Kerre Woodham: The year of the Warriors

The Warriors launch their 2005 season today, hoping and praying that this year goes better for them than the last.

No doubt about it - 2004 was a shocker. I suppose it could have been worse - the Warriors could have been last, not second to last. It was an ugly time - how could a team that had been so right become, almost overnight, so terribly, terribly wrong? As wrong as they'd been in the 90s.

Uglier still were the fans. Not the real fans. Not those diehard boys and girls who've been there since the beginning, led by the patron saint of New Zealand league, Peter Leitch, the man with a sausage in one hand and a Warriors flag in the other. They've supported their team through its dizzy highs and truly awful lows for the past 10 years. No, it was the Johnny-come-latelys who turned particularly nasty and feral.

I didn't think I'd ever again see fans turn on a coach and a team like they turned on John Hart and the '99 All Blacks. There was real fury and vitriol against the men involved then - perhaps epitomised by the Canterbury crowd turning on Hart's horse when it ran in Christchurch during Cup Week. What sort of people spit on a horse and pelt it with beer cans simply because it's part-owned by a man who coached a team which failed to fire? That was a low point for a country that considers itself a sporting nation.

But the reaction against the Warriors last year came close. The fly-by-night fans had been seduced by the aura of glamour lent to the team by its owner, the urbane and elegant Eric Watson. They were charmed by straight-talking Aussie Mick Watson, who was ambitious and uncompromising, and yet so very accessible and generous. And they loved the boys. Those talented, photogenic, innovative, young men could do no wrong in the eyes of the fly-by-night fans. Until they started losing. And then the knives came out. Ugly rumours grew out of the fetid swamp of failure. Overweight, chain-smoking armchair experts excoriated the team and the management via talkback radio. Hate mail and death threats turned up in the mail boxes of some managers and players. Even the Warriors' kids came in for some serious grief from these rugby league "fans".

But that was last year, and this is 2005. It's a new season, a new coach, there are some exciting new players and some old favourites as well. No doubt about it, on paper the Warriors team has the most talent in the competition. I'm sure this will be a better year. I hope so. I like my league. It's hugely entertaining and while I'd rather the Warriors won, I'm not crushed when they lose.

It used to matter hugely when teams I supported lost. When the All Blacks lost the 1995 World Cup final to South Africa, I felt physically ill. Age may well bring wrinkles and regular ignominious health checks but it also gives you a certain equanimity and perspective - especially about sport.

Like I say, I hope the Warriors win - it would be great for them to get the season off to a flyer by beating Manly this afternoon. It's great beating the Aussies at anything. We'll never ever beat them at one thing though - and I'm not talking cricket.

Australia is an intensely tribal nation, and they do not attack their own. When a team is under siege, when they're stuffing up and losing games, there might be mutterings but ultimately, a real fan is loyal to the end. They would never turn on the players. And while our sportsmen can take some lessons from the Australians when it comes to winning, the fans can take some lessons from their Aussie counterparts when it comes to being a real supporter.