Recruitment Warriors 2024/2025 Recruitment & Retention

Warriors 2024/2025 Recruitment & Retention Discussion
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-​	Player​	2024​	2025​	2026​	2027​	2028​
1	Bunty Afoa	✔	✔
2	Tom Ale	✔	✔
3	Mitchell Barnett	✔	✔	✔	✔
4	The Greatest of All-Time	✔	✔	✔
5	Kurt Capewell	✔	✔	✔
6	Wayde Egan	✔	✔	✔	✔
7	Addin Fonua-Blake	✔
8	Jackson Ford	✔	✔
9	Leka Halasima	✔	✔	✔	✔
10	Tohu Harris	✔	✔
11	Chanel Harris-Tavita	✔	✔	M
12	Shaun Johnson	✔
13	Edward Kosi	✔	✔
14	Jacob Laban	✔	✔	✔
15	Ali Leiataua	✔	✔
16	Freddy Lussick	✔	✔	✔
17	Zyon Maiu’u	✔	✔	✔
18	Te Maire Martin	✔	✔
19	Luke Metcalf	✔	✔	✔
20	Marcelo Montoya	✔	✔
21	Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad	✔	✔
22	Marata Niukore	✔	✔	✔
23	Adam Pompey	✔	✔
24	Demitric Sifakula	✔	✔	C
25	Jazz Tevaga	✔
26	Taine Tuaupiki	✔	✔
27	Roger Tuivasa-Sheck	✔	✔	✔
28	Dylan Walker	✔	✔
29	Dallin Watene-Zelezniak	✔	✔
D1	Ben Farr	D
D2	Etuane Fukofuka	D
D3	Patrick Moimoi	D
D4	Tanner Stowers-Smith	D	D
-	Jett Cleary	-	D	D	D
-	James Fisher-Harris	-	✔	✔	✔	✔
-	Kalani Going	-	D
-	Motu Pasikala	-	✔	✔	✔

key: C = Club option, M = Mutual option, P = Player option, D = Development contract

Confirmed Top 30 2024: 29/30
Confirmed Development 2024: 4/6

Confirmed Top 30 2025: 28/30
Confirmed Development 2025: 4/6

2025 Gains: James Fisher-Harris (Panthers), Jett Cleary (Panthers Pathways), Kahu Capper (Roosters Pathways)
2025 Losses: Addin Fonua-Blake (Sharks), Jazz Tevaga (Contract Expired), Shaun Johnson (Retirement)
2025 Off Contract: Nil

 

[BangBro's (still banging)]

BHU would be a good buy... if Cappy and Webby think so, it's OK by me...
Besides he hasn't played 100 1st grade games yet so still got more time to mature properly... plus the coaches he played under IMO are not in the same league as Webby who'll get more out of him..

he's played 99, I see it as he's taking buntys spot in the 30. Would still be looking for another prop 2026. I think you need a front rower who's 60 plus minutes, 150+ metres, 95%tackle rate. The alpha prop, who are these guys, Neame would be that guy going forward, Can the club pull it off? There aren't a lot of these types.

Otherwise it's back to a four prop rotation, which is fine.

 

[Wrighty]

According to my Wazooo I reckon we are paying overs for BHU by about $60K. I reckon he is worth about $670K instead of $730K

I am sure we would have liked to offer $2M ($670K per year) instead of $2.2M ($730K) but Sharks obviously had an offer on the table we had to outbid and BHUs agent no doubt told us how much it was so he/she could gleefully get a bidding war of sorts happening.

It also looks like we are paying overs relative to those other names Defence listed in his post earlier who make $730K.
If my "$60K" premium we paid is correct then who cares paying $60K too much shouldn't impact our cap too much each year.
And hopefully we get our man and $2.2M is enough that it scares off the Sharks and anyone else from making a counter bid. There are a number of other forums I have visited where the fans are going on about needing to acquire a middle forward. Finally, having 17 teams instead of 16 teams for some reason has really hatcheted up the competition for free players and it is hard to sign anyone without a battle. Case in point St George getting knocked back on a number of attempts recently.

