Rugby league: Cameron George reveals why Warriors will stay based in Australia for NRL season

The Warriors have ruled out reinstating their scheduled June fixture at Mt Smart Stadium, due to commitments already made in Australia.

The club originally planned to have their long-awaited first homecoming game on June 18 against Penrith, with the match against the NRL premiers set to be the first in Auckland for 1023 days.

But that fixture was scratched in mid-February, with the club assessing it wouldn't be feasible in the wake of Government projections around isolation periods for travellers at that time.

The picture has since changed dramatically, in terms of border restrictions, isolation periods and venue-capacity restrictions, allowing the Wellington Phoenix to stage matches in Wellington and Auckland next month.

But after already changing their plans, the Warriors have no plans to deviate further.

"We have our plan and it is all mapped out, all sorted and we will stick to that," Warriors chief executive Cameron George told the Herald. "The Government set their plans and we set ours.

"Given the Government does more backflips than the gymnasts at the Olympics, we have had to lock in stadiums and commit to other things over here (Australia). Just because they have changed their mind, we can't just do backflips."

That means the Warriors will stay with four Auckland matches in 2022 - July 3 v Tigers; July 29 v Storm; August 12 v Bulldogs; September 3 v Titans - instead of the five that were originally proposed.

The club also have no plans to relocate permanently back to Auckland before the end of this season.

It would be theoretically possible, given the impending open border and lack of other restrictions that have kept the Warriors marooned since March 2020, but George said it wasn't feasible given the requirements to move the entire football operation from Redcliffe, as well as resettling players, coaches and staff.

"We have got more than 30 people that would need accommodation at least – and you can't just move after a game on a Saturday in the middle of a season, with families and all that kind of thing," said George. "The end of the season is the right thing to do and everyone will have time to get sorted and get settled."

The Warriors also wanted to avoid any unnecessary upheavals, after all the movement of the past two years.

"Our commitment to the footy club was to give them a home this year," said George. "All we did was follow the Government restrictions. All businesses need to plan, and they chop and change so much. We wanted to take all of that out of the equation and give our families the option to have one school, one place to live, one place to work."

However George agreed that things were looking promising for a permanent shift home after this campaign.

"We hope to commence [pre-season] training, whenever that is, from Mt Smart," said George. "It is looking extremely likely that that will go ahead."