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	✔	✔	✔
	Morgan Harper	✔
12	Chanel Harris-Tavita	✔	✔
13	Sam Healey	✔	✔	✔
14	Edward Kosi	✔
15	Jacob Laban	✔	✔
16	Ali Leiataua	✔	✔	✔
17	Freddy Lussick	✔	✔
18	Te Maire Martin	✔
19	Luke Metcalf	✔	✔
20	Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad	✔
21	Marata Niukore	✔	✔
22	Adam Pompey	✔	✔	✔
23	Tanner Stowers-Smith	✔
24	Taine Tuaupiki	✔	✔
25	Roger Tuivasa-Sheck	✔	✔
26	Demitric Vaimauga	✔	✔	✔	✔
27	Dylan Walker	✔
28	Dallin Watene-Zelezniak	✔	✔	✔
S1	Kayliss Faitialofa	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: 29/30
Confirmed Supplementary 2025: 6/6

Confirmed Top 30 2026: 21/30
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, Dylan Walker

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[CWC]

Who would you rather.... kosi vs Harper?

Would you rather go out with your mates and have too many beers to sign washed up players, and thought about every other junior in your life? You could have promoted baby Moala, or invest in Sio, or called me…

 

[run_it_str8_again]

WhO iS "yOuS"? Sure as fuck not me. I power chucked when I heard the news.

I know bro. But does he still have the most punchable face now he's a Wah?

 

[CWC]

There was a season where we signed red hot RTS and Isaac Luke, then Kieran Foran to support them, Ryan Hoffman, before that was origin star Brent Tate, recently Tohu, AFB, Marata, Dallin the ex kiwi captain, Capewell and now JFH

Reese Walsh was a nobody when he signed. Don’t see an issue hoping for actual inspiring signings and criticize the club that we pay tickets for lol

 

[sup42]

There was a season where we signed red hot RTS and Isaac Luke, then Kieran Foran to support them, Ryan Hoffman, before that was origin star Brent Tate, recently Tohu, AFB, Marata, Dallin the ex kiwi captain, Capewell and now JFH

Reese Walsh was a nobody when he signed. Don’t see an issue hoping for actual inspiring signings and criticize the club that we pay tickets for lol

Given the rosters those players came to those years are nothing compared to the Roosters, Storm, Broncos, years of signing stars on top of stars.

 

[mrblonde]

Yea I’m not getting onboard with this povo happy to receive some crumbs once in a while mentality.

We have the ability and cap to land some big fish once in a while and those are the players the public tune in to watch.

Not fucking Morgan Harper.

Exactly. Once in a while.

One every few seasons. None of whom really saw the Warriors as first choice - AFB needed for personal reasons to escape Sydney, SP didn't get a contract offer from the Bulldogs, okay maybe RW saw us as first choice - being his home country would have helped, can't think of any major signing that was wild with enthusiasm about coming here. And as to RW The Younger, we didn't know he'd be that good when he signed him.

We sign big names who either on their last legs or want to come home for personal reasons as well as being on their last legs. AFB was for personal reasons but once he and wifey got a bit antsy it was "I'm shootin' though soon as you'll let me, Warriors! And I know how to make you let me!"

I can make quite a list of players the Warriors have recruited where everyone was stoked at the signing, not so much stoked at the performances. And vice versa.

Clubs have a Salary Cap and a Salary Floor. 95% of the Cap has to be spent on the Top 30 players by IIRC June 1. So the lower clubs have to pay Players K and L who really aren't all that, overs to meet that 95% If anything, blame DWZ's ankle.

Egan didn't particularly excite me when his arrival was announced. Now look...

 

[mrblonde]

There was a season where we signed red hot RTS and Isaac Luke, then Kieran Foran to support them, Ryan Hoffman, before that was origin star Brent Tate, recently Tohu, AFB, Marata, Dallin the ex kiwi captain, Capewell and now JFH

Reese Walsh was a nobody when he signed. Don’t see an issue hoping for actual inspiring signings and criticize the club that we pay tickets for lol

IL was last legs, KF looked like he was, probably just needed out of Australia for a while, same as AFB. We would never have had RTS if ST hadn't wanted back oop North quick as like...

 

[Neo]

Harper is only signed until November on what you would assume is minimum wage. So that is approximately $100k between now and then. Therefore if a more attractive option comes up before June 30 you still have the ability to sign them and pay Morgan out to free up the spot without taking any meaningful impact to your salary cap

 

[Too much]

Agree with @sup42 with maybe a slightly more fuller glass than him. The Warriors are the Oakland A’s (RIP) of the NRL…the decks are always going to be heavily against us in terms of signing premium aussies…its just not going to happen. Thats not to say we cant create a winning team.

Our best years have always had a mixture of club rejects (cleary, witt, roveli, luck, campion) paired with the smackering of home grown talent.

In the wise words of Billy Beane (with the added beauty of hollywood script writing) “we are card counters at the blackjack table and were going to turn the odds on the casino”.

At least thats what I imagine cappy and Webby talk about at HQ


View: https://youtu.be/TrVGuGTzSfE?si=04SRVi_USUgJ10uC

 

[CWC]

Agree with @sup42 with maybe a slightly more fuller glass than him. The Warriors are the Oakland A’s (RIP) of the NRL…the decks are always going to be heavily against us in terms of signing premium aussies…its just not going to happen. Thats not to say we cant create a winning team.

Our best years have always had a mixture of club rejects (cleary, witt, roveli, luck, campion) paired with the smackering of home grown talent.

In the wise words of Billy Beane (with the added beauty of hollywood script writing) “we are card counters at the blackjack table and were going to turn the odds on the casino”.

