New signings Chad Townsend and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak open up about joining the Warriors and the return of Shaun Johnson.
New recruit Dallin Watene-Zelezniak is happy to play second fiddle to Reece Walsh at the Warriors.
The 25-year-old Kiwis captain played most of his early NRL career out wide but moved to the Bulldogs in 2019 partly due to the carrot of playing fullback, after impressing for the Kiwis infour test matches in 2018 at the back.
He has been named to start on the wing in Friday's match against the Dragons on the Central Coast, his first appearance for the Warriors, while Walsh sits on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.
But Watene-Zelezniak is pragmatic about the situation at the Mount Smart club, aware that Walsh is earmarked as the long-term custodian.
"When I captained the Kiwis [in 2018] I got asked where I preferred to play and I said fullback," said Watene-Zelezniak. "Then the media came out and blasted it out there that 'he wants to play fullback; he's not playing anywhere else. But the coaches that have spoken to me all know that I play centre, wing, fullback - wherever the coach wants me."
Watene-Zelezniak has been constantly rotated since his NRL debut in 2014. From a total of 147 appearances, he has 94 games on the wing, 41 at fullback and eight in the centres. Even most recently at the Bulldogs, only 56 per cent of his games were at the back.
"To be honest I really just want to cement one spot, string some games together in one spot," said Watene-Zelezniak. "I'm looking forward to that as well."
The shift comes at a pivotal time in his career. After five seasons at Penrith, Watene-Zelezniak was a marquee signing for Canterbury-Bankstown midway through the 2019 season, on an estimated $800,000 a season. But it didn't really work out.
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak of the Bulldogs warms up before the round five NRL match between the Canterbury Bulldogs and the Melbourne Storm. Photo / Getty Images.
The Bulldogs finished only three points adrift of the top eight in 2019, but bombed last season, sharing the wooden spoon with the Broncos [three wins]. This campaign hasn't been much better – only two wins from 14 games – and the high priced Kiwi international was a casualty.
"It just happened so fast and I never really time to process it," said Watene-Zelezniak. "I didn't think it would come but I'm guessing it is a business decision."
"When your team's not doing too well you got to try to find ways to free up money and be able to buy people in. We weren't performing on the field so some people have to go or some things have to change and unfortunately, I was one of those people."
"[But I still] love to play and all these things that happened before sort of take away from the real reason you played footy, and that's because you loved it as a kid. You loved it growing up and that hasn't changed – I just have different colours now."
Watene-Zelezniak will be under pressure to perform – especially replacing a fan favourite like Ken Maumalo – but doesn't lack motivation. He describes the chance to pull on a Warriors' jersey as a "childhood dream" and something he never thought would happen, after emigrating from Hamilton to Australia with his family as a 5-year-old.
He is looking forward to taking on a leadership role at the club – "when you do finish up football, you're gonna be living through those young kids" – and the prospect of teaming up with Shaun Johnson next season.
Watene-Zelezniak has spent the past two days on a crash course learning the Warriors' structure and plays, ahead of Friday's clash against the Dragons [8pm NZT].
