{"id":286725,"date":"2026-02-16T12:29:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/286725\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T12:29:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:29:06","slug":"warriors-nrl-pre-season-turnout-raises-hopes-of-more-big-games-at-napiers-mclean-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/286725\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors NRL pre-season turnout raises hopes of more big games at Napier\u2019s McLean Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

But for some players, there will have been the realisation that it was the Warriors\u2019 second loss in two games on the park<\/a>, with Manly \u2013 \u201ca team brimming with youth and part-time footballers\u201d, according to their own media \u2013 winning 33-18.<\/p>\n

\"FansFans came prepared for the rain on the McLean Park embankment on Saturday. It threatened all day, but mainly stayed away. Photo \/ Photography by Corena<\/p>\n

Napier City Council events manager Kevin Murphy, whose job is to attract events to the park and other council facilities, said there would have been more fans had it not been for the weekend\u2019s weather, although there was little to none of the rain that threatened throughout.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always had a view it would go well,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were a few empty spaces on the embankment and in the stands, which was to be expected with the weather.<\/p>\n

Murphy said the crowd size seemed to be comparable with the first-round Super Rugby Pacific games that were also played over the weekend.<\/p>\n

He said he was keen to attract the Warriors back for another competition game, and believed the club would be receptive, but is also chasing such other events as A-League football matches involving Auckland FC or the Wellington Phoenix.<\/p>\n

The national men\u2019s rugby league side, the Kiwis, are also on the radar, most likely a Pacific Cup match if the draw allows.<\/p>\n

Murphy said the match had served Rugby League Hawke\u2019s Bay well, with events on Thursday and Friday, and with the curtain-raisers, featuring Hawke\u2019s Bay women\u2019s 18-0 win over Bay of Plenty, and two children\u2019s matches.<\/p>\n

The match came just seven days after the park was used for a one-day cricket match between Central Districts and Auckland.<\/p>\n

The drop-in cricket pitch removed during the week will be back in place for a February 28-March 3 Plunket Shield match, and be removed again in time for a March 13 Super Rugby Pacific match between home franchise the Hurricanes and Australian side the Western Force<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Doug Laing is Hawke\u2019s Bay Today reporter, based in Napier with more than 40 years\u2019 experience in the region covering news events and issues, including sports. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But for some players, there will have been the realisation that it was the Warriors\u2019 second loss in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,9092,1975,8834,9436,3009,3685,6489,3012,14731,3020,10543,9611,130,3607,35479,111,139,577,69,1118,8143,147997,11596,6327,1534,6102,213,3502,1734,39877,159618,3006,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-286725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-against","10":"tag-at","11":"tag-big","12":"tag-chase","13":"tag-eagles","14":"tag-events","15":"tag-games","16":"tag-hopes","17":"tag-league","18":"tag-manly","19":"tag-match","20":"tag-mclean","21":"tag-more","22":"tag-napier","23":"tag-napiers","24":"tag-new-zealand","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nrl","27":"tag-nz","28":"tag-of","29":"tag-park","30":"tag-preseason","31":"tag-raises","32":"tag-rugby","33":"tag-saturday","34":"tag-side","35":"tag-sports","36":"tag-success","37":"tag-sydney","38":"tag-turnout","39":"tag-warringah","40":"tag-warriors","41":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}