Paul Lewis: Warriors need will to find a way

Tiger Woods has it. Carolina Kluft has it. The Springboks had it last Saturday night. The Australian cricket team still has it and the England cricket team appears to be growing it. The Warriors don't.

'It' is mental toughness, the top two inches, confidence, psyching out the opposition - call it what you will. In top-level sport, it is often the difference between winning and losing and there is now a full-blown industry - some of it useful, much of it psycho-babble - aimed at increasing sportspeoples' ability to win by willing themselves to do so.

Look at the Warriors' season, now a sickly thing, and the number of close games that went against them. Mental toughness. Look at the times they've led and then conceded a soft try. Mental toughness. Look at the defensive failings at key times. Mental toughness. Look at how other NRL sides talk publicly about the need to be patient against the Warriors, let them spend themselves and crack them like a coconut. Mental toughness.

Then look at Kluft's victory in one of the hardest-fought women's heptathlon events at the Helsinki world track and field championship. Going into the final, hated event - the 800m - Kluft, the extroverted Swede, was carrying an ankle injury and was 18 points ahead of arch-rival Eunice Barber, of France. That meant Barber, whose 800m best was almost identical to Kluft's, only had to beat her by a little over a second to take the world title.

During the race, Barber took off, shadowing the runaway leader with Kluft 20 metres away. It looked a masterstroke. But Kluft did not panic. She timed her challenge perfectly and broke Barber in the home straight. Mental toughness.

You saw it again at the end of one of the greatest of cricket test matches. When Steve Harmison gained the win for England, most of the focus was on the celebrations of the England cricketers. But, for me, the most compelling illustration was Michael Kasprowicz's face.

This man, an ordinary batsman by any measure, was genuinely thunderstruck to have been dismissed. The shock of losing was written all over his face. He, Shane Warne and Brett Lee had all batted far beyond their ability in an effort to snatch the match. England were close to cracking when Harmison broke through.

Australia have fostered an almost definitive mental toughness which is why there is always one or two fighting back when others have failed. So where's the Warriors' mental toughness? To an extent, that's what Steve Price and Ruben Wiki were brought in to provide. But it doesn't seem to have spread to most of the rest of the side.

If you could buy mental toughness, Tony Kemp would be down the supermarket sweeping it into a shopping trolley like so many packets of instant soup. The reality is that no one really knows what breeds it. In the case of the current Australian cricket team and the All Blacks of the late 1980s, it was the fear of losing, the knowledge that everyone was out to knock them off their perch and a search for the perfect game.

The Warriors have a long way to go before they can start thinking about the perfect game. Already some fans are howling for the coach's head and CEO Mick Watson is not popular. Many fans distrust this Warriors regime for the way players have left the club and for the way such departures were communicated.

But stripping out the coach, CEO and, by association, some of the players is probably not the way to go. The talent is undeniably there but they need mental toughness.

Especially after they farewell Stacey Jones, whose play and goalkicking were splendid in the midst of the Warriors' loss to the Eels. Jones has gone from a part-time, ordinary kicker to No 4 in the NRL. Mental toughness. What will they do without him?

1. Buy players to provide mental toughness. The club have gone on record saying they will not do this but it may be time to dismember the current salary cap and reassemble it with new players. This newspaper ran a piece two weeks ago quoting the Warriors as saying they believed themselves to be the wealthiest league club in the world. Time to start behaving like it, then...

2. Or, if they don't do that, at least make selection a thing worth winning. Professional contact sport necessitates rotation, of course, but some of the Warriors' tinkering seemed to be for the sake of it this year. And, with every loss, came a sense that it didn't really matter. Salaries would still be paid and someone else would get to ride the merry-go-round next week. Every week we heard Francis Meli was on thin ice but Meli kept on skating...

3. Openness and transparency. The Warriors have been trying hard but still suffer from a brooding, secretive image. They need to throw the doors open more, to discuss things in public and build confidence. Players take their cue from 'front office' more than people think and openness means accountability.

4. Promote Lance Hohaia. If they are to lose Jones, Hohaia seems to be the best bet to provide that kind of creativity and spark. Hohaia seems to have an 'x' factor that he can't adequately display at hooker.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY