New Zealand Warriors coach Stephen Kearney is close to penning a new deal with the club, according to a report by Stuff.

Kearney is coming off a stellar 2018 season, steering the Warriors to their first finals appearance since 2011. 

Warriors CEO Cameron George stopped short of confirming a new contract, but revealed that discussions were tracking positively.

"I'm still working with Stephen around finalising my desire to have him at the club for a longer term," George told Stuff.

"I'm hopeful of being able to finalise that in the new future."

It would be beneficial for both the coach and club to finalise a new deal before the season commences next month.

George also said the New Zealand is looking to host the All Stars-Maori Kiwis clash in 2020.

"I've had a discussion with John about us together looking at trying to bring that back to New Zealand next year," George said.

"I've had preliminary discussions with the NRL about the possibility of that and I'll follow that up this week.

"I think it would be absolutely fantastic, both for the game and also for Maori culture to have the game in New Zealand next year."

The Warriors mentor added that potential venues to host the fixture had not yet been discussed, instead opting for an "open minded" approach.

"I think we'd have an open mind about where it could be attracted to," George said.

"We'd have to work with the local authorities around that, it's very early stages.

"It's simply an idea that I think we should explore and I'm prepared to explore it with John and his team.

"We can all be a part of this and I think it would be wonderful for New Zealand, the game of rugby league and I know we'd get a huge amount of support.

"Where you'd do it, you'd try to do it at a sensible location that would give access to the game to as many people as possible.

"There are plenty of options and it's very early days."

5 COMMENTS

  1. Probably should wait till half way through the season to sign him on a big extension it’s not like they have made the team better and all we have to do is look at recent history about how bad the warriors are when Johnson is not on the field.

    Also Chanel Harris-Tavita has never really impressed at any level he has played in which is very concerning and he has got to rely on Green (who started of strong but declined abit by the end of last year) and Luke (who was good last year but horrible for the majority of his warriors stint) to do the majority of the work to hide his game but I’m not sure that they can do that throughout the course of a season

  3. I put Kearney in the Paul McGregor basket. Neither will be poached by rival clubs so sit back and see how the teams are travelling after Origin then make your move. Silly move to sign him now

  4. nah no need to wait, he’s got the goods, how can you say he hasn’t made the team better when he’s signed RTS, Harris, Blair, Ah Mau, Luke, Beale , Green, ? he’s got the club going in the right direction and we have a well balanced squad with the only question marks being who the half will be & who’s kicking goals…hopefully one of our youngins can fill that void

  5. Clearly I mean for this season he made one signing of significants which was Ah Mau who is a powerhouse bench front rower that’s it, while also losing a top halfback and letting go of his replacement in lino without signing any replacement.

    even if Chanel isn’t the first choice the other guy doesn’t scream first grade either, while Blake green Adam Blair and Isaac Luke are all year by year players some years there bad some years there good and to add to the fact that there only getting older and all 3 of them maybe have 2 years of first grade in them max I don’t see this right direction you speak of

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