It's not the Warriors' year, again - Bidwell

Opinion - Only wins will do for the New Zealand Warriors.

The club won the admiration of fans across the NRL in 2020, having had to unexpectedly play the season in Australia. The players and their families sacrificed a huge amount to keep the competition going and everyone was grateful for that.

But sentiment only goes so far in sport. At some point it's only results that matter and that's the Warriors' challenge.

For all the club's many fine qualities, they remain only a mediocre football team. You assume they'll mix good days with bad this season and inevitably fall short of qualifying for the playoffs.

There's a but here, of course, and it goes by the name Phil Gould.

Gould, signed by the Warriors in a very broad consultancy role last year, is a rugby league genius. He won his first NRL title as a head coach aged just 30 and has been one of the game's most influential figures ever since.

The Sydney Roosters, for instance, are one of the competition's successful clubs over the last 25 years. Gould built that. Penrith are the game's emerging superpower and Gould built them too.

State of Origin is the jewel in the rugby league crown in part because of Gould's long involvement as New South Wales coach and then television commentator.

His best work here remains ahead of him. Between the Warriors and the New Zealand Rugby League, Gould will build player pathways and commercial opportunities that should help the game realise its enormous potential.

For all the rugby league talent this country has produced, the game has invariably been a shambles off the park. Gould, with the backing of Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V'landys, has been recruited to change all that.

The continued impact of Covid-19 has delayed some of Gould's intended initiatives on that front, leaving plenty of time to impart his wisdom upon the Australia-based Warriors.

The team are a long way off being the most talented one in the competition. Their back-three of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, David Fusitu'a and Ken Maumalo is impressive, but the remainder of the backline lacks quality.

Competitions tend to be won by teams with dominant or exceptionally-talented players in the so-called spine. The rugby-bound Tuivasa-Sheck is an elite fullback, but five-eighth Kodi Nikorima, halfback Chanel Harris-Tavita and hooker Wayde Egan are merely adequate.

The players in those pivotal positions can be made to look better if they are playing behind a dominant pack but - again - the Warriors' forwards are competent rather than outstanding.

Then there's the coach. Be they tactical masterminds or hard taskmasters, coaches can make a critical difference too.

Sadly, in the Warriors' case, new head coach Nathan Brown is neither a mastermind nor a taskmaster. He's a just genuinely nice bloke, whose track record suggests he'll get on well with the players and that they'll be a happy bunch of campers, but that they won't actually win that often.

That won't really wash this year. People's goodwill isn't endless and the Warriors are going to be judged on wins and losses.

Last year's bar was exceptionally low. No-one demanded anything from the team. As long as they appeared to be trying - and didn't complain about being stuck in Australia - then critics were content to leave them alone.

The Warriors finished 10th in 2020 and there's every indication that a similar outcome awaits this time around. Is that good enough? Probably not, but then this isn't a great Warriors team.

One thing nags at you, though, and stops you from writing off the team entirely. That thing is Gould and it will be fascinating to see how his genius might make these Warriors more than the sum of their parts.