Woodward seeking to continue

Coach Bryce  Woodward has put aside Northland's dismal defeat by Hawke's Bay on Friday to declare his willingness to complete his contract and coach the Taniwha for the 2010 season.
He said there were no real surprises that the depleted side was outgunned at Okara Park in its final match of the season, although  it put up a spirited resistance against the Air New Cup semifinalists, by throwing the ball around, particularly in the first spell.
"When you lose two potential starting props [Justin Davies and Bronson Murray] your two biggest locks [Pat O'Connor and Cam Jowitt] and you two best loose forwards [Gus Collins and Joel McKenty] it gets tough, if Hawke's Bay had lost players like [Sona] Taumololo, Clint Newland, George Nauopo, Michael Kennedy, Karl Lowe and Thomas Waldrom - then it might have been a different story," he said.
He praised the effort of players who stepped in but said the losses to key forwards had clearly had an effect on the side's campaign, with the most crippling blow the loss of captain Justin "Gus" Collins for the entire season.
"While we're not downplaying anyone's contribution, Gus Collins is not a legend for nothing, but for consistent performances of a very high level and the bottom line is we missed a player of his quality quite clearly," Woodward said.
The injury toll, particularly among the forwards, was major factor in their disappointing campaign - with the team often getting to within striking distance of wins before the "physicality" of being beaten up in the contact area took its toll  and the players struggled to compete for possession in the final quarter.
Woodward said he was up for the challenge of continuing  to rebuild  a team that could compete at a better level in the competition - or win division one ... if that becomes an option next year.
"Regardless of what  New Zealand Rugby does - if they do cut the number of teams to 10, and we are one of the four, then we want to be the one who comes up again," he said.
The coach and his assistant Blair Larsen blooded 18 players in Northland senior team this year - a massive figure by any measure. The coaching staff will complete their season review this week and Woodward said he wasn't aware of the actual number of players under contract for the 2010 year, but the number is believed to be around 15 players in the current squad.
A core of top players like the three Super-14 players Jared Payne, Bronson Murray and Rene Ranger, as well as other top performers like Joel McKenty, Mikaele Tuu'u and Lachie Munro are among those who are already signed and more contracts will be in the offing in the next week or two, despite the uncertainty around the competition structure.
"Obviously there's concern among some of the players about the second tier competition, if that's what transpires, in terms of their Super-14 opportunities and you'd expect that, but it's equally important to us that we keep Super-14 quality footballers to build a team around," he said.
 Well-performed players, like Cameron Eyre and Luke Hamilton, can expect to be offered contracts while others may have further work to do before they are offered contracts. If they aren't able to come up with what's expected then Woodward hasn't ruled out recruiting.
"The next challenge is to either build on that with the players that are there, make specific gains, or we recruit and add to it, and that's what we face in the next few months."
A full review now gets under way of the season by Northland Rugby Union staff. Players will be first with the coaching staff to come under the microscope  the following week.
But NRU chairman Andrew Golightly said the coach was likely to be at the helm again next season. "We have to build on the progress we have made this year and clearly continuity is important moving forward for 2010," he said.
He put the team's problems this season down to the uncertainty surrounding the Taniwha's survival in the competition last season.
"It comes back to the decision of the NZRU to drop Northland and that made us vulnerable because we had no players signed before October last year," Golightly said.
"So given that, there have been some very positive moments throughout the season and we would want to string them together for the full 80 minutes, and that's going to be Bryce's challenge for next season."