The New Zealand Warriors 2012 season is the

New Zealand Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

18th first-grade season. The club is competing in Australasia's

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

. The coach of the team was

Brian McClennan Brian "Bluey" McClennan (born 16 February 1962) is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer and coach. He was previously the head coach of the New Zealand national rugby league team, New Zealand national team (with whom he won t ...

, until he was sacked on 21 August after Round 22, while

Simon Mannering Simon Alexander Mannering (born 28 August 1986) is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. He played for the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL. A New Zealand international second row forward, ...

is the club's captain. Assistant Coach Tony Iro was appointed caretaker coach for the final two matches.

Milestones

*4 February – All Stars Match:

Manu Vatuvei Manu Mapuhola Mafi-Vatuvei (born 4 March 1986), also known by the nickname "The Beast", is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who was both a Tonga and New Zealand international representative er. He previously played for t ...

represents the NRL All Stars in the pre-season

All Stars Match The Rugby League All Stars Match of the National Rugby League is an annual rugby league football match between the specially-formed Indigenous All Stars and an All Stars team, both of whose members are made available for selection public vote. ...

. *5 March – Round One:

Ben Henry Ben Henry is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who represented New Zealand national rugby league team, New Zealand and played for the New Zealand Warriors in the National Rugby League competition. Henry was a utility pl ...

and

Konrad Hurrell Konileti "Konrad" Hurrell (born 5 August 1991) is a Tongan professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for Bradford Bulls in the RFL Championship on loan from St Helens in the Super League and Tonga at international level. He previou ...

make their first grade debuts while Nathan Friend plays his first match for the Warriors. *24 March – Round Four:

played in his 150th NRL match and his 50th match as captain. *12 May – Round 10: Ukuma Ta'ai played in his 50th NRL match. *16 June – Round 15:

Omar Slaimankhel Omar Slaimankhel (born 4 March 1992) is a Pakistani former professional rugby footballer who last played rugby league for Western Suburbs in the Ron Massey Cup. Slaimankhel previously played in the National Rugby League for the New Zealand Wa ...

made his first grade debut. *16 June – Round 15:

Ben Matulino Ben Andrew Matulino (born 3 January 1989) is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s as a or . He played for the New Zealand Warriors and the Wests Tigers in the National Rugby League, NRL, ...

played in his 100th NRL match. He became the first player from the Toyota Cup to play 100 matches in the National Rugby League. *11 August – Round 23:

becomes the first player to score 100 tries for the club. *11 August – Round 23: Bill Tupou played in his 50th NRL match. *19 August – Round 24:

played in his 150th NRL match. *19 August – Round 24:

Feleti Mateo Feleti Sosefo Mateo (born 2 June 1984) is a former Tonga international rugby league footballer. He played a variety of positions from and five-eighth. Mateo was also selected to represent NSW City Origin and the NRL All Stars. He last playe ...

played in his 50th match for the club. *2 September – Round 26: In

Micheal Luck Micheal Luck (born 21 April 1981) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played for the North Queensland Cowboys and the New Zealand Warriors. Micheal Luck's position of choice was or . Playing career Queensland Whi ...

's last NRL match, the Warriors lost their eight straight match, a record for the club. The streak included two back-to-back losses involving comebacks of eighteen points or more, an NRL first.

Jersey and sponsors

Change of ownership

On 2 March owner Eric Watson announced that he had bought out the minority shareholders, including

Mark Hotchin Mark Stephen Hotchin (born 25 December 1958) is a New Zealand former property developer and financier. He was a director of the failed Hanover Group which owned a number of finance companies including Hanover Finance, United Finance, Nationwide ...

, and would form a new 50–50 venture with

Owen Glenn Sir Owen George Glenn (born 19 February 1940) is a New Zealand expatriate businessman and philanthropist, who supports humanitarian causes worldwide through his family charity. Early life Born in Calcutta, British India, on 19 February 1940, G ...

to control the club.

