Recruitment Warriors 2025/2026 Recruitment & Retention

Warriors 2025/2026 Recruitment & Retention Discussion​

-	Player	2025	2026	2027	2028	2029
1	Bunty Afoa	✔
2	Tom Ale	✔
3	Mitchell Barnett	✔	✔	✔
4	Rocco Berry	✔	✔
5	Tanah Boyd	✔	✔
6	Kurt Capewell	✔	✔
7	Erin Clark	✔	✔	✔
8	Wayde Egan	✔	✔	✔
9	James Fisher-Harris	✔	✔	✔	✔
10	Jackson Ford	✔	✔	✔
11	Leka Halasima	✔	✔	✔
12	Morgan Harper	✔
13	Chanel Harris-Tavita	✔	✔
14	Sam Healey	✔	✔	✔
15	Edward Kosi	✔
16	Jacob Laban	✔	✔
17	Ali Leiataua	✔	✔	✔
18	Freddy Lussick	✔	✔
19	Te Maire Martin	✔
20	Luke Metcalf	✔	✔
21	Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad	✔
22	Marata Niukore	✔	✔
23	Adam Pompey	✔	✔	✔
24	Tanner Stowers-Smith	✔
25	Taine Tuaupiki	✔	✔
26	Roger Tuivasa-Sheck	✔	✔
27	Demitric Vaimauga	✔	✔	✔	✔
28	Dallin Watene-Zelezniak	✔	✔	✔
S1	Kayliss Fatialofa	S
S2	Kalani Going	S
S3	Luke Hanson	S
S4	Eddie Ieremia-Toeava	S	✔	✔
S5	Sio Kali	S
S6	Patrick Moimoi	S
-	Kahu Capper	T	T
-	Jett Cleary	T	S	S
-	Motu Pasikala	T	✔	✔

C = Club option, M = Mutual option, P = Player option, S = Supplementary contract, T = Train & Trial contract

Confirmed Top 30 2025: 28/30
Confirmed Supplementary 2025: 6/6

Confirmed Top 30 2026: 23/30
Confirmed Supplementary 2026: 1/6

2026 Gains: Nil
2026 Losses: Nil

Off Contract: Bunty Afoa, Tom Ale, Morgan Harper, Edward Kosi, Te Maire Martin, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Tanner Stowers-Smith

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[Noitall]

That edit may have been there since that time we were trying to prove he's not homophobic

Hadn’t considered it to be linked to that but you could be right

 

[Worried2Death]

Hadn’t considered it to be linked to that but you could be right

Tigers fans are pretty gullible, they believe everything they read on the internet

 

[Noitall]

Tigers fans are pretty gullible, they believe everything they read on the internet

Funny looking at their forum, it looks so similar to when he was signed here. Many underwhelmed, and some idiots taking that wikipedia shit literally even though people on there are posting articles of him and his wife. Even if he was I couldn’t give a shit. He’s been a great recruit to the Warriors and showed genuine love for the club. He’s passed on a good work ethic I would think and sets a great example for the younger guys to run with intent, he can an attacker or defender hard. He’ll provide that great example to that young tigers team

 

[Wellington Warrior]

Gordy playing up every week on 360 running defence for Walters.

It’s embarrassing how much Tallis defends him and starts attacking anyone and everyone else… Wasn’t it last week he started on Reynolds for not speaking up in the press conference. Tallis is a moron.

 

[Tragic]

The protection from the old boys is disgraceful.
Kevie seems like a an awesome fella but he shouldn’t be shielded from attacks

Yes he should. Carrigan should be made to leave and go play at another club outside australia. But only if he gets a man's haircut.

 

[MrFrankWhite]

Kevin Walters wasn't a MENSA member at the height of his greatness. Now hes just a old ex player most likely suffering from CTE. He should be mascot, not coach.

 

[Makasene]

Bit of a rumour Pat Carrigan and Kevin Walters have had a falling out. Apparently there are going to be quite a few broncos ready to leave if Walters keeps his job

I mean how many players have to go public saying Walters can't coach before he loses his job?

Evidently 2 is not enough

 

[CWC]

Tigers have signed Montoya after his exploits smashing The Forbes Flyer Staines every game… Staines would be soiling his dacks right now

Getting smashed every week at training now lol

 

[CWC]

Loved Monty he fought with us through covid and settled very well in NZ, hope he gets that long contract to the end of his career and enjoy the baby twins and family support, kind of exciting for him actually. Would be welcomed when Tigers play here next year.

RTS is definitely a better winger and the writing was probably on the wall the week we played the Roosters. Roger is quicker off the mark, can step multiple defenders and break lines, probably similar with aerial skills, defensive reads, ability to run over defenders, and tackling, but the most important difference is Roger can turn….that would save many tries from grubbers through the season and potentially by doing his fullback style try savers in the corner as well.

Back up should be young MTG then the teenager, Kosi and Tu should be absolute depth from Cup unless Webby continues with brain explosions. Like the 2 youngsters are closer types to RTS/DWZ than Kosi…

 

[CWC]

Don’t know why they sign a 22 y/o hooker who’s never played FG and releasing Freddy who’s got a gun defense, is durable and is improving fast with his service, running and reads after we invested 2.5 years of resources into him and he’s entering his prime, especially when Roache is behind him. Unless it’s another compassionate release situation.

Makes more sense if they sign the new guy AND keep Freddy, like what if the new guy is a bust?

 

[tyrael]

Don’t know why they sign a 22 y/o hooker who’s never played FG and releasing Freddy who’s got a gun defense, is durable and is improving fast with his service, running and reads after we invested 2.5 years of resources into him and he’s entering his prime, especially when Roache is behind him. Unless it’s another compassionate release situation.

Makes more sense if they sign the new guy AND keep Freddy, like what if the new guy is a bust?

Freddy probably upset being on the bench and getting between 0-10 minutes a game.

 

[CWC]

Freddy probably upset being on the bench and getting between 0-10 minutes a game.

Probably going to the same podcast Curran went to

*not sure if this is a joke tho he got plenty of starts with long minutes even when Egan was on the bench, maybe Webby wasn’t happy how he went at prop, or vise versa

 

[Ever Hopeful]

Like the Walker rumour, like the Bunty rumour, I'm yet to see anything that actually suggests that we are releasing Lussick.

Am I mistaken?

 

[Dangerous]

Pretty sure we only signed Lussick as he was part of a package deal to get Ronald Volkman as the Chooks didnt see any value in Lussic & wanted him off there books & TBH his NSW cup highlights/stats were very underwheming before coming to us & he hasn't shown anything other then hard training here. No need to keep him imo

 

[JaggedJ]

Pretty sure we only signed Lussick as he was part of a package deal to get Ronald Volkman as the Chooks didnt see any value in Lussic & wanted him off there books & TBH his NSW cup highlights/stats were very underwheming before coming to us & he hasn't shown anything other then hard training here. No need to keep him imo

While that might be true, we only just re-signed him in March of this year for a further 2 years. Either him leaving is BS or something has happened behind the scenes as he's looked similar to how he did last year on the field.

 

[Inruin]

While that might be true, we only just re-signed him in March of this year for a further 2 years. Either him leaving is BS or something has happened behind the scenes as he's looked similar to how he did last year on the field.

And also what becomes of Roache who has looked good at 9 the few games he has had in first grade

 

[Wrighty]

Luke Metcalf could be sort of in between the level of Toby Sexton and an elite half. Sort of at Jackson Hastings level.
His last 3 games after returning from injury were two tries, three try assists unfortunately 10 missed tackles but you can't have everything.

I think our 2025 hopes rest on him staying healthy and getting a full season in. You could see when he came back from injury that he had demonstrably grown as a distributor compared to earlier this season.
He is a cause of hope for next season and could actually turn out to be as good a player as we all hoped he would be when we acquired him. So he is a source of hope.

 

[Wrighty]

I think it is great we figured out RTS wasnt working at centre and are moving him to wing.
Next revelation i want Webster to have and the news I want to hear is that CNK won't be fullback next year.
If we BOTH solve the best position for RTS and CNK we will surely make the 8 next year. Our forwards are set and ready to roll.

 

[Wrighty]

This forward pack will be better than round one 2024

8 JFH
9 Egan
10 Barnett
11 Niukore
12 Capewell
13 Harris

14 Walker
15 Sifakula
16 Clark
17 Lussick

That's the best Warriors bench I have ever seen in my short tenure

Back up forwards
18 Leka - will get plenty of games and might be able to replace Niukore on merit as opposed to injury.
19 Ford - I hope he also gets released
20 Ale - will be in the prime of his career
21 Bunty - safe pair of hands
22 Zyon Maiu’u
23 Laban

 

[JaggedJ]

And also what becomes of Roache who has looked good at 9 the few games he has had in first grade

TBH I'm not sure the club sees Roache as anything but an experienced utility for NSW Cup.

I could be wrong on that, it's just the impression I get. If I'm right though then he's probably not factored into the equation.