At least thats what I imagine cappy and Webby talk about at HQ


View: https://youtu.be/TrVGuGTzSfE?si=04SRVi_USUgJ10uC

Oh baseball?

I was rooting for them until they decided to trade their clean up super star batter for some pitchers and they crashed out of the playoffs after finishing top of the league, and now they’re gone, I could not believe the stupid trade they did, probably trying a 2004 Red Sox trade. It’s like trading Dallin for…3 Morgan Harpers

Moral of the story for NRL? Don’t let go of your guns if you can’t replace them with top guns

 

[Ever Hopeful]

Harper is only signed until November on what you would assume is minimum wage. So that is approximately $100k between now and then. Therefore if a more attractive option comes up before June 30 you still have the ability to sign them and pay Morgan out to free up the spot without taking any meaningful impact to your salary cap

Thanks for that new perspective. It is a good one I hadn't considered enough.

The grey area for me is the percentage of cap a club must spend each year. It would make a lot of sense for the NRL to let a club like ours sit on available cap rather than have to spend 80% of it (or whatever it is) on an inferior roster. I'm not really sure where the rules sit with this at the moment. AFB, SJ, Jazz, Monts and Harris is an enormous amount of cap to spend on what we have now. I guess we are paying large parts of some contracts early in addition to investing in our youth??

Update - clubs are required to pay out 97.5% of the salary cap. It is crazy when you think of the respective rosters of some teams.

The Salary Cap

Here are the official guidelines for the NRL salary cap, including frequently asked questions like what players can earn outside the salary cap, how much can clubs spend, third party agreements and more.

www.nrl.com

 

[Dantheman]

I can’t answer that. I already have a full time job doing something else.

Morgan Harper ain’t it.

we don't need him to be 'it'. He is a backend roster player that's all.

 

[Aman 2.0]

Agree with @sup42 with maybe a slightly more fuller glass than him. The Warriors are the Oakland A’s (RIP) of the NRL…the decks are always going to be heavily against us in terms of signing premium aussies…its just not going to happen. Thats not to say we cant create a winning team.

Our best years have always had a mixture of club rejects (cleary, witt, roveli, luck, campion) paired with the smackering of home grown talent.

In the wise words of Billy Beane (with the added beauty of hollywood script writing) “we are card counters at the blackjack table and were going to turn the odds on the casino”.

At least thats what I imagine cappy and Webby talk about at HQ


View: https://youtu.be/TrVGuGTzSfE?si=04SRVi_USUgJ10uC

Then why does so much Galen leave NZ for other nrl teams so easily?

If we’ve concealed we can’t sign Aussie superstars or even lure back kiwi ones then why is everything humanly possible not being done to stop the drain of young kiwi talent leaving for other clubs?

I mean EVERYTHING provide housing for families, jobs you fucking name it legal or not. Why don’t we scouts in every corner of NZ looking for the next RTS for Joey Manu?? They should never be allowed to leave if that’s our only fucking option and strategy .

 

[Too much]

Then why does so much Galen leave NZ for other nrl teams so easily?

If we’ve concealed we can’t sign Aussie superstars or even lure back kiwi ones then why is everything humanly possible not being done to stop the drain of young kiwi talent leaving for other clubs?

I mean EVERYTHING provide housing for families, jobs you fucking name it legal or not. Why don’t we scouts in every corner of NZ looking for the next RTS for Joey Manu?? They should never be allowed to leave if that’s our only fucking option and strategy .

Because most clubs are already doing that in NZ. Until were a consistently winning side if the options for a 16 year old are Warriors system or move to Bondi then chance are theyre moving to Bondi.

All semantics aside i doubt you’d be happy to start seasons in the minus after we got rorted for buying Joey Manu’s grandma a house.

 

[tajhay]

Thanks for the 10 or so users volunteering to get a reply ban on this thread today. If you want to shitpost or quote a shitpost and take the discussion offtopic, please continue as you were to volunteer to the list. If you want to discuss properly feel free to do so, but shitposting and replying to shitposts asking a user for justification on their trolls when you very well know the reply is not going to be constructive or meaninful is not it.

There is a 'Report' button next to posts. Use it rather than replying to people who just want to bait and take others with them to the naughty corner.

There are a number of warnings on this thread. And rest assured that this thread is heavily moderated.

 

[run_it_str8_again]

Welcome Morganza. Use those eyes to scare the rest of the competition.

They already creep me out.

Is this the team he secretly needed to be in? Like how Fordy said he just needed someone to believe in him?

Work your magic senor Webby

 

[Makasene]

Crazy how stacked a lot of squads are this year, and are still able to re sign players (e.g. Hazelton and Mulitalo). Yet we are releasing players and making signings like Harper. After losing AFB/Tohu/SJ. No one wants to come to NZ I guess, we should ask for some kind of cap bonus like PNG would get.

I just don't think any of this is true...

AFB was replaced by JFH

SJ we have replaced internally and signed competent depth in Boyd

Tohu retired 3 minutes ago...

It's going to be a long season in here by the looks of it. Too many posters expecting a win now situation. It's not the reality and issues like our outside back depth are not easily solved. Take a look at our current list of outside backs to play first grade - Harper is a 7th option! (maybe 6th due to Kosi doing Kosi things).

1. DWZ (injured)
2. RTS
3. Berry (injured)
4. Ali
5. Pompey
6. Kosi
7. Harper
8. MGT

And this list doesn't include the fact TT is playing wing this week and whispers that a genuine option of TMM to 1, CNK to centre is also a consideration.

Calm the farm is my advice

I do agree with other posts though that we surely have missed some targets.

 

[shuffle]

Welcome Morgan Harpwah!