Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
One O seven. Welcome in, Welcome back. This is Weekend
Sport on News Talks EDB. I'm Jason Pine. Andy McDonald
is running the cutter back in Auckland. I'm in Brisbane.
I certainly got the better side of that deal. And
I don't quite know how these things turn out sometimes,
but well, what a place to be and what a
weekend to be here. Magic round in Brisbane. Sun Corpse
(00:39):
dating in the last two nights has been absolutely brilliant.
Set to be exactly the same today for the third
and final day with the Marquis fixture of course, the
Warriors up against the Broncos from five past four local
time five past six in New Zealand. Andrew Webster shortly
mark Tookey after two. He was an absolute cult hero
(01:03):
at the Warriors when he was here. He was part
of that team that made the first ever Grand Final,
you'll remember in two thousand and two. Came across from
the Paramatta Eels these days lives not far from Brisbane
in a place called Logan. It's about half an hour
away from Brisbane. As I understand it. That's where the
Warriors have set up an academy and Mark Tukey is
(01:23):
part of those who oversee that academy. So had a
chance to catch up with him this morning. He couldn't
come on live because he's got so much going on.
But I went to the brilliantly named Beatson Hotel this morning.
Was it had its name changed recently the last couple
of years to honor Queensland Rugby league great Arthur Beatson.
(01:43):
So I caught up with Mark Turkey at the Beats
and Hotel this morning. What a champion of a man.
Looking forward to playing that out for you after two
o'clock this afternoon. There are other sports going on. We
haven't forgotten about the other stuff that's going on, in
particular the A League Football Grand Final which is going
to be in Auckland next weekend. This combination of circumstances
(02:05):
over the weekend which saw Auckland FC beat Adelaide on
Friday night in Adelaide to secure their place in the
Grand Final, and then last night Sydney FC beating the
top qualifiers and Premier's Plate winners the Newcastle Jets on
penalties to to earn their spot and the way that
(02:27):
the competition is structured. The highest ranked qualifier for the
Grand Final hosts the Grand Final. Auckland FC were third
in the regular season, Sydney FC were fifth. Therefore Auckland
FC get the opportunity to host the A League Grand
Final next Saturday night. Nick Becker's CEO of Auckland FC.
(02:48):
He's going to join us in the next hour with
ticket details and that sort of thing. But I mean
this will this is historic, obviously, first ever Grand Final
to be hosted in New Zealand. We know that the
Wellington Phoenix Women made the Grand Final and played in
it yesterday unfortunately going down three one to Melbourne City
in Melbourne. Walkland f C at this time yesterday didn't
(03:10):
know that they'd be hosting. They do now, so further
history await. Snick Becker is going to join us to
chat about that in the next hour and Super Rugby
as well. I'll see the Hurricanes one again. That sort
of happened in and around by sphere of awareness yesterday.
I was I was trying to follow the Phoenix women,
I was trying to follow magic round. Then I remember
that the Hurricanes were playing the Blues and they did
(03:32):
a job, so so I'll get We'll get Kennina Hola
on the on the show this hour to talk a
bit more about that. Our lines of communication are well
and truly open. Eight hundred and eighty ten eighty nine
to nine two is the text line. Have you been
to Cameron Monster's pub yet? Piney asked this one. I haven't. No,
I didn't know Cameron Munster had a pub. I need
(03:53):
to check that out. There is no shortage of places
to grab a drink and something to eat around here,
I can tell you just before we get to Andrew Webster,
we have a new Facebook page and a new Instam page,
News Talk, ZEDB Sport. It's all been refreshed and redone
and it's looking fantastic. So if you want to follow
(04:16):
us on social media, not just this show, but everything
that happens sports wise on News Talks EDB, then please
follow News Talks Heed be Sport News Talks, He'd be
Sport on both Facebook and Instagram, and you'll be right
up to date with everything we do. A lot of
our social media content and everything else will be there.
What time is it? One eleven? One eleven is the time.
(04:39):
Let's get you inside the Warriors camp. Head coach Andrew
Webster is with us. Andrew, thanks for taking the time.
You simply cannot walk ten meters in Brisbane right now
without seeing a Warrior's shirt. The place is absolutely full
of Warriors fans. So ahead of this massive game against
the Broncos, how big a boost does having all of
(04:59):
these fans around give to the team?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Every the last three years, amazing magic round. I think
I think we're the most well supported out of town thing,
that's for sure. I'm really proud of it. And the
boys get a buzzer out of it, and it's going
to be a full house on Sunday and they're going
to give the.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Boy the real buzz just before we talk about the game.
The big story of the week obviously is Luke Metcalf
will leave at the end of the season. How do
you reflect on the way this has played out over
the last few days.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
It's been busy, that's for short, busy time. I'm learning
as part of Rugby League's my fourth year head coach now,
and you know, there's so many of these scenarios that
people do know about and don't know about, and it's
obviously been well publicized, but I feel like it's been
tidied up really quick at the back end of the week.
