Recruitment Warriors 2026/2027 Recruitment & Retention

[sup42]

Here's another question. Why did Ivan let him come here instead of his own club? Surely he was the perfect age to replace Nathan when he retires? Or even partner him before eventually replacing? Is the plan fir the Panthers to take him back once he makes FG?

I just assumed that realistically and logically that we are being used to develop Jett for the Panthers.
It makes obvious sense to do it this way from Ivans pov.

But the other day I took another look at this question you pose and actually, there are many equally compelling possibilities for why Jett is here.

Don't read this as gossip or speculation from me about Jetts situation, rather just saying that in these family dynamics, sometimes family members clash or the younger kid of a prodigy needs to get away from comparisons and the long shadow cast by someone like his older brother.

And then there are black sheep, might not get along with siblings, or a parent, or both parents, not pointing fingers at the Cleary family here, rather just being real, we all have families, we all know what that is like when one kid feels like they need to get away, and we know of parents that let them go knowing it is better for them to be away from arguing, rubbing each other up the wrong way etc etc.

I guess what I am saying is that the decision for Jett to come here might have been driven by him primarily, he may have just said to his folks I need to experience life outside the Cleary bubble. Or hey he could be a kid like our very own Channel that wants to have an adventure.

Also imagine you have two kids playing at the club where you are head coach, imagine if you think the younger kid might not have what it takes to go ahead of his peers at your club, you are not going to tell them eh, you are going to support them to reach their goals, but in that scenario you would be useful to be able to get them and yourself out of that conundrum and see them take a shot under fresh eyes without the weight of family ties.

I guess we will see soon enough, If he wants to be hear after next year then he obviously is a kid that is comfortable living away from his family.

 

[CWC]

“What is the evidence for TT improving the attack?”

*Provide evidence to back up the claim*

“You’re posting the (stats) that suit your agenda!!”

No shit Sherlock that’s how reasoning and discussion works in civil societies. No wonder @Wrighty was scared to speak his mind

 

[Cces]

Remember that Leka long range try vs tigers he was the one choosing the right side to attack too, Charnz will just do another hit up and we lose by 6

Wasn't it Pompey shooting down the blindside out of dummy half that created the 3 on 2? Tuaupiki drew & passed to put Halasima into space but CNK was our Fullback that day. If he was playing right Wing, like Tuaupiki was, how are we to know that in a 2 on 1 situation he runs straight at the only defender?

 

[CWC]

Wasn't it Pompey shooting down the blindside out of dummy half that created the 3 on 2? Tuaupiki drew & passed to put Halasima into space but CNK was our Fullback that day. If he was playing right Wing, like Tuaupiki was, how are we to know that in a 2 on 1 situation he runs straight at the only defender?

TT ran around the PTB for Ali to take off and spread the ball, if Charnze was right wing he’d stay inside Ali and take another hit up


View: https://www.tiktok.com/@playonsportshow/video/7488239243525950727

 

[Cces]

TT ran around the PTB for Ali to take off and spread the ball, if Charnze was right wing he’d stay inside Ali and take another hit up


View: https://www.tiktok.com/@playonsportshow/video/7488239243525950727

Good vision on his behalf alright & good use of both his & CNK's strengths in that passage. If their roles were reversed I don't think we'd score either but that's not solely on CNK. To assume we don't score again in the remaining 11 minutes & lose the game though is anyone's guess

 

[Dannevegas]

What is the evidence for TT improving the attack? He had a good run of games there when CNK was at centre but couldn’t prove a point of difference. As said above he is good back up player but not in the class of the young fullbacks coming through at other clubs

Neither of them are the answer, I prefer Taine tho. His ball playing has improved heaps lately.

