New Warriors coach Andrew Webster will take cues from former club Penrith as he looks to re-energise his new side's pathways system but is warning it will take some time to parlay development into dynasty.
An assistant to Ivan Cleary in the Panthers' 2021 and 2022 premiership-winning seasons, Webster is the fifth man to coach the Warriors since the onset of the pandemic but the first with the luxury of basing the side out of Auckland.
One of the Warriors' major disadvantages in three years as nomads was being deprived of their local juniors; border restrictions forced the club's NSW Cup and SG Ball sides to withdraw from their respective Australia-based competitions.
The situation meant the Warriors needed to borrow players from other clubs when injuries mounted late in the 2020 season, with George Jennings, Daniel Alvaro and Jack Hetherington among those loaned.
But now that their first-grade team is finally home and their NSW Cup and SG Ball sides reinstated, the Warriors are poised to redouble their efforts to foster local talent under a coach with rare insight into the NRL's most fruitful junior nursery.
"Something you take is the pathways program that Penrith have installed for a long period of time," Webster told AAP.
"I just don't see why we can't generate that here in New Zealand and Auckland.
"We've got to develop our own. I'm super passionate about that."
The Warriors are already at work making the best of their return; the club is taking coaching clinics around the country, organising home stays for prospects scouted outside Auckland and have hired ex-coach Andrew McFadden as general manager of recruitment.
"The club is investing a lot of time and resources into junior development, which is exciting. I'm all for it," Webster said.
"It has a huge benefit for the future of the club and I can't wait to see it unfold."
But Webster warns not even the Panthers reaped the rewards of their junior program overnight; five and a half years passed between the opening of Penrith's $22 million academy and their 2021 premiership victory.
"These things take time," Webster said.
"One thing about the junior pathways system is that they're your future in five years' time.
"But I think being back home, if you're a kid in this country right now, you're saying, 'How cool is it that I've now got an NRL team to go and watch and that I one day want to play for'."
Since making it to the grand final in 2011, the Warriors have qualified for the finals only once but Webster says he would not put a timeline on his side's return to the post-season.
"We're not saying this is the KPI, because whatever KPI we have, it's not going to be high enough, in my opinion," he said.
"The media and the fans will set KPIs for us. All we need to worry about is winning today at training. How do we win tomorrow? Can we win the whole week?
"If we do that enough times and we do that consistently, winning every day, we'll achieve what we want to achieve."
