February 26, 2025 • 10 mins
The Warriors are balancing work and play heading into their NRL season opener against the Raiders on Sunday in Las Vegas.
Coach Andrew Webster says the team was very social for the first two days, but the players knuckled straight down and got to training ever since.
He told Mike Hosking the Vegas Strip is out of their system now, and everyone’s excited and looking forward to chasing points.
Adjusting to NFL stadia dimensions remains a challenge for the Warriors.
The Allegiant Stadium field is 6.5 metres shorter and 5.1 metres narrower than traditional rugby league measurements.
The Warriors played their final trial against the Storm in Hamilton under the same modifications.
Webster told Hosking they're adapting.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, you know what we do this time of year.
(00:01):
We remind you the Warriors kick off as close. This
year it's in Vegas, which may or may not be
a good thing. It's against the baseball bat wielding Raiders.
So how they going? Coach Andrew Webster is with us.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning morning, How are you look.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'm fantastic Vegas. Talk to me Vegas. So far, how
much work, how much play?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
We landed? And we're very social. For the first two
days the players knuckled straight down, got in the training.
Ever since, we've trained really hard and really well. I
think the Vegas strips out of their system now and
everyone's so excited looking forward to to chasing two points.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
What about the business of jet lag, time zones, all
of that is that under control.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
The jet lay. Myself, I'm not as good as I
thought I would be, but yeah, getting there with it,
definitely getting there. The players obviously got a really good
routine routine there. They're finding a lot better. I thought
today they had a lot of bounce about their training.
So that's always exciting when you know they're training well.
(01:07):
But jet lag has been It's not a long time difference,
but it's enough to throw you out a little bit and.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
The hype and the noise. Have you got a sense
on the ground yet? I mean, is Vegas genuinely interested
in what the NRL are trying to do.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
It's hard to gauge it. We our pitches are not
ours in myself with the boys and the NRL pictures
around around the city, which is cool to see. It's
pretty amazing that they're going to be headlining one of
the acts this leak. But I think when we get
close to it. We've got a big street parade with
(01:43):
on Thursday night in the old Las Vegas town and
I think apparently that's when you really get to feel
that it's Rugby League fever, and there's a lot more
promotions leading up to the first game, I mean up
to the weekend, so I think we'll feel that more
than at that stay now.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
If you go back a bit in the original news
and the Warrior is being part of this, so the
NRL they want to attack the American market. I'm sure
it's all good for the NRL, but as a coach
of a team that wants to win a game of football,
is it a potential distraction?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
And I definitely found out whether we could be going.
I wasn't interested, but obviously I stop being selfish and
started realizing how good this is for our brand and
to put it on the world stage. I think it's
an amazing opportunity for our club, but just can't be
at the expense of two points. And then I started thinking,
(02:37):
this is a really big challenge for our boys to
be able to enjoy the experience and take it all in,
but make sure they're ready to go on the weekend.
And so far they ot. They handled the challenge really well,
but as always, you won't know until you get punched
in the face of the game day. At the stage
they handled it really well.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
What about those little thing size of the field, shape
of the field, you know, the American Stadium? Do you do?
You think and talk a lot about that.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, yeah, we do, we do. In our second trial,
form were fortunate enough that the markings look field with
the Las Vegas pitch width and length, and then the
fields we train on here are the same. And then
we even before we left, we had three training sessions
on our field at home where we changed the marking.
(03:23):
So this is just to make sure that we don't
get we're not unorganized. I'm not ready for it. But
the biggest thing we find is if you got space
on the edge to attack, and the next thing our
attackers are running out of the room, like we ran
out three times today, got pushing the touch back against
each other, just simply not having our bearings right. So
we just got to keep working on that.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Now. These trial games, which I watched both of them,
of course see the commentary singed on the first one
to be a little bit negative that drawer. I didn't
think it was as bad as people made it out
to be. I mean, I'm sure you're unhappy, but it
wasn't the end of the world.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Was it? Certainly well an end of the world, nothing
to worry or panic about. I wish we worked better,
but you know, I thought we obviously needed to get
rid of some rusks. I thought the second trial were
very dominant. Obviously wasn't against Melbourne's best team, But I
thought we took a lot of learning in the first
trial and it allowed us to narrow our focus in
(04:18):
the next week around our defense. Particularly. Yeah, you saw
it much improved in a much more aggressive physical performance.