 

[Dannevegas]

TT ran around the PTB for Ali to take off and spread the ball, if Charnze was right wing he’d stay inside Ali and take another hit up


View: https://www.tiktok.com/@playonsportshow/video/7488239243525950727

We lack backyard footy players, Taines one of few we have. Charnze is more like a robot does his job but real straight up and down

 

[Dannevegas]

Tuaupiki scored zero tries as our Fullback this season

Charnze played 21 games as fullback and scored 2 tries

 

[Cces]

Charnze played 21 games as fullback and scored 2 tries

Actually 19 games at Fullback. Poor either way but deserves to be corrected like I was doing by showing Tuaupiki had zero as our Fullback in 2025.
Broadening the scope, Tuaupiki has 15 career starts as our #1 and has scored just one try so his strike rate in that department is no better

 

[Ferdie]

I'm starting to lean towards RTS at fullback, even if it's only for the final year of his contract.
I went into the 2025 season hoping to see some attacking play from our backs.
With Ali as a strike centre, Metcalf doing his thing as a playmaker, a couple of good finishers out wide with Dallin and RTS and then some role players around them.
But once Ali and Metcalf went MIA, everything became very pedestrian.
CNK is a great yardage man, but limited on attack. TT is a great link man but limited on yardage. I think RTS just has the right balance.

 

[Cces]

I know people would like to see us become predominantly a development club but it doesn't happen overnight. Kikau, Koroisau, Sorensen & Capewell were all imported & helped kickstart Penrith's success. Fullback is one glaring area we need to strengthen.

CNK is unlikely to replicate his career best form of 2023, or even 2019, again and while Tuaupiki looks good to the eyes on attack we actually produced more points per game in 2025 without him starting in the position (19 games at 21.3 ppg) than with him (6 games at 20 ppg). Defensively, when CNK started, we conceded 21.6 points per game though & with Tuaupiki it was 18.2. Overall a net positive of 1.8 ppg for him & -0.3 for CNK. In terms of strength of schedule, Tuaupiki played 34% of his Fullback games against playoff teams & CNK 42%.

Neither give me huge hope for 2026 & I wish both TMM & RTS were 4 years younger than they are so they could be realistic alternatives

 

[sup42]

I know people would like to see us become predominantly a development club but it doesn't happen overnight. Kikau, Koroisau, Sorensen & Capewell were all imported & helped kickstart Penrith's success. Fullback is one glaring area we need to strengthen.

CNK is unlikely to replicate his career best form of 2023, or even 2019, again and while Tuaupiki looks good to the eyes on attack we actually produced more points per game in 2025 without him starting in the position (21.3) than with him (20). Defensively, when CNK started, we conceded 21.6 points per game though & with Tuaupiki it was 18.2. Overall a net positive of 1.8 ppg for him & -0.3 for CNK. In terms of strength of schedule, Tuaupiki played 34% of his Fullback games against playoff teams & CNK 42%.

Neither give me huge hope for 2026 & I wish both TMM & RTS were 4 years younger than they were so they could be realistic alternatives

Thanks.

Fans look at Tuapikis size and make huge assumptions about his defence vs CNK.

It is rubbish. I don't think they understand that fullbacks get beaten no matter who it is in one on ones.

I thought Tuapikis reads were great and his positioning to heard break aways on the fly was excellent.

I think Taine needs a full year before we know what he can do, this stop start bags of games he gets is not developing his game. All that said he is getting better slowly anyway to my eye.

 

[~Navigator~]

Absolutely agree!

I do have a bit of a giggle when people say we should be looking at X, Y and Z when they're some of the best up and comers in the game.

Of course, it makes sense to keep tabs on them incase there's an AFB situation, but when have we ever signed young, promising stars in the spine? Up until very recently we just haven't been able to do it. Why move to NZ when you have 4 or 5 clubs in Sydney chasing you?

Aside from the occasional piece of luck with AFB and JFH, we largely struggle to get big names over here too.

The moneyball signings seem to be the way to go - players that have something we want (speed) but are out of favour, or have been injured recently, or have other issues in their game that we hope we take a punt on and can hopefully iron out.

Kennedy for 2 years would be another one of these - lots of upside and does many things that were looking for, but also has a lot of deficiencies. If we were able to iron out even 25% of Kennedys issues he'd fit really well into our team. 50m a game less than Charnz, and probably not as good on defence, but then have a 75% improvement in our full back creating and scoring tries.

Something to consider anyways. He's certainly not a long term project but I do think that if we had AKP and Kennedy starting the year over CNK and DWZ I think we convert a few more tries and create a fair few more. Probably the difference between finishing 6th and 4th or 3rd

Brett Webb wasn't even playing Nrl footy when we signed him

 

[Inruin]

Brett Webb wasn't even playing Nrl footy when we signed him

James Maloney only had 3 or 4 games filling in for the Storm before we signed him.

