{"id":7745,"date":"2023-09-08T17:47:37","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T05:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7745"},"modified":"2023-09-08T17:47:37","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T05:47:37","slug":"warriors-fan-proves-love-for-team-in-ink-by-getting-mystery-tattoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7745","title":{"rendered":"Warriors fan proves love for team in ink by getting mystery tattoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Warriors “super fan” says he wanted to show his faith after he lined up with several others to receive a mystery club-themed tattoo on Thursday.<\/p>\n

A group of club disciples lined up at Auckland’s Sylvia Park where they were permanently inked with a Warriors themed design.<\/p>\n

The catch however was only tattooist Leroy Roberts knew how he would mark each fan, putting the faith and loyalty of adventurous supporters to the test.<\/p>\n

It comes amid heightened fanfare around the country on the eve of the Auckland-based club’s\u00a0return to the NRL playoffs<\/a>, following their most successful regular season in more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

Wellington’s Karl Tily told\u00a0Morning Report\u00a0<\/i>he also had faith in the tattooist.<\/p>\n

\"Warriors<\/p>\n

Karl Tily gets his mystery tattoo.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0Supplied<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

“We knew it was Warriors related, and I knew the tiki would be involved,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We then left the rest up to Leroy.<\/p>\n

“We could all choose where it was and the positioning.<\/p>\n

“Leroy is so good that I personally had no issues with what was going to happen.”<\/p>\n

A total of eight fans took the plunge by getting tattooed<\/p>\n

Tily received a design on his inner bicep, depicting a tiki-headed league player scoring a try.<\/p>\n

He said the process took about 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

“It was one way I could show some faith and hopefully give the boys a bit of a gee up ahead of the weekend.”<\/p>\n

The term “Up the Wahs” has etched itself into New Zealand’s sporting and cultural lexicon in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Even the club’s longtime major sponsor One New Zealand (formerly Vodafone) has used the catchcry at the top if its cellular devices.<\/p>\n

The Warriors face minor premiers Penrith Panthers in Saturday night’s qualifying final at Penrith’s BlueBet Stadium, albeit without star halfback Shaun Johnson who has been\u00a0ruled out with a calf injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tily admitted losing Johnson was concerning, but there was “enough flair on attack to give things a good shake-up”.<\/p>\n

The winner will automatically secure a preliminary final spot.<\/p>\n

Should the Warriors lose, it will send them to a knockout semi-final in Auckland next weekend, against Newcastle or Canberra.<\/p>\n

The Ivan Cleary-coached Panthers are bidding to become the first club in 40 years to clinch a competition three-peat.<\/p>\n

The Warriors have played in two NRL Grand Finals but have never won a premiership.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

VIA RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Warriors “super fan” says he wanted to show his faith after he lined up with several others to receive a mystery club-themed tattoo on Thursday. A group of club disciples lined up at Auckland’s Sylvia Park where they were permanently inked with a Warriors themed design. The catch however was only tattooist Leroy Roberts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7747,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7745\/revisions\/7747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}