he is very good at picking out the markers
Player Sam Healey
- Thread starter WahsaurusRex
- Start date
- Date of Birth
- Jul 30, 2002
- Birth Location
- Pontefract, England
- Nationality
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇬🇧 England
- Height (cm)
- 186 cm
- Weight (kg)
- 89 kg
- Position/s
- Hooker
- Warriors Years Active
- 2025
- Signed From
- Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
- Junior Club/s
- Engadine Dragons
- Previous Club/s
- Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Newtown Jets
- Status
- Active
- Rugby League Project
- https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/players/samuel-healey/summary.html
he is very good at picking out the markers
There's sure to be a dummy half option on a Development contract for us (Aloua/Laiman/Tafua) in 2025, like Sommerton was for the Panthers this year too, so options are a plenty
As I said, CHT will be seen as half cover primarily noting our lack of half depth.
Clark is also obviously the Jazz replacement who was very much a last resort to play Hooker. Although Clark is much better than Jazz was in this role.
I'm not disputing we won't let someone go, as where there is smoke there is usually fire but I would not be surprised if we didn't.
NSW Cup grand final: Warriors signing Sam Healey talks what opportunity move across the Tasman will bring
By Will Toogood - Online Sport Editor·NZ Herald·There’s more than one reason for Kiwi rugby league fans to tune in to the NSW Cup grand final this Sunday.
Not only are the Newtown Jets and North Sydney Bears two proud foundation clubs playing their first grand final against each other since 1943, but it will be a chance for the Warriors faithful to catch a glimpse of a new signing.
Hooker Sam Healey was announced as a Warriors player a week ago on a three-year deal from relative obscurity for those not tuned in to the NSW Cup, the reserve grade competition for the NRL.
The 21-year-old has been in the Cronulla Sharks system his whole junior career, the Jets being the Shark’s feeder club, and has notched 36 appearances for Newtown. His father is also a Sharks great, the fifth most capped of all time with 222 appearances.
Across 24 showings this year Healey has scored eight tries and averaged 56 metres and 23 tackles a game with 60 tackle breaks, four try assists, four line break assists and 21 offloads.
Speaking to the Herald ahead of Sunday’s grand final Healey says his side’s approach will be business as usual as they face the minor premiership-winning Bears.
“Obviously it’s a bigger game and we need to be aware that the stakes are bit higher, but I think we just keep doing what we’re doing it’s been working for us.”
Sunday is Healey’s first grand final in junior rep footy and he says the history between the two clubs will only add to the occasion.
“They’re two great clubs with a lot of history, great pathways through [to the NRL] and it’s a privilege to play for the Jets and share this moment with the Bears.”
Speaking of those pathways, the move from Australia across the Tasman is a significant move for the Warriors in luring away a bright prospect from another NRL club’s system.
“I’ve spent my whole junior pathways career at Cronulla, made a lot of mates along the way. But for me to progress my footy career and hopefully play NRL I had to move. It’s more about the opportunity to play NRL, learn from a guy like Wayde [Egan, Warriors hooker] who’s in my opinion one of the best nines in the comp.
“It’s more about the development of my game and hopefully have the opportunity to play NRL.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/ru...ad-of-2025-season/IWM5QURAUBDFBP6N3XR4OEXXOA/
From the outside looking in the Warriors already have a stable of NRL-calibre hookers in Egan, Freddie Lussick and Paul Roache who have all played that position in 2024 and present a positional log jam in first grade.
Healey says he sees it differently, as an opportunity to learn and grow his own game rather than something that would hold his career back.
“All of them have NRL experience, there’s something I can pick apart from each of their games.
“Competing against each other and brining out the best in each other I think we’re all only going to get better from competing and working harder.”
Conversations with Warriors coach Andrew Webster and head of pathways and recruitment Andrew McFadden were what sealed the deal for Healey, he says, with
“They explained where I’d sit, what they were looking for and what they liked about me. I decided that was a great opportunity for me and something that I wanted to pursue.”
The Warriors under Webster primarily employ a two-hooker system, largely comprised this season of Egan and Lussick while the Sharks traditionally use one hooker that will play 80 minutes. This was a crucial factor in Healey’s decision to swap sky blue for Warriors blue.
“That opportunity, learning off those guys there will be two spots I can play for. So that sort of enticed me.”
The “Up the Wahs” movement took the NRL by storm in 2023′s historic run to the finals by the Warriors and Healey says playing front of a full house at Go Media Stadium is a goal he hopes to achieve.
“Being over there [playing NSW Cup] and seeing it first hand was a real eye-opener and once they reached out I wanted to be a part of it. It’s really exciting I can actually be a part of that.”
The NSW Cup grand final kicks off on Sunday at 5pm NZT and can be watched in New Zealand on NSWRL TV.
Will Toogood is an online sports editor for the NZ Herald. He enjoys watching people chase a ball around on a grass surface so much he decided to make a living out of it.
'Had to move': Why one of the NRL rivals' brightest prospects chose the Warriors
The Auckland club has lured away a top youngster from the Cronulla Sharks' system.
Loved this part- I think it’s really exciting for our club that rival players are thinking this way.
Is there anything for his jersey presentation?
Thanks for that Slime, I am technology challenged so couldn't post it
View: https://youtu.be/Q5drhPLq6DE?si=bg9St7Rjt_5oJVXs
A really nice piece on Sam
Healey here. Seems a good young guy who is grateful to be part of the squad and getting his opportunity. He was a great watch on Sat and I believe could grow into an integral part of the side off the bench in the next couple of years and possibly a heir apparent to Egan long term. I can only wish him the best and will look forward to seeing him develop.
Sounds like he’s struggled for confidence in himself in his career listening to him and really has an affection for the club for taking a chance on him. Agree with all you said and think he’s going to be a big part of our future learning all he can sponge off Egan. Hard case seeing those young guys singing islands in a stream, must have been a favourite on the bus
Episode #39 - Magic Round Debut || Sam Healey
Fresh off an emotional debut week, Ben Searle sits down with Warrior #291 Sam Healey. He talks all things magic round, his first impressions of New Zealand, carving his own path as the son of an NRL legend and his early playing days in Cronulla. Proudly brought to you by TAB
www.warriors.kiwi
See if he can be the best Sam we've had.
Rip in son. You're not just welcome. You belong to the Warriors team and family
Rip in son. You're not just welcome. You belong to the Warriors team and family
While it likely is the end of Lussick as a hooker back up (we agree on that) let me expound on what Cappy is up too til people get sick of reading it.
Our mass import of Australian spine players (halves and hookers not Fullbacks) is a design to change the style of play of our NSW cup sides.
You read that right, I am inverting the equation where every Warriors fans assumes an Aussie import is only recruited for a first grade pathway.
We are creating a NSW cup team that allows our mostly Poly future star fowards to play off an Australian Hooker and half.
Why?
Because the true worth, the accurate assessment of said poly forward in the past was restricted by them playing in a Weak NZ NSW cup squad.
The type of squad where someone like Taukeiaho would look average and get shipped to the Roosters.
The kind of squad where the next Leka would get sick of playing in a weak NSW cup Warriors side, get sick of not winning GF, and get sick of not getting good ball to rack up Try's and protect their future earnings.
Ergo Cappy imports a ridiculous amount of Aussie halves, too many to even contemplate them being hired as future NRL options.
And the same is going to be true of hookers by the looks, we are going to flood the zone and therefore find out how good these Kiwi kids are playing in an Aussie matrix.
Which has other benefits, if you have ten million Aussie Jnr halves, the Warriors becomes a well known and popular tourist destination for Australian youngsters looking for a holiday in another country.
Of that sample size a percentage will love it here, a percentage will eventually prove to be kids that want to keep crossing the ditch during footy season because they love the NZ life style.
The bigger picture that Webster and McFadden are clearly shaping their vision around is making the Warriors a 'normal' destination for Australians.
They are basically normalizing the Warriors geographical distance by bringing in as many Australians as they can to create a new NRL culture about the "New Zealand experience'. And the easiest way to do that is to bring in Aussie youth....therefore Cappy is subverting the cap restrictions and other bias that experienced Aussies have against the Warriors.
We have the most beautiful country in the world. We have been expert at promoting and selling this country....except for the Warriors who have tarnished it by their years of underperformance and years of being Isolationist with their pre Webster Mcfadden era local (almost) quota of Australians mentality.
The thing that I admire most about McFadden who I think is the most influential person in Warriors history (don't get me started on how he was the first to create shapes in our attack and offensive defence) the thing I admire most about him is that he has thrown the rule book out, hired hundreds of Aussie halves, hunts Aussie junior hookers...because he understands he is finally joining the Warriors to the rest of the NRL in such a way that the Warriors staff recruitment no longer has any road blocks to getting any type of Australian they want, any time they want them.
Let me put it simply.
The more Australian kids that come here and have a wonderful time before deciding to play in Australia, the more the NRL gets to hear about how going to the Warriors is a life changing opportunity for Australians wanting to explore the world.
Big picture....the three hour flight which is less than a long drive to the beach for most Australians is no longer foreign, no longer a sacrifice....just another club with more to offer locally than they will find in Australia for the Aussie with an adventurous spirit.
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That jersey presentation gave me hope that he will stick with us
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Nobody is reading this thread right now.