(05:55):
All the players have a real focused now and knocking
down and getting ready to play, and everyone can move
on to clarity.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
How potentially disruptive could it have been if it wasn't,
as you say, kind of tidied up as quickly as
it has been.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
I think the fans, the media. I think sometimes coaches
can make it a bigger thing than it is. I
think the players probably understand the business better than anyone
because they're a part of it and they live it
and they're in it. So I probably feel like it'splay
more distraction for everyone else, barring the players. But it's
(06:32):
certainly when you're a coach, you try and give the
players every opportunity as the best preparation possible. So I
think we've certainly got no excuses and we're prepared well.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
So from a coaching perspective, then how do you manage
Luke for the rest of his time at the Warriors
this season?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Mate? Just coach him as normal, Mate. He's motivated, he
wants to be here. I'm sure Luke could have left
straight away if you wanted and he didn't want it,
and we didn't want him to either. So we're very
we're very motivated getting him playing really good football and
whether he plays in the NRL or reserve great in
(07:12):
the nineteen whatever it might be. I know Luke's going
to be great to have around the group and we're
better for happening for the rest of the season.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
How do you how do you hope Warriors fans responds
to this?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Well, I can't speak for the fans, but I love them,
you know, like they're they're so important to us. We
we are. Our job is to represent them, you know,
and we've got to do it to our best judgment.
And I hope they realize that we're trying to put
the best roster together in the best group, in the
group that want to be in the group that want
(07:49):
to buy in. So if anything, I'm sure they trust
what we're doing. You can't can't keep everyone happy. But
like I said before, we're trying to go in the
direction where we're winning games. But we've also got a
culture where we on swimming in the same direction or
rowing in the same direction, I should say, And I'm
(08:10):
sure the fans will understand that someway, but we can't
please every single person.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
All right, Well, let's look ahead to your challenge this weekend.
The Broncos at Sun called one of the toughest assignments
in the competition. How much do you embrace that though
as part of magic round, given the Warrior is really
strong first nine games of the season.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah, I mean, look there, I think Broncos are just
such a talented team and going to strike everywhere. We
feel like we still haven't found our best performance, so
we're chasing that. We don't put this team under pressure.
We're going to make it a hard day for us.
Obviously strike players. They're well organized by the Reynolds Carrigan's
(08:54):
up front, so I mean, on paper, they're still probably
the most talented, one of the most talented sides in
the competition. So it's really important for us that we
put them under pressure because they're a strong thing.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
You've had the buy hitting into major ground. Is that
a is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing?
Or is it neither of those two things?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Well, we will do for a bite, mate, But we
needed at nine games of training hard and playing hard,
and the boys put everything into it, so they certainly
you need to use the buyers. Historically, not every team
come out of the buy that well. But if we
want to go where we want to go in the competition,
(09:39):
and we need to we need to do well, you know,
we need to do we'll doing this and we need
to learn how to cope and adjust and be flexible
and news use the fashion up for everything that it
should be. So it doesn't I can't guarantee it, but
our preparation has been good. They look like they're energize,
they're focused on and their team to go. But we certainly,
(10:03):
we certainly have to have arrested some stages. Can't go
twenty seven rounds. About a break?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Jackson Ford on the interchange this week after starting every
other game this season. Is it nice to give him
a break from playing eighty minutes every week, which I
don't know, might not have been the plan at the
start of the season anyway.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yeah, which hasn't been one game when we've planned to
play Jackson Frady. It's just that starts or circumstances late
in the game where like someone else might get injured,
or someone else has not gone that well, and we
just leave Jackson next. We trust him and know he'll
do the job. So as a result of that, getting
(10:40):
out two captains starting in the middle with Aaron Clark
and obviously Wade Eagan allows Jackson he's guaranteed a rest
at starts again and then he can come on the
field and finish it. So we're obviously need to be flexible.
We can't twenty seven see around or twenty four games.
(11:02):
I should say we're three buys. We can't just be
doing the same thing all the time. But we don't
want to get too cute with it either and start
overthinking it.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
It's been a bit difficult for the Warriors to win
against the Broncos and Brisbane. I don't think it's happened
since twenty eighteen. Do you use that sort of thing
as motivation in any way or is that completely irrelevant?
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Well, I mean this group when I'm like their own history,
you know, so they they want to achieve things for
this group and by doing that if they, like you say,
if we can happen to win it hasn't been done
since twenty eighteen. Well, there'll be the team that broke
broak the what is it? Who do zerone tells me?
(11:48):
I think? But if we can do that, then they
get to write their own history. But we don't. We're
not fixated on it. We're honestly chasing our best game.
We chose their best game. We give ourselves a really
good chance to win. Yeah, but well it'd be nice
for them to be the team that won in twenty
twenty six.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
What I reckon is going to be like there on Sunday.
I mean, some corps, a magnificent arena. The Broncos will
have a lot of home support. As I said at
the chat start of the chat, there are thousands of
Warriors fans in the city. I mean, do you actually
during a game get the opportunity to appreciate the atmosphere
that is happening around you.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Definitely, certainly when you're and you arrive at they came.
Some coaches boxes are really sound proof, as Brisbane isn't.
It's quite the me You get the best of both
worlds to get to hear the atmosphere and you yourselves
actually talk. But it's going to be crazy. I generally
know the NRL, in my opinion, have put us in
(12:52):
the Broncos in the second last game on Sunday to
make sure that all the fans are around all week
because we're so well supported, and obviously it's the home
home team, so they're guaranteeing themselves on camera on television,
and the people are in the stadium, an humble level
atmosphere on Sunday, and instead of everyone getting a little
bit secert football over the weekend and kind of starting
(13:14):
to have enough, everyone's and enjoyed some really go for
from the match of the round in my opinion, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I want to stand for approval for the club. Fantastic,
we'd be always good to catch up. Thanks for taking
the time for a chat. All the best against the Broncos.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Absolute pleasure, thank you, no, thank you.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
We'll be That's Andrew Webster, coach of the Warriors. Kind
a bit of time to chat Warriors. If you couldn't
get through last hour, I'm going to switch across to
rugby in the next of the Wile Kenning the Hole
are going to join us.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
At for more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine. Listen
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