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Sports commentator Ken Laban says the future of the Warriors is now in the hands of Stacey Jones.
Jones has become just the third Māori to coach a National Rugby League franchise after Nathan Brown bailed out because he didn’t want to shift with the team back to New Zealand.
Mr Laban says Brown was a poor pick, whereas Jones is a popular and iconic figure in the game and one of the best players in the world at his peak.
His low key leadership may be what the team needs to improve its performance for the remaining 11 weeks of the season.
“What’s the definition of improvement when you’ve been handed essentially a poison chalice but at least he’ll be coming back to New Zealand and two, he’s the same colour as the majority of players and supporters and not that I mean to sound racist but it’s been the cause of some angst -you could even go back to Nathan Brown’s decision to prevent players playing in the Māori-Indigenous game as creating the first of many splits in the organisation,” Laban says.
Stacey Jones has been appointed interim head coach, and he was today non-committal about whether he would seek the job permanently.
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