But without that first trial, we wouldn't have known that
because you think you're going all really smooth when you're
training against each other, you don't really know it until
you face another opposition.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
And what did you take out of Melbourne? I mean
you said that they didn't have much of a side
of course, but then again we had some people missing.
So what's the value, you know, of a trial if
you can't put the field or the team on the
field that you want.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, that's true, that's true. I mean the big things
I took out of it were just I thought we
were very at the start of the game. I thought
we got the start right, we got into a rhythm
with our defense, and I thought our attack was really
we're very well and where we wanted to be and
how we wanted to get there, And then once we
got there, I thought we then executed our play very well.
(05:09):
I thought everyone was on tink, but I thought it
all came from saving energy and being more efficient with
our defense, which gave us a better opportunity to attack well.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
James Fisher, Harrison for that matter, all the other newbies,
how are they fitting in? Is that working?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah? It's going really well. Fish is a strength has
been leadership, not so much from talking all the time,
but leadership from his actions, the way he trains people
just don't want to let fish down. So he's out
there doing extras for ages, and now you've got all
these young guys with him doing it, you know. I
(05:43):
mean everyone's always done extras at our club, but it's
just done to a different intensity now, which is really cool.
Aaron Clark has then he's a new playoff thought. He's
been awesome and he's ford really well. In particular in
that Melbourne game he played outstanding. So it's good for
a couple of KEYWHI he's in to the Worrior It come.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Home to New Zille fantastic, Andrew. Before you got to Vegas,
you had the camp part of the summer program. Of course,
and I'm reading all about this. There was no television,
no phones, and you played board games all day. Wore
that said about.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
We didn't play them all day. We trained pretty hard
on that. Uh No, we just we just wanted to
get away and go to somewhere and we went to
Saint Caps obviously high school in the school holidays, so
we had the run of the whole facility and we
had great fields, we had a great gym, We had
a pool for recovery, and then we had dorms, so
(06:35):
there was like six to eight in the dorn. We
had a big food hall. We played lot trivia at night.
There was only done. They had to use their phones
for an hour a day. They had to come and
get it out of I fell off from the team
manager just to call home and make sure everything was okay.
But yeah, you just found everyone talking so much more.
And then at night they started playing board games and
(06:57):
started you know, it was almost like the old days.
It was pretty exciting, and as a result of it,
I felt like our connections are better, a lot closer
because I actually start asking genuine questions rather than just
in between the odd how's my social media going, and
then putting the head up and having a probably a
fake conversation that the boy said to the little ones.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And did you notice a variation in the way they
handled that depending on age or not?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Definitely the first all, yeah, it's different. The younger guys
are very keen on obviously the social media side of it,
and that's their life, that's how they communicate. And then
the sort of the older boys were more worried about
just making sure their families were good and how were
they So there was two different, two different objectives and
(07:43):
why they wanted their phones. But I felt like the
first two nights they almost didn't know what to do.
I mean after dinner, after we played our tribute, they
almost didn't know what to do. And then by the
last three nights he saw them that social, that happy,
and it was a great experiment.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Now, ultimately, what have you taken out of last year
which should have been better but wasn't to put into
this year.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, well, on the field point of view, our goal
line defense certainly wasn't good enough and our goal line attacks,
so it's been a pretty simple focus. The other one
is I don't think you can always assume that you
think we've covered that, we've practiced that a lot that
we've got that we've got that covered. We probably we
probably didn't have the same amount of detail on a
(08:30):
few things, if I'm being honest, But definitely want to
sort out our goalline attack yet. About to being resilient,
I think there's a lot of detail in that. But
I think there's also when you care for each other
and you've got a good bond as a group and
you want to actually defend your try one for your
mate and then yeah, just our execution next to the line.
We were absolutely ruthefol see you before. And last year
(08:51):
we just didn't. We didn't put it together a lot
we should have.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So the big question obviously is this our year.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
I hope. So I'm as confident as have been in
the last two seasons. So one year we come out
and did it, the second year we didn't, so hopefully
thirds a charm. But yeah, I'm confident. Hopefully, hopefully I'm
confident every year it's going to be a year. But
at the moment the boys are giving you no indication
that it shouldn't be a year.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Good on you go. Well, we'll be watching on the weekend.
Andrew Webster, Warrior's coach with us. By the way, interesting
article across the Tasman they're talking about this whole Vegas
thing by trying to crack this market America in the
city with foreign sport that few have heard of or understand.
