NRL: Warriors may ditch Vulcans

The Warriors are re-evaluating their commitment to the Auckland Vulcans and might look to the Fox Memorial as a place to farm out squad players from next season.

The Vulcans is just one area being looked at in the Warriors' extensive review of the 2009 season. This year the Warriors contributed about $100,000 to the NSW Cup side in return for game time for some of their squad players like Aidan Kirk, Denan Kemp, Isaac John and Daniel O'Regan.

The Vulcans, though, gain little traction in Auckland and home crowds can dip to as low as 200 at Mt Smart Stadium No 2. They attract closer to 1000 when they play at the home of Fox Memorial teams.

Yesterday they were beaten 68-8 by the Bankstown City Bulls in their last game of the season. They finished last of the 11 teams.

"The concept of the Vulcans has a lot of merit," outgoing Warriors football director John Hart said. "Has it achieved its aim? I would say both the Auckland Rugby League and us would have question marks over that and we would have to sit down and work out where we go."

"The perfect solution would be if the Fox [Memorial competition] was as strong as NSW Cup," Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah added. "That would be fantastic. The Knights ballot their players out to teams [in the local competition] or we could have our own team."

Auckland Rugby League chairman Cameron McGregor said they were committed to the Vulcans and hoped the team would survive if the Warriors withdrew their financial support. It cost the ARL about $300,000 in the first two seasons of the competition but that figure is likely to be closer to $150,000 this season.

"There's a huge gap between the Fox and NRL and we see the Vulcans as an important link between the two," McGregor said. "It's not just the players who benefit. It's also allowing us to get our coaches up to that level, as well as our managers, trainers and referees.

"The amount of money we were putting into it in the first two years was clearly unsustainable. We are trying to get the cash commitment down to a minimum. Whether the Warriors support us or not, we would like to find a way to keep the team going.

"We need to talk to the Warriors about their continued involvement. They would have to get permission from the ARL to play in the Fox and that's not a foregone conclusion. We think that would be counter-productive."

Maori Television are in talks about televising some Vulcans' games next season and the ARL are also looking at making Cornwall Park their home ground so fans know exactly where the team play each week.