Also my disclaimer to the above is CCES saying that all the prices have gone up as well due to the increased salary caps.

I think by the $450K we have left over from Addin and other moneys we could scramble together we could get another $800K prop for 2026 maybe and have two props that season to replace AFB

2026 available props by zero tackle

PROP​

Lindsay Collins, James Fisher-Harris, Payne Haas, Liam Henry, Jaimin Jolliffe, Sean Keppie, David Klemmer, Blake Lawrie, Zyon Maiu'u, Ata Mariota, Jordan Miller, Taniela Paseka, Loko Pasifiki Tonga, Junior Paulo, Toby Rudolf, Daniel Saifiti, Lindsay Smith, Benjamin Te Kura, Xavier Va'a, Christian Welch

 

[Tookey 2.0]

PROP

Lindsay Collins, James Fisher-Harris, Payne Haas, Liam Henry, Jaimin Jolliffe, Sean Keppie, David Klemmer, Blake Lawrie, Zyon Maiu'u, Ata Mariota, Jordan Miller, Taniela Paseka, Loko Pasifiki Tonga, Junior Paulo, Toby Rudolf, Daniel Saifiti, Lindsay Smith, Benjamin Te Kura, Xavier Va'a, Christian Welch

That's the list for end of 2026, so they're available from 2027 onwards.

This list below is for 2026:

PROP​

Bunty Afoa, Tom Ale, Josh Aloiai, Paul Bryan, Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Jake Clydsdale, Reuben Cotter, Toby Couchman, Iszac Fa'asuamaleaui, Viliami Fifita, Wiremu Greig, Emre Guler, Thomas Hazelton, Jack Hetherington, Jaiyden Hunt, Royce Hunt, Corey Jensen, Tui Kamikamica, Oregon Kaufusi, Kitione Kautoga, Josh Kerr, Josh King, Spencer Leniu, Ben Liyou, Davvy Moale, Griffin Neame, Mark Nicholls, Josiah Pahulu, Keenan Palasia, Josh Papalii, Luron Patea, Vena Patuki-Case, Mia Pua’avase, Alex Seyfarth, Toafofoa Sipley, Sebastian Su'a, Daniel Suluka-Fifita, Ryan Sutton, Leo Thompson, Sam Tuivaiti, Stefano Utoikamanu, Lazarus Vaalepu, Xavier Willison

 

[Tookey 2.0]

If Penrith win it again this year, what the heck does James Fisher-Harris have left to do in league, with the exception of coming to NZ and helping us with our maiden premiership?

Contracted until the end of 2026, I would see if we could bring him home a year early and get him when he's 30 for the beginning of 2026, give him 3 years, the captaincy and a whole heapa money

 

[Wrighty]

That's the list for end of 2026, so they're available from 2027 onwards.

This list below is for 2026:

PROP​

Bunty Afoa, Tom Ale, Josh Aloiai, Paul Bryan, Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Jake Clydsdale, Reuben Cotter, Toby Couchman, Iszac Fa'asuamaleaui, Viliami Fifita, Wiremu Greig, Emre Guler, Thomas Hazelton, Jack Hetherington, Jaiyden Hunt, Royce Hunt, Corey Jensen, Tui Kamikamica, Oregon Kaufusi, Kitione Kautoga, Josh Kerr, Josh King, Spencer Leniu, Ben Liyou, Davvy Moale, Griffin Neame, Mark Nicholls, Josiah Pahulu, Keenan Palasia, Josh Papalii, Luron Patea, Vena Patuki-Case, Mia Pua’avase, Alex Seyfarth, Toafofoa Sipley, Sebastian Su'a, Daniel Suluka-Fifita, Ryan Sutton, Leo Thompson, Sam Tuivaiti, Stefano Utoikamanu, Lazarus Vaalepu, Xavier Willison

Like Stefano in that list.

 

[Mr. Brownstone]

That's the list for end of 2026, so they're available from 2027 onwards.