The National Rugby League is shooting for the moon, which
is probably not a bad way of putting it. The
(09:41):
Australian media also reporting as far as they went through
Sidney Morning Herald this is they've gone through every team
and proticted where the season is going to go for
them Sydney Morning Herald. And the very good news is
because they're Australians, they don't quite understand how it works.
They have us with seven wins and coming second to last,
so clearly got that wrong.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
News Talks at B from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
Hey, you know what we do this time of year.
(00:01):
We remind you the Warriors kick off as close. This
year it's in Vegas, which may or may not be
a good thing. It's against the baseball bat wielding Raiders.
So how they going? Coach Andrew Webster is with us.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning morning, How are you look.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'm fantastic Vegas. Talk to me Vegas. So far, how
much work, how much play?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
We landed? And we're very social. For the first two
days the players knuckled straight down, got in the training.
Ever since, we've trained really hard and really well. I
think the Vegas strips out of their system now and
everyone's so excited looking forward to to chasing two points.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
What about the business of jet lag, time zones, all
of that is that under control.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
The jet lay. Myself, I'm not as good as I
thought I would be, but yeah, getting there with it,
definitely getting there. The players obviously got a really good
routine routine there. They're finding a lot better. I thought
today they had a lot of bounce about their training.
So that's always exciting when you know they're training well.
(01:07):
But jet lag has been It's not a long time difference,
but it's enough to throw you out a little bit and.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
The hype and the noise. Have you got a sense
on the ground yet? I mean, is Vegas genuinely interested
in what the NRL are trying to do.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
It's hard to gauge it. We our pitches are not
ours in myself with the boys and the NRL pictures
around around the city, which is cool to see. It's
pretty amazing that they're going to be headlining one of
the acts this leak. But I think when we get
close to it. We've got a big street parade with
(01:43):
on Thursday night in the old Las Vegas town and
I think apparently that's when you really get to feel
that it's Rugby League fever, and there's a lot more
promotions leading up to the first game, I mean up
to the weekend, so I think we'll feel that more
than at that stay now.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
If you go back a bit in the original news
and the Warrior is being part of this, so the
NRL they want to attack the American market. I'm sure
it's all good for the NRL, but as a coach
of a team that wants to win a game of football,
is it a potential distraction?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
And I definitely found out whether we could be going.
I wasn't interested, but obviously I stop being selfish and
started realizing how good this is for our brand and
to put it on the world stage. I think it's
an amazing opportunity for our club, but just can't be
at the expense of two points. And then I started thinking,
(02:37):
this is a really big challenge for our boys to
be able to enjoy the experience and take it all in,
but make sure they're ready to go on the weekend.
And so far they ot. They handled the challenge really well,
but as always, you won't know until you get punched
in the face of the game day. At the stage
they handled it really well.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
What about those little thing size of the field, shape
of the field, you know, the American Stadium? Do you do?
You think and talk a lot about that.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, yeah, we do, we do. In our second trial,
form were fortunate enough that the markings look field with
the Las Vegas pitch width and length, and then the
fields we train on here are the same. And then
we even before we left, we had three training sessions
on our field at home where we changed the marking.
(03:23):
So this is just to make sure that we don't
get we're not unorganized. I'm not ready for it. But
the biggest thing we find is if you got space
on the edge to attack, and the next thing our
attackers are running out of the room, like we ran
out three times today, got pushing the touch back against
each other, just simply not having our bearings right. So
we just got to keep working on that.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Now. These trial games, which I watched both of them,
of course see the commentary singed on the first one
to be a little bit negative that drawer. I didn't
think it was as bad as people made it out
to be. I mean, I'm sure you're unhappy, but it
wasn't the end of the world.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Was it? Certainly well an end of the world, nothing
to worry or panic about. I wish we worked better,
but you know, I thought we obviously needed to get
rid of some rusks. I thought the second trial were
very dominant. Obviously wasn't against Melbourne's best team, But I
thought we took a lot of learning in the first
trial and it allowed us to narrow our focus in
(04:18):
the next week around our defense. Particularly. Yeah, you saw
it much improved in a much more aggressive physical performance.
But without that first trial, we wouldn't have known that
because you think you're going all really smooth when you're
training against each other, you don't really know it until
you face another opposition.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
And what did you take out of Melbourne? I mean
you said that they didn't have much of a side
of course, but then again we had some people missing.
So what's the value, you know, of a trial if
you can't put the field or the team on the
field that you want.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, that's true, that's true. I mean the big things
I took out of it were just I thought we
were very at the start of the game. I thought
we got the start right, we got into a rhythm
with our defense, and I thought our attack was really
we're very well and where we wanted to be and
how we wanted to get there, And then once we
got there, I thought we then executed our play very well.
(05:09):
I thought everyone was on tink, but I thought it
all came from saving energy and being more efficient with
our defense, which gave us a better opportunity to attack well.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
James Fisher, Harrison for that matter, all the other newbies,
how are they fitting in? Is that working?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah? It's going really well. Fish is a strength has
been leadership, not so much from talking all the time,
but leadership from his actions, the way he trains people
just don't want to let fish down. So he's out
there doing extras for ages, and now you've got all
these young guys with him doing it, you know. I
(05:43):
mean everyone's always done extras at our club, but it's
just done to a different intensity now, which is really cool.
Aaron Clark has then he's a new playoff thought. He's
been awesome and he's ford really well. In particular in
that Melbourne game he played outstanding. So it's good for
a couple of KEYWHI he's in to the Worrior It come.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Home to New Zille fantastic, Andrew. Before you got to Vegas,
you had the camp part of the summer program. Of course,
and I'm reading all about this. There was no television,
no phones, and you played board games all day. Wore
that said about.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
We didn't play them all day. We trained pretty hard
on that. Uh No, we just we just wanted to
get away and go to somewhere and we went to
Saint Caps obviously high school in the school holidays, so
we had the run of the whole facility and we
had great fields, we had a great gym, We had
a pool for recovery, and then we had dorms, so
(06:35):
there was like six to eight in the dorn. We
had a big food hall. We played lot trivia at night.
There was only done. They had to use their phones
for an hour a day. They had to come and
get it out of I fell off from the team
manager just to call home and make sure everything was okay.
But yeah, you just found everyone talking so much more.
And then at night they started playing board games and
(06:57):
started you know, it was almost like the old days.
It was pretty exciting, and as a result of it,
I felt like our connections are better, a lot closer
because I actually start asking genuine questions rather than just
in between the odd how's my social media going, and
then putting the head up and having a probably a
fake conversation that the boy said to the little ones.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And did you notice a variation in the way they
handled that depending on age or not?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Definitely the first all, yeah, it's different. The younger guys
are very keen on obviously the social media side of it,
and that's their life, that's how they communicate. And then
the sort of the older boys were more worried about
just making sure their families were good and how were
they So there was two different, two different objectives and
(07:43):
why they wanted their phones. But I felt like the
first two nights they almost didn't know what to do.
I mean after dinner, after we played our tribute, they
almost didn't know what to do. And then by the
last three nights he saw them that social, that happy,
and it was a great experiment.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Now, ultimately, what have you taken out of last year
which should have been better but wasn't to put into
this year.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, well, on the field point of view, our goal
line defense certainly wasn't good enough and our goal line attacks,
so it's been a pretty simple focus. The other one
is I don't think you can always assume that you
think we've covered that, we've practiced that a lot that
we've got that we've got that covered. We probably we
probably didn't have the same amount of detail on a
(08:30):
few things, if I'm being honest, But definitely want to
sort out our goalline attack yet. About to being resilient,
I think there's a lot of detail in that. But
I think there's also when you care for each other
and you've got a good bond as a group and
you want to actually defend your try one for your
mate and then yeah, just our execution next to the line.
We were absolutely ruthefol see you before. And last year
(08:51):
we just didn't. We didn't put it together a lot
we should have.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So the big question obviously is this our year.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
I hope. So I'm as confident as have been in
the last two seasons. So one year we come out
and did it, the second year we didn't, so hopefully
thirds a charm. But yeah, I'm confident. Hopefully, hopefully I'm
confident every year it's going to be a year. But
at the moment the boys are giving you no indication
that it shouldn't be a year.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Good on you go. Well, we'll be watching on the weekend.
Andrew Webster, Warrior's coach with us. By the way, interesting
article across the Tasman they're talking about this whole Vegas
thing by trying to crack this market America in the
city with foreign sport that few have heard of or understand.
The National Rugby League is shooting for the moon, which
is probably not a bad way of putting it. The
(09:41):
Australian media also reporting as far as they went through
Sidney Morning Herald this is they've gone through every team
and proticted where the season is going to go for
them Sydney Morning Herald. And the very good news is
because they're Australians, they don't quite understand how it works.
They have us with seven wins and coming second to last,
so clearly got that wrong.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
News Talks at B from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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