The Warriors were at their Harlem Globetrotter-esque best in a 56-18 dismantling of an Origin-depleted Brisbane in Round 12 of the 2013 season – the highest score ever conceded by the Broncos at home. Playmakers Feleti Mateo and Shaun Johnson ran riot, while Glen Fisiiahi, Manu Vatuvei, Konrad Hurrell and Thomas Leuluai all bagged doubles in the 10-try landslide.
The exhilarating win helped deflect attention away from front-row enforcer Russell Packer, who was busted urinating on the Suncorp Stadium turf pre-game and fined $15,000 for bringing the game into disrepute. A permanent member of the Warriors’ pack since early-2009, Packer played just one more game for the club (his 110th) with injury curtailing his season before an ill-fated move to the Knights.
Birth Of An Icon
The Warriors’ thrashing of the Broncos was immortalised in unlikely fashion. Brisbane-based fan Tyson Ella caught the TV cameras’ attention with his ‘LETS GONE WARRIORS’ sign and accompanying pūkana. At first regarded as confusing and an affront to syntax and punctuation, Ella’s slogan quickly became a catchcry for Warriors supporters and was adopted as an official hashtag by the club. The Spinoff have attempted to make Ella’s place in Kiwi folklore official in the TV series Get It to Te Papa, which campaigned to get ‘cultural artefacts’ into New Zealand’s national museum (albeit alongside a dildo thrown at politician Steven Joyce).
Categories: Flashbacks
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