Why NRL great is picking Warriors to win maiden title

An Australian rugby league legend is picking the Warriors to win their first NRL title this year.

Former test and State of Origin forward Paul Gallen believes the Auckland club will finally break its duck.

Gallen told Sydney station 2GB he believed Penrith, chasing its fourth successive title, would make the grand final.

“But I’m going to go for a team to win their first-ever premiership - I’m going for the Warriors,” said Gallen, who played 19 seasons for the Cronulla Sharks.

“I’m a Sharkies fan, I don’t want to see them [the Warriors] win the comp.

“But thinking on what they did last year … if Shaun Johnson can play anywhere near the way he played last year and have some consistency, which has probably been an issue over his career …

“If he can perform the way he did last year in the big games, I think they can win the competition.”

It is rare indeed for an Australian league luminary to be so optimistic about the Warriors, whose erratic history draws a lot of justified scepticism across the ditch. But they looked like a new club under rookie head coach Andrew Webster last season, when they stormed into the top four.

Gallen was a true NRL hardman who only played for Cronulla. He became a premiership winner in 2016 and also had a very successful professional boxing career.

The 42-year-old mentioned the return of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to the Warriors, from rugby union, as significant.

He also believes that key Warriors players Johnson, who is nearing the end of his career, and Addin Fonua-Blake, who will join Cronulla next season, will have added motivation and produce big years.

Gallen picked Brisbane to win the minor premiership and the Warriors to finish second, with the Panthers, Roosters, Sharks, Storm, Sea Eagles and Rabbitohs also making the top eight.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission