{"id":94006,"date":"2021-07-01T23:42:40","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T23:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=94006"},"modified":"2021-07-02T00:56:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T00:56:46","slug":"warriors-boss-wants-nrl-rivals-fearing-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=94006","title":{"rendered":"Warriors boss wants NRL rivals 'fearing us'"},"content":{"rendered":"

New recruit Matt Lodge<\/a> will inject "spice" and have rival clubs "fearing" the heavily bolstered forward pack of the New Zealand club, says Warriors CEO Cameron George.<\/p>\n

The Broncos discard was yesterday swept up on a two-and-a-half-year deal, effective immediately. The front-rower is now contracted to the Warriors until the end of 2022 and can trigger a player option for 2023.<\/p>\n

Broncos coach Kevin Walters and new head of football Ben Ikin<\/a> were so desperate to offload Lodge that they reportedly paid the front-rower about $1 million to sever his contract.<\/p>\n

But the Warriors were delighted to snap up the Broncos reject, who's set to boost a forward pack already boasting Addin Fonua-Blake, Ben Murdoch-Masila and Tohu Harris.<\/p>\n

"To be able to get Matt immediately is going to add something to our pack and add a fair bit of spice," George told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"You've got Ben Murdoch-Masila, Eli Katoa, Tohu Harris, Addin Fonua-Blake. It's a good pack for our guys to run off the back of. Jazz Tevaga, Wade Egan. So we've got a lot of aggression there, a lot of metre-eating forwards and something to get us on the go-forward. That's something that I'm sure our backline will really appreciate."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Warriors coach Nathan Brown was thrilled<\/a> when he heard the club was chasing Sea Eagles enforcer Fonua-Blake during the off-season.<\/p>\n

"I nearly fell off my chair," Brown said in a press conference early this season.<\/p>\n

Murdoch-Masila's signing from Super League club Warrington was another savvy buy, the former Wests Tigers hardman bringing with him 11 Tongan Test caps.<\/p>\n

Harris, a 16-Test Kiwis star, has also been a major contributor for the Warriors since crossing from the Storm ahead of season 2018.<\/p>\n

And although Lodge has departed a fallen powerhouse, he and front-row Broncos buddy Payne Haas have been among Brisbane's few shining lights over the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n

"I have no doubt people will be looking at our forward pack now and fearing us," George said.<\/p>\n

"They're big, they're strong, they're aggressive and there's a lot of class amongst them. They can offload, they can play with the ball in their hand and they can defend well. Across the board there's speed, class and a lot of footy in them.<\/p>\n

"Matt's a no-nonsense player and will certainly get us on the front foot, along with Addin. We've got a lot of class on the back of that who can really play some footy and have a bit of fun. I think that's something we've pulled together quite well and to get Matt mid-season is a real asset to us."<\/p>\n

On top of Lodge, Fonua-Blake and Murdoch-Masila, the Warriors have also picked up prodigious teen fullback Reece Walsh<\/a>, veteran halfback Chad Townsend<\/a> and classy winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak<\/a> during the last 12 months. And when Townsend heads to the Cowboys<\/a> at the end of the season, star playmaker Shaun Johnson<\/a> will fill his void.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Without a doubt we've been very sensible with our cap management over the last couple of years. (Recruitment manager) Peter O'Sullivan has played a real strategic role in that," George said.<\/p>\n

"We've thought long and hard about each signing, about what they bring to the table for our club. Without a doubt, having the aggression and the go-forward is going to allow the likes of Roger this year, Reece, Dallin coming into our team, Chad's going to be good for us over the back end of this year with his game management, Kodi Nikorima, we've got a lot of young kids that are very fast and very aggressive out wide who are still coming through the ranks.<\/p>\n

"It's all about a timing thing and it's all about bringing in the right players to complement each other, and that's something we've been very strategic and conscious of doing."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New recruit Matt Lodge will inject "spice" and have rival clubs "fearing" the heavily bolstered forward pack of the New Zealand club, says Warriors CEO […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94006"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94008,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94006\/revisions\/94008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}