A "marquee" coach was promised but Matt Elliott arrived instead and when he moved on (his departure presented by the club as a resignation when everyone knew it was a sacking), the club was on its fifth coach in two years with Andrew McFadden. Watson said McFadden was the one he'd had his eye on all along. Give us a break.
This all came after one of the most successful regimes — coach Ivan Cleary and director of football John Hart — was farewelled by the club. CEO Wayne Scurrah blamed "inaccurate reporting" and maintained Cleary wanted to leave. Cleary said he never wanted to leave. Club sources said he got an offer from Penrith but the Warriors decided against matching or bettering it.
Current CEO Jim Doyle seems a straight shooter and McFadden has done okay — at least before the wheels fell off this year, sparked by injuries to Shaun Johnson, Ryan Hoffman, Thomas Leuluai, Manu Vatuvei and the shoulder-charge absence of the vital Ben Matulino.
But, as it became clear the Warriors' season had run out of gas, out it came. McFadden talked about the mess he discovered when he arrived and lack of professionalism in some players; reports had him saying some were not up to NRL standard. It's an old ploy or temptation — under pressure, return to inherited mistakes to explain the present. Governments do it all the time — ramping back issues of the day to "when the Labour government was in power".
Warriors fans deserve more; there should be defiance, something more upbeat than the rather weary acceptance we have seen in recent weeks. Hoffman, indisputably a professional, said: "Players are starting to realise what it takes to be a rugby league player. Previously, there have been a few people that have liked the idea of being a professional rugby league player, but not exactly what it takes to actually be one."
Hoffman says the team culture is getting better. Discipline, punctuality and weight management are among the failings, allegedly — schoolboy stuff which should have been inculcated years ago. Players turning up 10kg overweight is their failure but Warriors fans must despair at times. This has been going on for years and only the Cleary-Hart era has ever looked like delivering the professional consistency required.
Fullback Sam Tomkin's contention the club lacked professionalism came a week earlier — the same Tomkins who is sodding off to Britain after feeling homesick. Somehow, don't think you'll find a chapter on homesickness in the Handbook Of Professional Sport. Tomkins has been a disappointment; he has not adapted well to the NRL and, while it is certain he meant well with his professionalism remarks, the irony of his departure is inescapable.
Ironic, too, the finger is being pointed at some of the younger players because the Warriors, up to now, have cast themselves largely as a development club, the best example of which is Johnson, without whom they look bereft.
I said with some delight, when they beat Melbourne only a few short weeks ago, they seemed to have developed depth. After that came the 24-0 loss to the Roosters. A good team, the Roosters, judgement suspended; then the 32-12 loss to an ailing Manly, the Sharks out-gutsed them 18-14 and then the 36-0 drubbing by an average Dragons team before last weekend's loss to Cleary's Panthers and last night's 19-12.
What is besetting them is a familiar complaint: mental toughness or the lack thereof in a truly tough NRL season. Against the Dragons, the Warriors looked like a side with lost belief; deciding, in their sub-conscious, their season was over as much as Johnson's was. That's not what professionals do; professionals knuckle down when a star is dimmed and make sure the light is shone by someone else or everybody else.
But in the Warriors the ferris wheel of mediocrity continues to turn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE8R-7LzVpQ and we get more explanations difficult to believe.