 

[Cces]

Fans look at Tuapikis size and make huge assumptions about his defence vs CNK.

Tbf if it was to be worked out at a points per minute ratio it would favour Tuaupiki even more as CNK benefited from the inclusion of just 12 points conceded in 75 injury affected minutes that he wasn't even on the field.

I don't think they understand that fullbacks get beaten no matter who it is in one on ones.

As a 13 year old I remember saying something to my sister's boyfriend after he missed a one on one tackle from a linebreak while playing Fullback in a Gore Cup final here in Chch. He quickly put me in my place by saying that even on a good day he'd be lucky to prevent that try 50% of the time after the opposition guy got into the backfield

 

[Noitall]

Thanks.

Fans look at Tuapikis size and make huge assumptions about his defence vs CNK.

It is rubbish. I don't think they understand that fullbacks get beaten no matter who it is in one on ones.

I thought Tuapikis reads were great and his positioning to heard break aways on the fly was excellent.

I think Taine needs a full year before we know what he can do, this stop start bags of games he gets is not developing his game. All that said he is getting better slowly anyway to my eye.

When considering the way we use CNK, he’s almost like another forward in the carries he takes and Tuaupiki just doesn’t have that in him due to his size, so it’s going to require a bit of a change in how our sets play out. Even if we get AKP, the way we use our two wingers is similar to how we use CNK at times so I think that’s going to require a bit of a shift too because that’s not his AKP’s strength. As the year went on, I noticed our centres taking more carries and think they might pick up the slack, and that’s potentially where CNK could be handy at centre continuing with those carries. I expect that if AKP arrives that we lose one of the wingers in the team? I’ve gone on about that dolphins game we lost and thinking that was one of the better games our attack looked. I’d forgotten that was a game TMM started at five eighth paired with Boyd and some were critical of TMM’s effort at the end when dolphins scored the winner. That game had Tuaupiki fullback and CNK centre, worth mentioning that Farnworth got injured and was carving us up and we had a depleted forward pack.

 

[Cces]

some were critical of TMM’s effort at the end when dolphins scored the winner.

TMM or Tuaupiki's effort at the end?

View: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3aW3Y4rGyoySH934SdbAXa?si=b0-meuPGRjevne_XVeZlTQ

 

[Barzak]

I’ve posted previously about the CNK v TT debate. The stats support the eye test for me. TT has minimal PCM and a very slow play the ball. Over 4 seconds. He regularly gets dominated in the tackle.
His attacking stats aren’t enough in my opinion to give him the advantage and warrant the loss of what CNK offers.
In saying that the last time I posted this is was told to ‘watch a full game and pay attention to Tuapikis runs’
So who knows, maybe there’s some not visible intangibles he has or stats that can’t be measured.

I don’t think CNK has much more left in him and I’d love a FB signing even for a year while we find our next long term one. But TT is not the answer.

 

[JaggedJ]

This is a lot of debate just to say we don't have a medium to long term viable fullback option on the roster right now.

Concerning given how important the position has become.

 

[SJ2k]

I'm starting to lean towards RTS at fullback, even if it's only for the final year of his contract.
I went into the 2025 season hoping to see some attacking play from our backs.
With Ali as a strike centre, Metcalf doing his thing as a playmaker, a couple of good finishers out wide with Dallin and RTS and then some role players around them.
But once Ali and Metcalf went MIA, everything became very pedestrian.
CNK is a great yardage man, but limited on attack. TT is a great link man but limited on yardage. I think RTS just has the right balance.

This was obvious from the start and has really only gotten more obvious over time. RTS is our best back at any position, so should be in the most impactful position. If RTS was fullback we wouldn't be talking about CNK or TT coming in to replace him. Webby is a genius in some areas, but really naive in a few others which hopefully he's starting to work through. CNK is not some kind of generational talent that you just write off change for.

RTS should have come straight back in as full back, now the ships probably sailed and he'll finish things out at wing.

TT creates points out of no where, something our team has major issues with. He pulls all sorts of shit out of the hat that helps the attack. I'd really like to see CHT step up in that area next year, not over playing his hand but pushing things a bit unorthofox once or twice a game.

Meters can be gained elsewhere, especially when your backs are all big and slow. CNK is an absolute soldier for us, I will say that though. Dude goes SO hard.