Rugby league: Campion hangs tough for challenge

By PETER JESSUP

Kevin Campion has not come to the New Zealand Warriors to play out the end of his career on a fat salary.

Campion is as serious about his new job as he was about the old one with the Brisbane Broncos. He threw that in to follow Alfie Langer to Warrington in England, but after playing for Ireland in the World Cup he realised he had made the wrong decision.

The cold weather was not for him.

"I did all I could to get out of the deal and when I heard the Warriors were interested in me, well we started talking and that was pretty much it," the 29-year-old said.

Campion, wife Kylie and boys Austin, aged 2, and Max, 1, are settled near the beach at St Heliers and are enjoying the challenge of a new country.

The 183cm, 99kg backrower cannot believe what a good set-up the Warriors have.

"It's a shame the club haven't done better, but I think now they've got the right coaching staff and the right management, I think they will go ahead."

He will not compare what he has seen at Brisbane, where he won grand final medals in 1998 and 2000, with what he has watched in Auckland, in coaching or other terms.

"The Broncos have been building for 12 years. This place has been chopping and changing since the start."

Nor will he talk about what would have been said in a Broncos' dressing room before taking on the Warriors, and which weak links would have been pressured. "It's a different team now."

A few of the younger players have asked Campion - a veteran who has played 150-odd premiership games over three seasons at Brisbane, one at St George and four for the defunct Gold Coast Chargers - for advice.

"It's good to talk about winning, but I tell them we have to get ourselves in place. There's enough talent in this place to suggest anything could happen."

Coach Daniel Anderson "certainly knows his stuff," Campion says, though he will not make comparisons with the Broncos' long-term coach, Wayne Bennett.

He likes the spirit of competition he has found in the squad. Younger players are pressing hard for premiership starting places.

"There's plenty of potential, especially five-eighths Motu Tony who can turn on a sixpence, second-rower Wairangi Koopu and utility Clinton Toopi.

"They're raw, but if they get played they'll learn quickly. We're fit and raring to go and that's our cornerstone."

At training, dropping a ball means Campion drops to the ground to do a series of push-ups. It is not something imposed by the coach or anything he imposes on his team-mates.

"If they're not dirty on themselves for dropping a ball, well ... I'm dirty on myself."

His goal this year is consistency, for himself and the team.

"I don't want anyone thinking I'm here for the end of my career. I'm here to make the best of it."