Fixtures

The Warriors opened the season by hosting a match at

Eden Park Eden Park is a sports venue in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located three kilometres southwest of the Auckland CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and Kingsland. The main stadium has a nominal capacity of 50,000, and is s ...

in Auckland. This was only the second time that the Warriors have played a home match away from

Mount Smart Stadium Mount Smart Stadium, currently known as Go Media Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Penrose, Auckland, New Zealand. It is the main home ground of the New Zealand Warriors of the National Rugby League a ...

. The remaining 11 home games will be played at Mount Smart Stadium, their only home ground since they entered the competition in 1995.

Pre-season training

The main squad returned to training on 21 November 2011 to start preparing for the 2012 season. Players involved in the

2011 Four Nations The 2011 Rugby League Four Nations tournament (also known as the 2011 Gillette Rugby League Four Nations due to sponsorship by Gillette), was the third staging of the Rugby League Four Nations tournament, and was played in England and Wales durin ...

and other representative matches returned to training later. Twenty three first graders were present on the first day of training.

Pre-season matches

North Harbour Stadium North Harbour Stadium is a stadium situated in Albany, in North Shore City, New Zealand. It was opened in 1997, after nearly a decade of discussion, planning and construction. Rugby union, association football, rugby league, and baseball are a ...

hosted a Warriors trial match for the tenth time. The Warriors also played a match in Whangārei.

Regular season

Ladder

Squad

The Warriors used twenty nine players during the season. Seven players made their debut for the club, including six who were making their NRL debuts – all of these players were graduates from the Warriors Toyota Cup programme.

Staff

*Chief executive officer: Wayne Scurrah *General manager: Don Mann Jr *Recruitment and development manager: Dean Bell *High performance manager: Craig Walker *High performance assistant:

Ruben Wiki Ruben James Wiki (born 21 January 1973) is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. A New Zealand international representative centre-turned-prop forward, he retired with the record for most ...

*Medical services manager: John Mayhew *Welfare and education manager:

Jerry Seuseu Jerry Seuseu (born 19 April 1974) is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s as a . He represented New Zealand and Samoa at international level. After retirement he became Wellbeing and Educat ...

*Media and communications manager: Richard Becht

NRL staff

*NRL head coach:

, until 21 August 2012, replaced by Tony Iro. *NRL assistant coach: Tony Iro *Defence coach:

*Halves coach:

Andrew Johns Andrew Gary Johns (born 19 May 1974), also known by the nickname Joey, is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He is considered one of the greatest rugby league players of all time. Johns ...

NYC staff

*NYC head coach & assistant NRL coach: John Ackland *Development coach: Willie Swann

Transfers

Gains

Losses

Mid-season Losses

Other teams

In 2012 the Junior Warriors are again competing in the Toyota Cup while senior players who are not required for the first team play with the

Auckland Vulcans The Auckland Vulcans were an Auckland based rugby league club that participated in the New South Wales Cup. They were administered by the Rugby League Development Foundation. The team was selected from the Auckland Rugby League's Fox Memorial C ...

in the

NSW Cup The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

. The Vulcans are coached by former Warriors development coach Ricky Henry.

Toyota Cup squad

Vulcans squad

The Auckland Vulcans contracted ten players. The team was strengthened with Warriors players not picked for each round and local club players. The ten contracted players were: DJ Collier, Agnatius Paasi, Daniel Palavi, Tulson Caird, Willie Peace, James Blackwell, Ruben Williams, Steve Waetford, Darin Kingi and Murray Iti. Sam Lousi was named the Auckland Vulcans' Player of the Year.

Awards

won the club's Player of the Year award.

was named Young Player of the Year and

Elijah Taylor Elijah Taylor may refer to: * Elijah Taylor (rugby league) (born 1990), New Zealand rugby league player * Elijah Taylor (Australian footballer) (born 2001), Australian rules footballer {{hndis, Taylor, Elijah ...

was the clubman of the year.

was the Vodafone People's choice award winner.Matulino's Night ''NZ League'', Issue 4 Sept/October

References

External links

Warriors official site
''rugby league project'' {{NZ Warriors New Zealand Warriors seasons New Zealand Warriors season Warriors season