Recruitment Warriors 2024/2025 Recruitment & Retention

Warriors 2024/2025 Recruitment & Retention Discussion
-​
Player​
2024​
2025​
2026​
2027​
2028​
1Bunty Afoa
2Tom Ale
3Mitchell Barnett
4The Greatest of All-Time
5Kurt Capewell
6Wayde Egan
7Addin Fonua-Blake
8Jackson Ford
9Tohu Harris
10Chanel Harris-TavitaM
11Shaun Johnson
12Edward Kosi
13Jacob Laban
14Ali Leiataua
15Freddy Lussick
16Zyon Maiu’u
17Te Maire Martin
18Luke Metcalf
19Marcelo Montoya
20Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad
21Marata Niukore
22Adam Pompey
23Demitric SifakulaT
24Jazz Tevaga
25Taine Tuaupiki
26Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
27Dylan Walker
28Dallin Watene-Zelezniak
D1Ben FarrD
D2Etuane FukofukaD
D3Leka HalasimaDD
D4Patrick MoimoiD
D5Tanner Stowers-SmithD
-Jett Cleary-D
-James Fisher-Harris-
key: T = Team option, M = Mutual option, P = Player option, D = Development contract

Confirmed Top 30 2024: 28/30
Confirmed Development 2024: 5/6

Confirmed Top 30 2025: 26/30
Confirmed Development 2025: 1/6

2025 Gains: James Fisher-Harris (Panthers), Jett Cleary (Panthers Pathways), Kahu Capper (Roosters Pathways)
2025 Losses: Addin Fonua-Blake (Sharks)
2025 Off Contract: Shaun Johnson, Jazz Tevaga
 
Last edited:
Penrith will suit Isaiah. No offence to the guy but he doesn't look like someone who enjoys being a 'go to' player or someone that wants any part of leadership. Looks like he prefers to be surrounded by better players to elevate his own game, without having to absorb the extra responsibility. He struggled with us when we were struggling and looks every bit as ineffective as that in a Tigers jersey. He would not have been a good fit back in this Warriors side.

He will thrive at Penrith for all the reasons you stated and people will take it out of context and claim this is why he we should have signed him.

This out of context crying after players goes back a long way and there are many examples, to frame it in a Penrith Context....Joe Galuvao anyone? became a Penrith superstar and knocked us out of the finals.....Joe admits himself he had let himself go at the Warriors....then rubs it in one more time sinking us in the GF vs Manly.

I think your argument about preferring to be surrounded by better players who elevate his game equally applies to Eliesa Katoa at the Storm.

Another guy who needs to be surrounded by better players to elevate his game, rather than digging in and becoming the next Anchor superstar of the Warriors.

Katoa and Papalii share a pedigree of being singled out by the Warriors as being the next thing....both were offered contract extensions, both were facing struggles, both walked out.

I think that should be the red flag of no return, i.e. if you have come from our juniors, been groomed for an age, struggled through the teething problems of difficult Warriors performances, and personal form slumps, if the club despite those things offers you an extension and you walk.....you are not Warriors material because even if you come back home a star, you will probably never dig in and stick in the underdog-verse that is the battlers of the NRL....the Warriors.

What the Warriors need to improve on though, where they are to blame in player retention, is to properly give a player like Sio Siua Taukeiáho an opportunity over other more vaunted names in their Junior ranks.

Taukei'aho is the opposite of Ice, and Katoa, he wanted to stay, he was let go because he was not given a shot till it was too late.

We should employ (or create) a 'profiler', an analyst to weed out the players who are likely walk out and turn away from a Warriors offer after millions of dollars of investment (this is after all behavioral science / phenomenology rather than quantitative science ).The Warriors employ sports Psychologists, perhaps it is time they employed a Forensic Psychologist (Serial Killer therapist of the FBI model that uses a lot of tools regular sports psychologists do not).

Excuse the big words folks, what I am talking about is revolutionary - so bear with me, these ideas you won't read anywhere else in sports..


If the FBI in Quantico Virginia can hunt down Serial killers who by their nature murder random victims, with no apparent pattern (no pattern before behavioral science became a thing) if some G man can predict you drive a dark blue vehicle, and have a wife and Children, that you have a stutter, that you will attend public events and inject yourself into the investigation....then Sports.....(prepare to be mind blown) like ours, could revolutionize recruitment and retention by running personality analysis on the very predictable, well studied, well patterned, behavior of the big dumb animal that is the sports jock.

Sorry I went on a sermon slash rant, but worlds collide, I worked with killers, the worst of the worst, and am a Warriors fan....people tend to blend their interests and come up with crazy big ideas when they are bored....

Discuss.....my premise is that the science already exists to analyse who will stay and thrive in this environment and who is looking for fame elsewhere. If the FBI can find killers who leave no evidence then an NRL club can make predictions about people that they have access to seven days a week for years right in front of them...should they apply forensic profiling.

Hey look, ignore the science and lets just acknowledge the intuition and read of NZWARRIORS fans after years of following the Warriors often times end up prophetic, lets acknowledge that there are patterns that all of us talk about in Warrior language, because we have seen them before, and they keep repeating.

Then consider what someone highly trained could make of the patterns in Warriors players personalities and patterns of behavior could predict from a recruitment and retention pov.

Certainly an expert would not encourage chasing after people that fundamentally do not care for your brand....those are simple metrics to determine using the science of phenomenology which is not blinded by maths and stats.

Any mans personality profile will predict what his likely responses are in given situations, perhaps we need to get ahead of that already well established body of science and use it to our advantage before it becomes a thing anywhere else in world sports.

As it stands all professional sports teams employ a Psychologist, however their purview is to therapize the athlete and help them maintain emotional regulation.

My idea is that professional sports clubs could profit from getting ahead of that curve and use their shrinks to analyse personality types for the purpose of predictive forecasting of who is likely to stay versus those more inclined to use us as a spring board (profiling people is real, it is a science, as yet to be explored in sports).
 
Last edited:
He will thrive at Penrith for all the reasons you stated and people will take it out of context and claim this is why he we should have signed him.

This out of context crying after players goes back a long way and there are many examples, to frame it in a Penrith Context....Joe Galuvao anyone? became a Penrith superstar and knocked us out of the finals.....Joe admits himself he had let himself go at the Warriors....then rubs it in one more time sinking us in the GF vs Manly.

I think your argument about preferring to be surrounded by better players who elevate his game equally applies to Eliesa Katoa at the Storm.

Another guy who needs to be surrounded by better players to elevate his game, rather than digging in and becoming the next Anchor superstar of the Warriors.

Katoa and Papalii share a pedigree of being singled out by the Warriors as being the next thing....both were offered contract extensions, both were facing struggles, both walked out.

I think that should be the red flag of no return, i.e. if you have come from our juniors, been groomed for an age, struggled through the teething problems of difficult Warriors performances, and personal form slumps, if the club despite those things offers you an extension and you walk.....you are not Warriors material because even if you come back home a star, you will probably never dig in and stick in the underdog-verse that is the battlers of the NRL....the Warriors.

What the Warriors need to improve on though, where they are to blame in player retention, is to properly give a player like Sio Siua Taukeiáho an opportunity over other more vaunted names in their Junior ranks.

Taukei'aho is the opposite of Ice, and Katoa, he wanted to stay, he was let go because he was not given a shot till it was too late.

We should employ (or create) a 'profiler', an analyst to weed out the players who are likely walk out and turn away from a Warriors offer after millions of dollars of investment (this is after all behavioral science / phenomenology rather than quantitative science ).The Warriors employ sports Psychologists, perhaps it is time they employed a Forensic Psychologist (Serial Killer therapist of the FBI model that uses a lot of tools regular sports psychologists do not).

Excuse the big words folks, what I am talking about is revolutionary - so bear with me, these ideas you won't read anywhere else in sports..


If the FBI in Quantico Virginia can hunt down Serial killers who by their nature murder random victims, with no apparent pattern (no pattern before behavioral science became a thing) if some G man can predict you drive a dark blue vehicle, and have a wife and Children, that you have a stutter, that you will attend public events and inject yourself into the investigation....then Sports.....(prepare to be mind blown) like ours, could revolutionize recruitment and retention by running personality analysis on the very predictable, well studied, well patterned, behavior of the big dumb animal that is the sports jock.

Sorry I went on a sermon slash rant, but worlds collide, I worked with killers, the worst of the worst, and am a Warriors fan....people tend to blend their interests and come up with crazy big ideas when they are bored....

Discuss.....my premise is that the science already exists to analyse who will stay and thrive in this environment and who is looking for fame elsewhere. If the FBI can find killers who leave no evidence then an NRL club can make predictions about people that they have access to seven days a week for years right in front of them...should they apply forensic profiling.

Hey look, ignore the science and lets just acknowledge the intuition and read of NZWARRIORS fans after years of following the Warriors often times end up prophetic, lets acknowledge that there are patterns that all of us talk about in Warrior language, because we have seen them before, and they keep repeating.

Then consider what someone highly trained could make of the patterns in Warriors players personalities and patterns of behavior could predict from a recruitment and retention pov.

Certainly an expert would not encourage chasing after people that fundamentally do not care for your brand....those are simple metrics to determine using the science of phenomenology which is not blinded by maths and stats.

Any mans personality profile will predict what his likely responses are in given situations, perhaps we need to get ahead of that already well established body of science and use it to our advantage before it becomes a thing anywhere else in world sports.

Yeah Katoa is another perfect example. Playing great football now he's had a bit of time in that system and has a very simple job to do, whilst better players do all the play-making, talking, leading...

He's never going to be given the ball there and asked to create something from nothing in an otherwise struggling side, as he probably would have felt at the Warriors. He's also probably someone who responds well to strong personalities who give players very clear and direct roles - like Craig Bellamy. His time at the Warriors would have felt very uncertain, lacking leadership, direction etc.

Taukeiaho was Matt Elliot's lasting legacy wasn't he, told him he'd never make it as a first grader. Good call that.
 
Hm posted this in the other thread, might be more relevant here below for reference

How is the Roosters Toupuniua, is he still looking for a club? His bro is here and if AFB is going we could use his service for this year, Marata might be full time propping and Capewell and Tohu are the walking dead so far

——————————

IMO Barney is basically the new AFB, without the drama and suspected dressing room turmoil

We played our best footy with Afoa starting last year, so we could go for Barney/Afoa, Ford/Laban/Capewell share second row, Walker 13, Marata/Jazz/Ale bench

Tohu can be prop depth with Afoa, 20min spells going hard

Compared to last year
+ve Barney upgrade -ve AFB
+ Ford reduced errors - Barney 2023 version moved out
+ Capewell - Marata second row
+ Marata impact - his foot
+ Jazz healthy - Tohu zombie
+ Ale upgrading - Curran
+ Laban/Zyon Maiu’u depth - Sifakula

So currently slightly in the negative due to Marata and Capewell unable to play at all, if Marata can sort out his injury/weight adaptation, Capewell is basically the replacement for Barney 2023 version, growth of Ford/Zyon Maiu’u/Laban probably put us as even as last year, depending on if AFB comes back as a beast, or if he’s gone if we can use him to bargain for a gun this year, both scenarios would put our pack in a plus territory compared to 2023
 
Yeah Katoa is another perfect example. Playing great football now he's had a bit of time in that system and has a very simple job to do, whilst better players do all the play-making, talking, leading...

He's never going to be given the ball there and asked to create something from nothing in an otherwise struggling side, as he probably would have felt at the Warriors. He's also probably someone who responds well to strong personalities who give players very clear and direct roles - like Craig Bellamy. His time at the Warriors would have felt very uncertain, lacking leadership, direction etc.

Taukeiaho was Matt Elliot's lasting legacy wasn't he, told him he'd never make it as a first grader. Good call that.
Instead of the Sponge Bob Square Pants clip people post on YT. A Few moments later.

Taukeiako is basically your not a first grader. 10 years and a few premierships later.
 
He will thrive at Penrith for all the reasons you stated and people will take it out of context and claim this is why he we should have signed him.

This out of context crying after players goes back a long way and there are many examples, to frame it in a Penrith Context....Joe Galuvao anyone? became a Penrith superstar and knocked us out of the finals.....Joe admits himself he had let himself go at the Warriors....then rubs it in one more time sinking us in the GF vs Manly.

I think your argument about preferring to be surrounded by better players who elevate his game equally applies to Eliesa Katoa at the Storm.

Another guy who needs to be surrounded by better players to elevate his game, rather than digging in and becoming the next Anchor superstar of the Warriors.

Katoa and Papalii share a pedigree of being singled out by the Warriors as being the next thing....both were offered contract extensions, both were facing struggles, both walked out.

I think that should be the red flag of no return, i.e. if you have come from our juniors, been groomed for an age, struggled through the teething problems of difficult Warriors performances, and personal form slumps, if the club despite those things offers you an extension and you walk.....you are not Warriors material because even if you come back home a star, you will probably never dig in and stick in the underdog-verse that is the battlers of the NRL....the Warriors.

What the Warriors need to improve on though, where they are to blame in player retention, is to properly give a player like Sio Siua Taukeiáho an opportunity over other more vaunted names in their Junior ranks.

Taukei'aho is the opposite of Ice, and Katoa, he wanted to stay, he was let go because he was not given a shot till it was too late.

We should employ (or create) a 'profiler', an analyst to weed out the players who are likely walk out and turn away from a Warriors offer after millions of dollars of investment (this is after all behavioral science / phenomenology rather than quantitative science ).The Warriors employ sports Psychologists, perhaps it is time they employed a Forensic Psychologist (Serial Killer therapist of the FBI model that uses a lot of tools regular sports psychologists do not).

Excuse the big words folks, what I am talking about is revolutionary - so bear with me, these ideas you won't read anywhere else in sports..


If the FBI in Quantico Virginia can hunt down Serial killers who by their nature murder random victims, with no apparent pattern (no pattern before behavioral science became a thing) if some G man can predict you drive a dark blue vehicle, and have a wife and Children, that you have a stutter, that you will attend public events and inject yourself into the investigation....then Sports.....(prepare to be mind blown) like ours, could revolutionize recruitment and retention by running personality analysis on the very predictable, well studied, well patterned, behavior of the big dumb animal that is the sports jock.

Sorry I went on a sermon slash rant, but worlds collide, I worked with killers, the worst of the worst, and am a Warriors fan....people tend to blend their interests and come up with crazy big ideas when they are bored....

Discuss.....my premise is that the science already exists to analyse who will stay and thrive in this environment and who is looking for fame elsewhere. If the FBI can find killers who leave no evidence then an NRL club can make predictions about people that they have access to seven days a week for years right in front of them...should they apply forensic profiling.

Hey look, ignore the science and lets just acknowledge the intuition and read of NZWARRIORS fans after years of following the Warriors often times end up prophetic, lets acknowledge that there are patterns that all of us talk about in Warrior language, because we have seen them before, and they keep repeating.

Then consider what someone highly trained could make of the patterns in Warriors players personalities and patterns of behavior could predict from a recruitment and retention pov.

Certainly an expert would not encourage chasing after people that fundamentally do not care for your brand....those are simple metrics to determine using the science of phenomenology which is not blinded by maths and stats.

Any mans personality profile will predict what his likely responses are in given situations, perhaps we need to get ahead of that already well established body of science and use it to our advantage before it becomes a thing anywhere else in world sports.

As it stands all professional sports teams employ a Psychologist, however their purview is to therapize the athlete and help them maintain emotional regulation.

My idea is that professional sports clubs could profit from getting ahead of that curve and use their shrinks to analyse personality types for the purpose of predictive forecasting of who is likely to stay versus those more inclined to use us as a spring board.
Have to say sup, you nail it so many times on this forum. I watched Joe Galuvao from when he was at Manurewa High (I lived in the hood) and he was awesome, at the Wahs he told a friend of mine he was just cruising and the reason he failed badly. Sometimes we have to leave our comfort zone to bring out the best.
 
Last edited:
Yeah Katoa is another perfect example. Playing great football now he's had a bit of time in that system and has a very simple job to do, whilst better players do all the play-making, talking, leading...

He's never going to be given the ball there and asked to create something from nothing in an otherwise struggling side, as he probably would have felt at the Warriors. He's also probably someone who responds well to strong personalities who give players very clear and direct roles - like Craig Bellamy. His time at the Warriors would have felt very uncertain, lacking leadership, direction etc.

Taukeiaho was Matt Elliot's lasting legacy wasn't he, told him he'd never make it as a first grader. Good call that.
You dont think Katoa wouldve thrived in Webster based systems?

Lets face it was hard for anyone to shine during the Brownie years. Personally wouldve been very interested seeing Katoa running the same Curran/Niukore lines off SJ.

Probably the one i was disappointed losing the most.
 
You dont think Katoa wouldve thrived in Webster based systems?

Lets face it was hard for anyone to shine during the Brownie years. Personally wouldve been very interested seeing Katoa running the same Curran/Niukore lines off SJ.

Probably the one i was disappointed losing the most.
Niukore and Katoa on each edge would have been dynamite
 
He will thrive at Penrith for all the reasons you stated and people will take it out of context and claim this is why he we should have signed him.

This out of context crying after players goes back a long way and there are many examples, to frame it in a Penrith Context....Joe Galuvao anyone? became a Penrith superstar and knocked us out of the finals.....Joe admits himself he had let himself go at the Warriors....then rubs it in one more time sinking us in the GF vs Manly.

I think your argument about preferring to be surrounded by better players who elevate his game equally applies to Eliesa Katoa at the Storm.

Another guy who needs to be surrounded by better players to elevate his game, rather than digging in and becoming the next Anchor superstar of the Warriors.

Katoa and Papalii share a pedigree of being singled out by the Warriors as being the next thing....both were offered contract extensions, both were facing struggles, both walked out.

I think that should be the red flag of no return, i.e. if you have come from our juniors, been groomed for an age, struggled through the teething problems of difficult Warriors performances, and personal form slumps, if the club despite those things offers you an extension and you walk.....you are not Warriors material because even if you come back home a star, you will probably never dig in and stick in the underdog-verse that is the battlers of the NRL....the Warriors.

What the Warriors need to improve on though, where they are to blame in player retention, is to properly give a player like Sio Siua Taukeiáho an opportunity over other more vaunted names in their Junior ranks.

Taukei'aho is the opposite of Ice, and Katoa, he wanted to stay, he was let go because he was not given a shot till it was too late.

We should employ (or create) a 'profiler', an analyst to weed out the players who are likely walk out and turn away from a Warriors offer after millions of dollars of investment (this is after all behavioral science / phenomenology rather than quantitative science ).The Warriors employ sports Psychologists, perhaps it is time they employed a Forensic Psychologist (Serial Killer therapist of the FBI model that uses a lot of tools regular sports psychologists do not).

Excuse the big words folks, what I am talking about is revolutionary - so bear with me, these ideas you won't read anywhere else in sports..


If the FBI in Quantico Virginia can hunt down Serial killers who by their nature murder random victims, with no apparent pattern (no pattern before behavioral science became a thing) if some G man can predict you drive a dark blue vehicle, and have a wife and Children, that you have a stutter, that you will attend public events and inject yourself into the investigation....then Sports.....(prepare to be mind blown) like ours, could revolutionize recruitment and retention by running personality analysis on the very predictable, well studied, well patterned, behavior of the big dumb animal that is the sports jock.

Sorry I went on a sermon slash rant, but worlds collide, I worked with killers, the worst of the worst, and am a Warriors fan....people tend to blend their interests and come up with crazy big ideas when they are bored....

Discuss.....my premise is that the science already exists to analyse who will stay and thrive in this environment and who is looking for fame elsewhere. If the FBI can find killers who leave no evidence then an NRL club can make predictions about people that they have access to seven days a week for years right in front of them...should they apply forensic profiling.

Hey look, ignore the science and lets just acknowledge the intuition and read of NZWARRIORS fans after years of following the Warriors often times end up prophetic, lets acknowledge that there are patterns that all of us talk about in Warrior language, because we have seen them before, and they keep repeating.

Then consider what someone highly trained could make of the patterns in Warriors players personalities and patterns of behavior could predict from a recruitment and retention pov.

Certainly an expert would not encourage chasing after people that fundamentally do not care for your brand....those are simple metrics to determine using the science of phenomenology which is not blinded by maths and stats.

Any mans personality profile will predict what his likely responses are in given situations, perhaps we need to get ahead of that already well established body of science and use it to our advantage before it becomes a thing anywhere else in world sports.

As it stands all professional sports teams employ a Psychologist, however their purview is to therapize the athlete and help them maintain emotional regulation.

My idea is that professional sports clubs could profit from getting ahead of that curve and use their shrinks to analyse personality types for the purpose of predictive forecasting of who is likely to stay versus those more inclined to use us as a spring board (profiling people is real, it is a science, as yet to be explored in sports).
Enlightened hard out….
K Sup, Im all for throwing the extended squad in tha CLINK so you can do your evaluations…..
Dossier every player then let management Dexter your proof….
 
Katoa and Papalii share a pedigree of being singled out by the Warriors as being the next thing....both were offered contract extensions, both were facing struggles, both walked out.

I think that should be the red flag of no return, i.e. if you have come from our juniors, been groomed for an age, struggled through the teething problems of difficult Warriors performances, and personal form slumps, if the club despite those things offers you an extension and you walk.....you are not Warriors material because even if you come back home a star, you will probably never dig in and stick in the underdog-verse that is the battlers of the NRL....the Warriors.

What the Warriors need to improve on though, where they are to blame in player retention, is to properly give a player like Sio Siua Taukeiáho an opportunity over other more vaunted names in their Junior ranks.
A good read Sup. The thing though is that the players you focused on are all unique & have very different stories.

Papali'i was off contract, offered less $ at 21 then what he was on at 18, looking at a 3rd coach in 9 months & living out of a suitcase for the foreseeable future. Instead he chose even less money to go to a club that had stability & a coach who had a history of getting the best out of his Second Rowers (Manu Ma'u, Shaun Lane).

Katoa didn't decline any extension. A month after Webster signed, which was to be his 5th coach at the Warriors, he was granted a release from his final 2 seasons for more opportunities. Was he told he wasn't part of the plans? After going through all 3 seasons of the covid era he'd lived in Australia longer than he ever had in NZ.
Covid restrictions got the better of good clubmen like Ah Mau, Maumalo & RTS so you have to take that into consideration too.

I'd love to hear Taukeiaho's story on becoming a middle. He spent an entire season in NSW Cup after leaving the Warriors so I wonder if he got there & their coaches thought he wasn't going to have a much of a career on the edge so they began his transition. Would have much rather that switch took place at the Warriors but compared to the Roosters both our players & coaches are more impatient.

Nigel Vagana, Thomas Leuluai & SJ all show we shouldn't completely close the door to players wanting to return from other clubs
 
Last edited:
Instead he chose even less money to go to a club that had stability & a coach who had a history of getting the best out of his Second Rowers (Manu Ma'u, Shaun Lane).
This hits the nail on the head and the example of Shaun Lane sums it up perfectly.

Now we have the coach and with that comes the stability, I confess it's really kudos to Mohawk and Cam George that the warriors are on the right track and that is encapsulated with the ADF standing down this week..
 
This hits the nail on the head and the example of Shaun Lane sums it up perfectly.

Now we have the coach and with that comes the stability, I confess it's really kudos to Mohawk and Cam George that the warriors are on the right track and that is encapsulated with the ADF standing down this week..
We have to love seeing webby under a bit of pressure! If he pulls us from this season it will say more than what we happened last season.
 
Back
Top