Broken Warriors: The inside story of the club's downward spiral

This year the Herald’s award-winning newsroom produced a range of first-class journalism, including investigating the state of our mental health in the Great Minds series, how NZ can rebuild stronger post-Covid with The New New Zealand and how to minimise the impact of living in an Inflation Nation.

We also tackled our literacy crisis in our Reading Block series, while dogged investigative reporting by Kate McNamara resulted in an investigation into the awarding of contracts to businesses associated with family members of Cabinet minister Nanaia Mahuta.

The following article was one of the best-read Premium articles in 2022. The story originally ran in August.

The Warriors are in the middle of another disappointing NRL season, plagued by mediocre performances, personnel and player changes, and Covid-19.

Is the country's beloved NRL club fundamentally broken? And is there hope for the future?

In a special report, Steve Deane goes deep on the big problems at the Warriors, from its rich roots in 1995 to the new ownership and management in the current Covid era.