. It was dire."
Tough, too, on wife Shani and their 2-year-old. Does he get paid?
Not a cent.
"We are one of the few teams with no money, and no structure," explains Rev Mua. "To put it bluntly, we're on a prayer."
Other local league coaches may get $8000-$15,000. "Mangere has come through a really hard time ... with past administration," adds Hanley. "It's a new page, a blank page, but that page doesn't have any money on it."
MAN ON A MISSION
Hanley is a teacher, has a PE degree, and is a level 3 league coach, the highest you can be without coaching for years in the NRL. Level 3 means he could actually be working with an NRL side right now, if he didn't love his wife so much.
Hanley had been working for Auckland Rugby League as a development officer since 2008. At the end of last year he scored a job teaching in Townsville, and assisting with the Queensland Cowboys. He quit with ARL but nine days before they were due to leave New Zealand, Shani told him she just couldn't go.
"I admit I was pretty dark," he laughs. "Some days I still am. But there are battles you can win, and things you can bend with."
The winners are the Mangere East Hawks. When Hanley took on the coach's role, his first call was to Rev Mua.
"I was conscious that it's a really religious community, but I don't have that. I needed someone who would add value, especially later in the campaign."
He'd known the Samoan Presbyterian PIC minister for five years. Rev Mua had been sports chaplain for the St Paul's College touch team for 10 years, winning five titles, and had just finished up there.
"Within a week Keith says, 'I hear you are available. I have my spies'," laughs Rev Mua.
That was 23 weeks ago. Even though Rev Mua's heart lies with Richmond Rovers, he took the team chaplain role for the Mangere Hawks as a "project". It tied in with work he does with troubled youth at Tagata Pasifika, an alternative education scheme. Course students have become close followers of the Hawks, seeing them as role models.
Rev Mua had instant cred with the Hawks players. He's the father of Feliti Strickson-Pua, of Kiwi hip-hop R&B; group Nesian Mystik.
"The players are very polite," says Rev Mua. "But they go, 'Oh look, it's the father, he's in all the Nesian Mystik videos'."
Then Hanley made an admission to his offsider. "He said, 'Rev, have I been really ignorant?. I've never heard of your son's band'. That's what I love about him. He's a geeky Maori dude."
DREAM TEAM
The geeky Maori dude and the hard-case minister were assisted in their Hawks redemption mission by team manager David Pearce, masseur Warren Harland, physiotherapist Rory Finnemore and Brent Denny, a science teacher at Auckland Grammar, who devised the team's fitness regime.
"Other trainers saw what Brent was doing with our team and they were pulling out their phones and recording the training sessions," laughs Rev Mua.
"Brent said, 'I will get you fit and you will peak at the end of the season'. It's such a simple thing but many trainers get the boys at their fittest at the beginning of the season."
Also a high-performance coach, Rev Mua says even in the first eight weeks the Hawks were scoring the fastest tries. "Other trainers were amazed at the speed but we hadn't even started speed training at that point."
Hanley knows the importance of fitness. He's played the game, with Otahuhu and overseas. Since he retired in 2001, he has coached NZ, Auckland and NZ Maori age group sides.
"In my opinion, Mangere East's the strongest junior club in Auckland and has been for years. The kids here are fantastic. There's a huge catchment - about 60,000 people - that live in it. It's set up to produce rugby league football players."
He put his faith in the Under 17s and 18s who had come up through the club's ranks. Even they were surprised at the promotion.
"But Keith just said, 'Follow my instructions and I will get you to the Sharman Cup final'," says Rev Mua.
They lost their first game, to Manukau, then won seven on the trot. "Those young players repaid that faith totally," says Hanley.
He picks several for greater things including fullback Viliami Kaveinga. "He is the best player I have ever coached. He always wants to get better. Strong work ethic. He is fantastic."
Many players have had tough backgrounds and Rev Mua calls them "projects".
Says the coach of the chaplain's role: "When Mua comes in, he has a bit of a prayer or chat - not so much about footie - about whether they are having dramas with mum or dad or the girlfriend".
"Parents laugh and go 'What are you doing to our boys? They're making cups of tea for us and saying we should have a bit more family time and conversations around the table'," Rev Mua says.
Manager Pearce says Hanley is innovative and his could be a model for other league sides.
"He said, 'What do we need here? We need to build an infrastructure not just for playing the game, but to ensure there is education for the team, personal growth and development'. He brought in weekly speakers, role models in the community, not anything to do with league - musician Anonymouz, poet Josh Iosefo, people who told them about achieving goals. He's created such a successful team dynamic."
Rev Mua has played a huge part. "For the first six weeks we had the theme of 'champions'. We told them to be good sons, good partners, good fathers, to make a difference. The guys were asking 'How does this tie into our game?' and we said 'It's the big game'."
GAME ON
And so came the big game, Saturday, August 18, vs Papatoetoe.
Seven weeks ago, the reverend shaved the sides of his head. Team tradition usually sees something outrageous done after victory, but he wanted to show faith, and also respect to player of the year Lefau, known for his coloured hairdo.
"In league circles it's a no-no to be that outrageous but that's what I like about our boys," says Rev Mua. "I tell them, 'Don't be a stereotype; don't let those boxes cramp you'."
The stereotype that youth won't beat experience was broken with a 24-16 victory to the Mangere East Hawks. The haircut was perfect.
Hanley says now it's time to reflect. He'll will do a spot of fishing and relief teaching. His spiritual sidekick is "really keen" to do it all again. Come November, Hanley will be back for pre-season training, crucial for the team's return to the top grade. He's confident more than five will be there.
"I want to stick with these boys. I've enjoyed this. If they follow the strength and conditioning programme Brent and I have mapped out they will go well and be very competitive."
Here's a toast to Shani for keeping him here.
NOMINATE A COACH
Know a coach or other sports volunteer worth their weight in gold? Nominate them to Sport New Zealand at sportnz.org.nz/volunteers. There will be regional award winners and a NZ Sports Volunteer of the Year. Nominations close on August 28.
Know people like this doing amazing things we don't know about? Let us know! news@theaucklander.co.nz