NRL: Club in good shape to take another tilt at league spoils

Shaun Johnson of the Warriors. Photo / Getty Images

As Shaun Johnson was boarding the plane home yesterday, he was clutching a replica NRL trophy. Although it wasn't, sadly, the real thing, he and his teammates came close after a memorable season.

It hardly seemed possible when Ivan Cleary took over as Warriors coach in 2006. He replaced Tony Kemp after a dreadful 2005 campaign and immediately found himself in the middle of a salary cap scandal that scuppered 2006.

Four finals appearances in the final five years of his tenure, including a trip to the grand final, represent a good return and the club are in good shape. Add in back-to-back Toyota Cup titles and a well-oiled production line and there's every reason to be optimistic for the future.

"I think it's a team in the making," said Warriors director of football John Hart, who had a big influence in building the squad alongside Cleary. "It's a very young team but it's got experience now.

"I look at the side in terms of what depth we have in every position and probably only centre is where we are a bit thin. But Jerome Ropati is coming back and Krisnan Inu stood up. Otherwise, I think we are in very good space. This team goes ahead next year other than Lance [Hohaia] and Aaron Heremaia."

It also goes ahead without Cleary, who will link up with Phil Gould at Penrith in 2012.

New coach Brian McClennan takes over a squad not far off being the best in the competition but the expectations on him to deliver that first premiership will be huge.

It will take time for him to mould the squad in the way he wants but also time for the players to adapt to him, but he showed at Leeds he can take a successful club and keep them at the top after he won two UK Super League titles.

There were many who doubted he could transfer his success at international level to a club environment but he quickly dispelled those concerns. Crucially for him, he is virtually the only change in the coaching staff. Tony Iro and John Ackland return along with trainer Craig Walker. There will still be an air of familiarity about the place when the players return for pre-season training towards the end of the year.

It will become a priority to lock Johnson into a long-term contract, and he expressed interest in staying after the grand final, and to see if they can somehow convince James Maloney to stay beyond next season. The events surrounding Cleary's departure served to illustrate the need to be proactive in the market.

Cleary is not one to get caught up in emotion. In the final few weeks, as he approached each game wondering if it would be his last, he barely talked about himself. In many respects, his players did the talking for him with the way they played.

"I don't realise how hard [leaving is] going to be yet," he said afterward. "I am looking forward to a new challenge but I will definitely miss these guys, led by this bloke next to me," he said, turning to captain Simon Mannering.

It is players like Mannering who encapsulate this Warriors side. He is still only 25 but has played close to 150 games. It's a young side - Micheal Luck was the oldest starter in the grand final at 29 - but one with growing experience. The four front rowers, widely acknowledged as the best rotation in the competition, have an average age of 23 but all four have played well in excess of 50 games and two are already in the 100 club.

That's Cleary's legacy. He wouldn't rush a youngster into the side but also wasn't afraid to give them a chance if he thought they were ready. He was helped enormously by the introduction of the under-20s competition in 2008, which hardened the players to professional football, and the arrivals of Johnson, Elijah Taylor, Russell Packer, Ben Matulino and Kevin Locke are proof the NRL is becoming a younger man's competition.

There's certainly no room for complacency. The story of the Gold Coast, who finished fourth in 2010 but collected the wooden spoon 12 months later, is a good reminder of how competitive the NRL is. But the Warriors seem to be closer to finally taking home a significant piece of luggage from Australia.