This list below is for 2026:

PROP​

Bunty Afoa, Tom Ale, Josh Aloiai, Paul Bryan, Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Jake Clydsdale, Reuben Cotter, Toby Couchman, Iszac Fa'asuamaleaui, Viliami Fifita, Wiremu Greig, Emre Guler, Thomas Hazelton, Jack Hetherington, Jaiyden Hunt, Royce Hunt, Corey Jensen, Tui Kamikamica, Oregon Kaufusi, Kitione Kautoga, Josh Kerr, Josh King, Spencer Leniu, Ben Liyou, Davvy Moale, Griffin Neame, Mark Nicholls, Josiah Pahulu, Keenan Palasia, Josh Papalii, Luron Patea, Vena Patuki-Case, Mia Pua’avase, Alex Seyfarth, Toafofoa Sipley, Sebastian Su'a, Daniel Suluka-Fifita, Ryan Sutton, Leo Thompson, Sam Tuivaiti, Stefano Utoikamanu, Lazarus Vaalepu, Xavier Willison

Without wanting to be greedy, I’d take Wiremu Greig, Leo Thompson & Griffin Neame. Oh & Xavier Willison will be a gun so grab him as well.

 

[Wrighty]

Without wanting to be greedy, I’d take Wiremu Greig, Leo Thompson & Griffin Neame. Oh & Xavier Willison will be a gun so grab him as well.

And if we get really creative and have some moxy....maybe we approach our target on November 1 2024 and we try to get them a year early with some sort of compensation to the club or player swap.

 

[Mr. Brownstone]

And if we get really creative and have some moxy....maybe we approach our target on November 1 2024 and we try to get them a year early with some sort of compensation to the club or player swap.

That was what I hoped our plan was going to be. All are Kiwi boys, young and will in time have ceilings far higher than BHU could dream of.

 

[Wrighty]

Can someone investigate plox how many minutes per game EXACTLY BHU played for his 19 games last season...or tell me a site where I can deduce this....I am just to wrap my mind around whether 94 running metres is a good effort or not per game.

 

[Wrighty]

Can someone investigate plox how many minutes per game EXACTLY BHU played for his 19 games last season...or tell me a site where I can deduce this....I am just to wrap my mind around whether 94 running metres is a good effort or not per game.

38.1 minutes per match

In his last 6 matches his production slipped in running metres dramatically. Was he playing injured?

 

[Tookey 2.0]

Can someone investigate plox how many minutes per game EXACTLY BHU played for his 19 games last season...or tell me a site where I can deduce this....I am just to wrap my mind around whether 94 running metres is a good effort or not per game.

https://footystatistics.com/index.php?p=500213

Thats the one I use, it's more NRL fantasy related but breaks down all of the stats.

BHU had a few games just under 30 minutes last year, so if you filter all games over 30 min he averaged 40 minutes a game and bang on 100 meters.

For me, looking through his stats he has some good games of 140m +, but then let's him self down where he has a week or 3 where he runs for 50-60 meters, so essentially there is quite a massive difference between his best and worst games.

This is where it gets interesting for me. Having a quick look at AFB prior to last year, he still had lots of good games each year but he would also have 3-6 games a where he would struggle to make 100m. Last year he was waaaay more consistent, didn't have a game below 100m. So not only did he close the gap between his best and worst games, his ceiling rose significantly and had about 10 games where he ran for over 190m.

If Webby can work his magic on BHU and close the gap so his worst games (running meters wise) is much closer to his good games, we could have an absolute unit on our hands averaging 140m a game...

 

[Up the guttz]

Man we should have put a clause in the AFB release that they can’t offer BHU a new deal. Sounds like we are only competing with them and need to out bid them, which is crazy when we have given them AFB!

How great would it be if we got him, then in 2025 AFB and Sharks form falls off a cliff and BHU goes next level.

 

[miket12]

Do we get a discount paying cash?

Just to prevent a riot

Works for the Rorters.... sorry, Roosters.

 

[JustVisiting82]

Man we should have put a clause in the AFB release that they can’t offer BHU a new deal. Sounds like we are only competing with them and need to out bid them, which is crazy when we have given them AFB!

How great would it be if we got him, then in 2025 AFB and Sharks form falls off a cliff and BHU goes next level.

