Warriors coach expects rivals to give them their best

By Will Toogood

According to Andrew Webster, underdog stories are best enjoyed from the comfort of your lounge while enjoying a beer.

In his role as coach of the Warriors, however, he doesn’t believe his side should ever be considered underdogs - quite the opposite.

“I like an underdog story when I’m sitting in the lounge having a beer and I don’t care who’s playing - I always go for the underdog. As coach of the Warriors, I never felt like we were the underdogs. I never tried to spin it to the players that no one thinks we can do this.

“I was actually the opposite. I was saying, ‘Boys, we should put expectation on ourselves. You are better than you think you are, and we’ve got to go after this’.”

The 2023 Warriors season, Webster’s first in charge, saw the Penrose-based side become a surprise story in NRL through reaching a preliminary final.

This season, the rugby league world is on notice - the Warriors’ opponents will be wary of them. Webster says he is aware of this and reiterates that he never bought into the underdog tag.

“There’s no underdog for me. The expectation from external noise is we’re not underdogs. They’re going to come after us, they’ll fall over, they won’t fly under the radar - even better. Let them come, because we’re going to go after them and enjoy the challenge.

“Teams are going to give us their best - great. We’re going to have to learn to handle it. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s an awesome challenge.”

That mentality will be stirring for the Mt Smart faithful, who will be waiting to see whether the Warriors can back up their 2023 efforts, or go even further.

“It’s our year” has become a slightly tongue-in-cheek calling cry over the years for fans who would head along to the Fortress of Faith for the first round with hopes of grand final glory in their hearts.

Webster is familiar with the term and takes it literally, saying he is trying to instill an expectation into his charges that every year ought to be the Warriors’ year.

“When I was here seven years ago, they used to say ‘Is this our year?’ And then when I first arrived, they said ‘Is this our year?’ My comment then was, ‘Every year’s got to be our year’. It has to be our year.

“What I mean by that is the expectation is the same every year - how we go about it is different. There will be different challenges, different personnel. There will be things we’ve got to add to our game, to take away from our game.”

Like the fans, Webster wants the success of last season to continue, with the ultimate goal of a Premiership in his sights.

“The scenario will change each year, but [the goal is] winning the grand final, winning every game and every year being our year. We’re here for sustained success. We don’t want to just be a top-four team and then fall out.”

Buoying those Premiership hopes is the news that star halfback Shaun Johnson is out of his moon boot and was running at training on Thursday. Club physios had Johnson in the boot in order to restrict movement as a precaution after he sustained an ankle injury during training.

Webster expects him to join the rest of the group next week with an aim to play in the second trial match, and says “round one is not in any doubt at all”.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission