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	The Greatest of All-Time	✔	✔
5	Kurt Capewell	✔	✔
6	Erin Clark	✔	✔	✔
7	Wayde Egan	✔	✔	✔
8	James Fisher-Harris	✔	✔	✔	✔
9	Jackson Ford	✔
10	Leka Halasima	✔	✔	✔
11	Tohu Harris	✔
12	Chanel Harris-Tavita	✔	M
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	Motu Pasikala	✔	✔	✔
24	Adam Pompey	✔
25	Demitric Sifakula	✔	C
26	Taine Tuaupiki	✔
27	Roger Tuivasa-Sheck	✔	✔
28	Dylan Walker	✔
29	Dallin Watene-Zelezniak	✔
D1	Kalani Going	D
D2	Tanner Stowers-Smith	D
T1	Jett Cleary	T	D	D

C = Club option, M = Mutual option, P = Player option, D = Development contract, T = Train & Trial contract

Confirmed Top 30 2025: 29/30
Confirmed Development 2025: 2/6
Unconfirmed Top 30 2025: 29/30
Unconfirmed Development 2025: 3/6 (Luke Hanson, per Zero Tackle)

Confirmed Top 30 2026: 13/30
Confirmed Development 2026: 1/6

2026 Gains: Nil
2026 Losses: Nil

Off Contract: Bunty Afoa, Tom Ale, Jackson Ford, Tohu Harris, Ed Kosi, Ali Leiataua, Te Maire Martin, Marcelo Montoya, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Adam Pompey, Taine Tuaupiki, Dylan Walker, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, Kalani Going (D), Tanner Stowers-Smith (D), Chanel Harris-Tavita (M), Demitric Sifakula (C)

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[MrFrankWhite]

11 Niukore
12 Capewell
13 Harris

Bro come on. Its time to move on

 

[timburgesstheonlyoneiknow]

Bro come on. Its time to move on

That back row lacks mobility of other teams and as there a year older could be exposed over the duration of the season

 

[MrFrankWhite]

That back row lacks mobility of other teams and as there a year older could be exposed over the duration of the season

TBH it was dogshit. I've said enough about Harris but Marata cant defend to save his life and Capewell spends his time cleaning up after whoever else is in the backrow. Also there's zero threat or ability to break a tackle, apart from said Capewell who is usually fragged from clean up duty.

 

[Damo]

TBH it was dogshit. I've said enough about Harris but Marata cant defend to save his life and Capewell spends his time cleaning up after whoever else is in the backrow. Also there's zero threat or ability to break a tackle, apart from said Capewell who is usually fragged from clean up duty.

I'd be splitting minutes between Clark and Walker for the Lock position. Tohu probably only good for short stints at prop now. Use a young fella (or two) on one edge with Capewell on the other

 

[CWC]

Who is this 22yo you speak of

Sam Healy rumored from a few pages back

 

[Christchurch_Warrior]

Sam Healy rumored from a few pages back

Would be a weird signing unless we were losing Lussick or Roache.

 

[MrFrankWhite]

Tohu probably only good for short stints at prop now.

Waste of a bench spot, a roster spot and half a million dollars. It’s exactly the same as Monty getting replaced by RTS; a player now surplus to requirements.

 

[Damo]

Waste of a bench spot, a roster spot and half a million dollars. It’s exactly the same as Monty getting replaced by RTS; a player now surplus to requirements.

I think when healthy he can still provide good output. Always been very good at making metres and tackles

 

[CWC]

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

If Clark can adjust his body type for lock/hooker instead of prop it'll be
14 Clark
15 Sifakula/Ale
16 Walker
17 Halasima/Laban

Depth - Ford, Afoa, Zyon Maiu’u, TSS, Ierema others are talking about
That's pretty good with 5 back ups (only 1 of them raw) and 2 debutants to ease into it

 

[FormerlyJamesW]

Welcome aboard Erin.

I'm pretty happy with this signing, he looked decent in the Tits/Riff game.

 

[Tookey 2.0]

Ford and Ale are the odd men out for me. Imo, both should be playing consistent first grade, so I'm curious to see how things play out for them both.

Ford is a favourite of Webby, and to be honest if he cleaned up his error rate I think he'd be an above average player. Makes meters, has good d, runs a a good line. If he's fit he's in the team Rd 1 nek year imo.

I've been disappointed in the way Webby's used Ale this year. He was looking good towards the end of last year, he started a game at prop and had a few more minutes. He ended up averaging over 100m a game for the 7 games he played over 30 min, then this year he only gets 15 games, with almost half of them less than 20 minutes. He hasn't really had the opportunity to impress. He's one of the biggest question marks for me next year, he either becomes a star or he's moved on imo

 

[MrFrankWhite]

I think when healthy he can still provide good output. Always been very good at making metres and tackles

He only has 1 season left to do it. So at 33 he has to be better than he was 2 years prior. All while the games sped up. It’s fantasy. Theres no 33 year old locks putting up monster numbers. Yeo is like 29.

 

[Noitall]

I think when healthy he can still provide good output. Always been very good at making metres and tackles

I’m comfortable that we can find a role for a guy that’s making tackles at 95% and average running metres of 130m odd, while needing surgery to an injured wrist. I feel like Tohu is the type of guy that wouldn’t continue if he thought he couldn’t make the team better. I think their preseasons will determine their rewards, there were some that were selected automatically but I felt a majority had to earn their spot. Halasima’s good form in nsw cup was rewarded with a patch of games, as was Laban before him and Sifakula after

 

[Damo]

He only has 1 season left to do it. So at 33 he has to be better than he was 2 years prior. All while the games sped up. It’s fantasy. Theres no 33 year old locks putting up monster numbers. Yeo is like 29.

Where did I say I wanted him to play Lock?
He still put up good numbers in two games off the interchange this season, 120+ metres and 25+ tackles is a good return in around 45 mins.

 

[MrFrankWhite]

Where did I say I wanted him to play Lock?
He still put up good numbers in two games off the interchange this season, 120+ metres and 25+ tackles is a good return in around 45 mins.

Good point, but I’ll pass on 500k for a bloke to play 2 good games.

 

[CWC]

Ford and Ale are the odd men out for me. Imo, both should be playing consistent first grade, so I'm curious to see how things play out for them both.

Ford is a favourite of Webby, and to be honest if he cleaned up his error rate I think he'd be an above average player. Makes meters, has good d, runs a a good line. If he's fit he's in the team Rd 1 nek year imo.

I've been disappointed in the way Webby's used Ale this year. He was looking good towards the end of last year, he started a game at prop and had a few more minutes. He ended up averaging over 100m a game for the 7 games he played over 30 min, then this year he only gets 15 games, with almost half of them less than 20 minutes. He hasn't really had the opportunity to impress. He's one of the biggest question marks for me next year, he either becomes a star or he's moved on imo

Ford should get plenty of games to cover for JFH and Barney he'd be my straight swap for starters, though Webby might just hand him a bench spot at the expense of Sifakula/Ale/Halasima....

Ale was amazing during that 3-win streak mid-season then Webby just dropped him, apparently playing 13 but never really got back into the bench rotation for some reason, it's really weird he was making 10m+ per run consistently, but we had Lussick playing prop instead

 

[MrFrankWhite]

For balance I think Marata is a waste of $$ as well

 

[Noitall]

Where did I say I wanted him to play Lock?
He still put up good numbers in two games off the interchange this season, 120+ metres and 25+ tackles is a good return in around 45 mins.

I’d have him as a bench prop/second row/lock option for his final season and recruit Leo Thompson to replace him in 2026. Thompson would probably be there starting prop then, and Barnett drops to bench

 

[Damo]

Good point, but I’ll pass on 500k for a bloke to play 2 good games.

If he plays in that role all season and performs similarly to that, we would all be stoked.
500k is peanuts in todays cap, around 4.5% of it.

 

[Damo]

I’d have him as a bench prop/second row/lock option for his final season and recruit Leo Thompson to replace him in 2026. Thompson would probably be there starting prop then, and Barnett drops to bench

Dreams are free I guess.

I'd keep Tohu away from an edge personally, only a middle these days.