The New Zealand Warriors' caretaker coach Tony Iro has warned the players to expect a torrid pre-season irrespective of who their new coach will be.
Last year's National Rugby League grand finalists had a disastrous end to their season, losing a club-record eight matches to flop to a 14th place finish.
Any hope of sending long-time servant Micheal Luck into retirement on a high floundered on another disappointing effort in Auckland yesterday.
Up 22-6 at half-time, the home side conceded 36 unanswered points to fall to a 42-22 defeat at the hands of finals-bound Canberra Raiders.
Caretaker coach Tony Iro believes the Warriors have the makings of a good footballing outfit.
But for one reason or another, they just haven't been able to compete for 80 minutes regularly in 2012 and Iro says the team will need a tough pre-season to learn to deal with the pressure.
The Warriors are in the hunt for a coach after Brian McClennan was sacked a fortnight ago in just his first season and Iro installed on an interim basis for the last two matches of the season.