BHU might feel a bit shafted by a deal like that if he is possibly interested in staying at the Sharks and money is a key motivator in signing with us instead. If we're signing a player who feels disgruntled about the deal it's probably not going to be great in terms of motivating him to achieve peak performance.

 

[Lets Eat (YeahNah)]

For me it’s simple
BHU plus 2025 current forward pack is a bit of battle and drops us out of top 4

BHU impact plus juniors hitting 1st grade plus the Webby Medicine, then this for me works

Impact NAS style

 

[Cces]

38.1 minutes per match

In his last 6 matches his production slipped in running metres dramatically. Was he playing injured?

Injured by hip drop against the Cowboys in Rd 9. Didn't recapture some decent form (121m in 39 mins pg) that he had prior to that

 

[Neo]

Getting BHU for 2024 would provide us with a formidable pack up against anyone in the comp. BHU to offset AFB , only from 2025, will likely see RTS return to a battering ram role to take up some of the slack. Not sure that that's what we want an aging RTS (as fit as he is) to be doing.
Ale has shown, albeit in the #13 role in NSW Cup, that he can play extended minutes but Bunty can't & Zyon Maiu’u hasn't shown this yet either

Yeah I’m a bit surprised by the Zyon Maiu’u hype on here. He made some nice line breaks when I watched him play NSW Cup but he didn’t seem like a guy who could get in the grind in the NRL as yet. Hopefully he can start to produce some big numbers in Cup and get a few minutes off of the bench in first grade to help his development. I think an experienced guy like BHU is definitely required until the younger guys can prove that they belong

 

[Defence]

According to my Wazooo I reckon we are paying overs for BHU by about $60K. I reckon he is worth about $670K instead of $730K

I am sure we would have liked to offer $2M ($670K per year) instead of $2.2M ($730K) but Sharks obviously had an offer on the table we had to outbid and BHUs agent no doubt told us how much it was so he/she could gleefully get a bidding war of sorts happening.

It also looks like we are paying overs relative to those other names Defence listed in his post earlier who make $730K.
If my "$60K" premium we paid is correct then who cares paying $60K too much shouldn't impact our cap too much each year.
And hopefully we get our man and $2.2M is enough that it scares off the Sharks and anyone else from making a counter bid. There are a number of other forums I have visited where the fans are going on about needing to acquire a middle forward. Finally, having 17 teams instead of 16 teams for some reason has really hatcheted up the competition for free players and it is hard to sign anyone without a battle. Case in point St George getting knocked back on a number of attempts recently.

Also my disclaimer to the above is CCES saying that all the prices have gone up as well due to the increased salary caps.

I think by the $450K we have left over from Addin and other moneys we could scramble together we could get another $800K prop for 2026 maybe and have two props that season to replace AFB

2026 available props by zero tackle

PROP​

Lindsay Collins, James Fisher-Harris, Payne Haas, Liam Henry, Jaimin Jolliffe, Sean Keppie, David Klemmer, Blake Lawrie, Zyon Maiu'u, Ata Mariota, Jordan Miller, Taniela Paseka, Loko Pasifiki Tonga, Junior Paulo, Toby Rudolf, Daniel Saifiti, Lindsay Smith, Benjamin Te Kura, Xavier Va'a, Christian Welch

On the sharks forum there's a couple of guys saying they've offered him 2 years at 550k a season, so if these figures are to be believed we're well and truly blowing them out of the water.

 

[Warriorsfan92]

On the sharks forum there's a couple of guys saying they've offered him 2 years at 550k a season, so if these figures are to be believed we're well and truly blowing them out of the water.

How about we offer 550k for 3 years then.. nah it is what it is, he’s already said he was very close to coming a few years ago. Giving who’s available, he’s likely the best option & closest we will get comparably to AFB. Beggars can’t be choosers & we need a big alpha prop. I like JWH but he’s borderline retired.

 

[enterthewarrior]

I remember the hype/noise around this guy when he first arrived onto the scene. He was one of the biggest players in thre NRL. He hasnt really kicked on mostly due to injuries. A change of scenery may do him some good