NRL: Home-grown talent a priority for Warriors

Former Warrior Steve Price is one of the best imports in the club's history. Photo / Getty Images

The Auckland club will never turn down good Australians but development is their strategy, writes Michael Burgess.

The Warriors remain confident they will be able to attract quality Australian players, despite several factors indicating it could become more difficult.

The impending salary cap increase should make it easier for Australian clubs to retain their stars and playing here still seems to limit representative opportunities. The struggles on the field, with deflating losses to the Knights, Sea Eagles and Sharks, also reduce the attraction for prospective recruits from across the ditch.

It is a difficult sell for most Australians to contemplate the lifestyle change without the prospect of losing seasons thrown into the mix.

"The very best players want to be at very competitive clubs - there is no disputing that," Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah told the Herald on Sunday. "But our ability to get Australians to the club has improved a lot over the last five seasons and there is no reason for that to change."

The club's signing of the Storm's Dane Nieslen and Todd Lowrie seem to back that up and Scurrah does not believe there will be too many impediments to future signings.

"Recent results have been a setback but it is part of life and we have to move on. You have to go on with your strategy. Players realise we have a very strong future, solid backing off the field and a lot of potential on it. Feleti Mateo is a great example; a lot of teams were after him and he has been a major coup for the club."

Former Warrior Brent Tate says: "Being competitive is very important, there is no doubt about that.

"Players won't go to a club to get beaten up every week. It might put some players off but I think most people can see the potential of this team. It is a very young squad and there is going to be short-term pain for long-term gain."

It is a debatable correlation but, over their history, the Warriors have needed a decent Australian presence as a prerequisite for success. In each of the seven years the Warriors have made the top eight, they averaged nine Australians in their NRL squad.

The Ocker influence was undeniable in their most successful campaigns - 10 in the 2002 (grand final) run, six in 2003 (preliminary final), 10 in 2008 (preliminary final) and eight last year (grand final).

There are five Australians at Mt Smart which will be maintained in 2013, with the arrival of Nielsen and Lowrie balanced by the departure of James Maloney and Micheal Luck.

That's the lowest level since the days Frank Endacott was coach and the club had just two Australians in 1997 and one in 1998.

The club has always developed from within, but since the Toyota Cup the focus on breeding quality within their own walls has risen exponentially.

Former Warrior Steve Price and one of the best imports in the club's history, says: "The biggest thing is the perception out there.

"Are we just a development club and not looking at anything else or are we a development club first and foremost - but when the right players comes up we would [target] him?

"At the moment in Australia, I think it is viewed that we are not too concerned about Aussies; we have had a lot less over the last few years than previously. Whether that is a push from the administration to be a Kiwi club, I'm not sure, but [Australians] will have that perception - 'they have all the local boys and I am probably better off staying over here'."

Scurrah says the club will never rule out good Aussies, although the focus is development and they don't need as many [Australians] as before.

"Ideally we want to target good-to-marquee level Australians and would look to have [at least] five at any one time. They come through good systems at their schools and clubs and bring a lot of value."

Player agent and former Kiwis prop Peter Brown says it's been that way for 17 years.

"Generally, with Australians, they have come because the Warriors are paying [more] or because they don't have many other options at the time."

Brown expects prospecting in Australia will only get more difficult with the increased salary cap but doubts results are a pivotal factor.

"Even if they had won the grand final last year, you wouldn't have had guys lining up to come here," says Brown. "It is simply hard to attract them. [The current strategy] is the right one - developing costs you a lot less but it is hard to develop quickly when the team is struggling.

"They need to target good young talent, like a guy who is stuck behind Johnathan Thurston at the Cowboys and will never get a run."

The Warriors have traditionally got great value out of such Australians (think John Carlaw, Todd Byrne, Tony Martin, George Gatis, Grant Rovelli and James Maloney among many others) but that will also be a thing of the past.

"There is constant pressure now to promote and upgrade your under-20 players," says Brown, who represents at least seven current Warriors, "otherwise you will lose them to other clubs. It means there is less space on the roster."

Price agrees it is a complicated process. Our weak dollar, the travel factor and even our much maligned weather can have an impact on decision-making.

"Every time I came here with the Bulldogs all I saw was our hotel and Mt Smart," remembers Price, "and it was generally cold, raining and horrible. It's not a great impression. But I was at a very different stage of my career [to most] and looking for something different."