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Live sport on SN this weekendWarriors young guns and recruits get first taste of 2027 pre-season
Sport Nation • November 12th, 2026 12:31 pm
Photo: Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
The NZ Warriors’ preparations for the 2027 season are under way, with young guns and newcomers beginning pre-season while the club’s top-30 squad is still to return.
Assistant coach Richie Agar said the early sessions offered valuable time to work closely with players experiencing their first NRL pre-season.
“(It's like) my first day back at school again yesterday and excited to get to work with the young kids and some of the guys who it's their first time in an NRL pre-season," he told Sport Nation's Millsy & Guy on Wednesday.
"Very nervous for them and at the same time really exciting.
“We've got no top 30 players training at the moment, but they'll gradually be coming in from tomorrow and then I say this time next week it starts to look a little bit more like it.”
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Agar said the focus was on meeting each player at their current level rather than expecting them to immediately match the established NRL squad.
“You get a lot of guys that it's the first time, the club have just signed them, some are on training trial, some will have 4, 6, 8, 12 weeks pre-season as part of their contract and you just get really good coaching time with them.
“Everybody's at different levels, we wouldn't expect these guys to be setting off where our top 30 players are”
For many, the transition involves learning the routines and expectations of a professional club, as well as settling into a new environment.
“Like an orientation day, the guys need to know what a training day looks like and some of that is actually teaching them how to train, prepare and recover like an NRL player.
“Obviously a lot of the guys are good players at junior level, but they're coming to this and they're shy so there is a bit of a getting to know period for everyone and getting a feel for the place.”
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Agar said the Warriors would also manage the physical demands carefully after the players’ break before building up the intensity.
“Having six, seven weeks off, we've got to be really careful with them in these first two weeks that the high speed running is very limited and there's a certain amount of testing around running and stuff like that before we really start going as fast as what we need to be able to do.”
The opening sessions give the coaching staff their first close-up look at the newcomers, including players they have not previously seen in the club’s junior representative teams.
“We get our first close-up look at them, we've seen a lot of them play in our junior rep teams, some of them we haven't, some of them have come in sort of externally.
“It's an opportunity to build relationships, form an opinion, see what they're good at, see what they might need to work on and it's really exciting.”
Leka Halasima | Photo: Brett Phibbs / Photosport
Agar, who is entering his fifth season with the Warriors, said this time of year is especially exciting as you can never determine the type of athlete that is about to be born into the NRL.
“My first day of training, it wasn't the best training session ever and we often refer to it, but one of the new guys on his first day Leka Halasima.
“To see the guy's progression and development come through, it’s actually really rewarding as a coach and a club and we've had a heavy emphasis on it for four or five years now, it's certainly paid us dividends and we're really excited about the cohort that have just joined us this time.”
Listen to the full interview below:
