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

 

[Wrighty]

Get the band back together for another tilt at the premiership.

Minor Tinkering as below is needed
Resign Shaun for one year and Jazz
Release Berry so that Ali L can get into First Grade
MGT to be First choice winger ahead of Montoya
Release Montoya
Release Kosi
Tohu to be a bench player
Find a NSW cup player who plays wing and give them a top 30 spot.
Tuapiki to learn to play wing so he can cover more positions


1-17 no surprises except Ali L one centre spot, Sifakula to be bench prop.

Depth platers who are NRL ready
1 Laban
2Tuapiki
3 Pompey (roger and Ali L first choice centres)
4 Jazz
5 Bunty
6 Ale
7 & 8 Two halves not selected
9 NSW Cup wing promoted top 30

 

[kos]

Get the band back together for another tilt at the premiership.

Minor Tinkering as below is needed
Resign Shaun for one year and Jazz
Release Berry so that Ali L can get into First Grade
MGT to be First choice winger ahead of Montoya
Release Montoya
Release Kosi
Tohu to be a bench player
Find a NSW cup player who plays wing and give them a top 30 spot.
Tuapiki to learn to play wing so he can cover more positions


1-17 no surprises except Ali L one centre spot, Sifakula to be bench prop.

Depth platers who are NRL ready
1 Laban
2Tuapiki
3 Pompey (roger and Ali L first choice centres)
4 Jazz
5 Bunty
6 Ale
7 & 8 Two halves not selected
9 NSW Cup wing promoted top 30
View attachment 7991

Where is Capewell in your master plan Wrighty?

 

[Wrighty]

Where is Capewell in your master plan Wrighty?

On the bench in the 17

 

[Makasene]

What does this have to do with recruitment?

He was recruited to play centre and has been a bust (First part of thread title - 2024 recruitment)

If he continues being a bust, he can be dealt to Japan or anywhere really. (Second part of thread title - 2025 retention)

What does your post have to do with recruitment?

 

[sballer7]

I cant see anyone taking Capewells contract off our hands. RTS is more likely to be released, but this season will have seen his value drop significantly. Cant see Jap rugby investing heavily in him anymore.

 

[Playdaball]

Release Kosi immediately and replace him with a player with pace , either internally or externally.

 

[Makasene]

Can anyone shed light on how contracts work.

Cameron George has said SJ has been tabled an offer for next year.

If SJ accepts it, is it a done deal? Or does the club still have a final say?

 

[Defence]

If we’re gonna re-sign Sj we need to get some speed around him.
When he was playing his best footy last year he at least had metcalf next to him and dwz on his wing- that backline we rolled out last week would’ve been the slowest in the nrl by some margin- I’m sorry but Pompey and kosi just aren’t quick enough to be outside backs in the nrl- they’re forwards.
Montoya, rts and cnk are borderline as well.
One way or another- we need to get some speed into this squad.

 

[Wrighty]

Can anyone shed light on how contracts work.

Cameron George has said SJ has been tabled an offer for next year.

If SJ accepts it, is it a done deal? Or does the club still have a final say?

Typically a club will just retract their offer if they change their mind.
After SJ signs yes I would imagine the club would need to sign, but it would never get to the step of the club refusing to sign at the last second as they would retract the offer earlier if they got cold feet. I am just supposing all of this based on my involvement with contracts at work.

 

[Noitall]

Typically a club will just retract their offer if they change their mind.
After SJ signs yes I would imagine the club would need to sign, but it would never get to the step of the club refusing to sign at the last second as they would retract the offer earlier if they got cold feet. I am just supposing all of this based on my involvement with contracts at work.

Would like to think the club has revised the offer at least. If $700k is the offer, I think it’s too much for where his form is

 

[Tookey 2.0]

If we’re gonna re-sign Sj we need to get some speed around him.
When he was playing his best footy last year he at least had metcalf next to him and dwz on his wing- that backline we rolled out last week would’ve been the slowest in the nrl by some margin- I’m sorry but Pompey and kosi just aren’t quick enough to be outside backs in the nrl- they’re forwards.
Montoya, rts and cnk are borderline as well.
One way or another- we need to get some speed into this squad.

Yeah I fully agree. Having Montoya, RTS and CNK is fine when you have one or two players who have great speed, but when they're the fastest players on your team I think that's when it's a massive issue. Imo speed hasn't appeared to be the biggest issue for us this year as we had Metcalf, Tuaupiki or DWZ in the team, but man it was obvious against the Titans how slow and stuck in mud we looked

 

[Naumaifooty]

Make a play for Jojo Fifita and Xavier Savage.

 

[Inruin]

Did we look slow against the Panthers, Dolphins and Cowboys?

SJ with his more prolific occurrence of injuries and a reluctance to engage the line currently isn't worth the $700k money, especially since it looks like, regardless of form of the team or him, he will be selected as first choice half

 

[hornbybrown]

I cant see anyone taking Capewells contract off our hands. RTS is more likely to be released, but this season will have seen his value drop significantly. Cant see Jap rugby investing heavily in him anymore.

Japanese rugby will still be very interested in him. They love former All Blacks over there

 

[Billyspleen75]

Apparently Suliasi Vunivalu is being looked at by NRL clubs after missing out on the Wallabies squad.
Still only 28, lived in Auckland from 16-18. Wouldn't mind us having a look

 

[Damo]

Apparently Suliasi Vunivalu is being looked at by NRL clubs after missing out on the Wallabies squad.
Still only 28, lived in Auckland from 16-18. Wouldn't mind us having a look

Think we need to go younger for outside backs personally.

 

[Noitall]

Did we look slow against the Panthers, Dolphins and Cowboys?

SJ with his more prolific occurrence of injuries and a reluctance to engage the line currently isn't worth the $700k money, especially since it looks like, regardless of form of the team or him, he will be selected as first choice half

Also a conundrum for the club that TMM can be negotiated with in November, so the club could be forced to go in one certain direction with both playing their best as game managing 7’s, if someone else was to become available that would better our squad and money was needed wherever?

 

[Boston Boy]

Apparently Suliasi Vunivalu is being looked at by NRL clubs after missing out on the Wallabies squad.
Still only 28, lived in Auckland from 16-18. Wouldn't mind us having a look

He’d be a great get. Big upgrade on Montoya.

 

[MurrayTD]

Apparently Suliasi Vunivalu is being looked at by NRL clubs after missing out on the Wallabies squad.
Still only 28, lived in Auckland from 16-18. Wouldn't mind us having a look

Shocked to read that Vunivalu is only 28! seems an age ago that he was the gun winger for the storm.

 

[JaggedJ]

Did we look slow against the Panthers, Dolphins and Cowboys?

SJ with his more prolific occurrence of injuries and a reluctance to engage the line currently isn't worth the $700k money, especially since it looks like, regardless of form of the team or him, he will be selected as first choice half

Yeah we looked slow in those games too. We just had a better attitude, were more physical and our opponents either took us lightly or had a really bad day (Cowboys were atrocious)

Even in those wins though, all 3 of the teams mentioned scored tries from inside their own 20-40m line against us.

That's the problem, opposition make a break anywhere on the field and it's usually try time. We make a break in our own half we're probably just gaining extra field position.

In games where the attitude and physicality is equal we're going to come up short because we don't have the icing on top to either swing momentum or kick them when they're down.

Singing/developing players with pace isn't just an attacking move, it helps with defence. Right now we can't match teams with pace and all the top teams have pace and know we don't.