Thoughts of family and home are weighing heavily on the minds of the Warriors this week after they chose to stay in Australia for the second round of the NRL due to the coronavirus travel restrictions.
After losing their opening game 20-0 to the Knights in Newcastles, the Warriors faced the tough choice of staying in Australia for a rescheduled game on the Gold Coast against the Raiders or risk being cut from the competition.
The Warriors chose to stay but lost teammates Peta Hiku and Patrick Herbert who were both encouraged by their teammates to head home to be with their young families.
Veteran playmaker Blake Green told Fox Sports Australia that gesture shows what the Warriors are all about.
"We've got a pretty big number of Polynesian players that are huge on family, as is everyone in the NRL, but particularly those boys," Green said.
"They were a little bit concerned about how long they would potentially stay away and not see their loved ones, so that was an issue."
NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg spent the weekend with the Warriors discussing the options available before the team voted to stay in Australia for round two.
Green said Greenberg was "great" during the process.
"He was really open and honest about the situation. Things can change on a day-to-day basis, so at this stage we agreed to stay in camp in Kingscliff for the next seven days and continue on to round two for our game against the Raiders.
"Because [the Australian government self isolation rules] prevents us from bringing people over and putting them in isolation, we decided that we would choose to do the seven days here and see where it takes us.
"For all we know, the comp could relocate somewhere else and we'd be on the move again."
The team is now based in Kingscliff in New South Wales while they prepare for Saturday's game against the Raiders but Green said just because they chose to stay, it doesn't make their lives any easier.
"We only came over here with a backpack. We were here for two days to play a game of footy. We don't really have anything in terms of clothes or training gear to prepare for a game of footy.
"To be honest, I'm not 100 per cent sure where everyone's at.
"With the rule change by the government closing the borders with the isolation in Australia, there's no chance for us to bring over players in the next two weeks which makes it challenging for us."
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