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	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	✔	✔
13	Sam Healey	✔	✔	✔
14	Edward Kosi	✔
15	Jacob Laban	✔	✔
16	Ali Leiataua	✔	✔	✔
17	Freddy Lussick	✔	✔
18	Zyon Maiu’u	✔	✔
19	Te Maire Martin	✔
20	Luke Metcalf	✔	✔
21	Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad	✔
22	Marata Niukore	✔	✔
23	Motu Pasikala	✔	✔	✔
24	Adam Pompey	✔
25	Taine Tuaupiki	✔	✔
26	Roger Tuivasa-Sheck	✔	✔
27	Demitric Vaimauga	✔	C
28	Dylan Walker	✔
29	Dallin Watene-Zelezniak	✔	✔	✔
S1	Tanah Boyd	S	S
S2	Kalani Going	S
S3	Tanner Stowers-Smith	S
T1	Jett Cleary	T	S	S

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

Confirmed Top 30 2025: 29/30
Confirmed Development 2025: 3/6
Unconfirmed Top 30 2025: 29/30
Unconfirmed Development 2025: 4/6 (Luke Hanson, per Zero Tackle)

Confirmed Top 30 2026: 20/30
Confirmed Development 2026: 2/6

2026 Gains: Nil
2026 Losses: Nil

Off Contract: Bunty Afoa, Tom Ale, Tohu Harris, Edward Kosi, Te Maire Martin, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Adam Pompey, Dylan Walker, Kalani Going (S), Tanner Stowers-Smith (S), Demitric Vaimauga (C)

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[Leon Black]

People tend to get hung upon that November 1st thing and tend to get disappointed when there’s not the flurry of signings they were expecting.

Like the EPL transfer window, remember my beloved Liverpool FC one year signing Andy Carroll 11.59 pm before the midnight window shut. He was as good as Kane Evans turned out for us

 

[Wrighty]

If you are a decent player, and probably have demand for your services it would make very little sense to sign a contract as soon as that window is open - unless ofcourse you had been waiting for that team to come knocking and know no team will outmatch that offer. 12 months is a long time and if you are half decent, you would have to be a moron to sign a contract that early.

And btw noone would be reading zerotackle for news. They have become a bit of a joke - one of their headlines in past few days was that "Latrell signs for Broncos". It was Latrell Siegwalt a QLD cup player.

OK don't hold back tell us how you really feel.
100% disagree. The year we were waiting for news on Joey Manu we heard tell tale rumours (we were not getting him) maybe two weeks or so after Nov 1.
I won't defend zero tackle but it recycles its content refresh rate the fastest on the Interweb. (Some license taken with that statement in case you fact check it).

 

[tajhay]

OK don't hold back tell us how you really feel.
100% disagree. The year we were waiting for news on Joey Manu we heard tell tale rumours (we were not getting him) maybe two weeks or so after Nov 1.

Why wouldnt you want to name a decent player who signs a contract around nov 1? That would actually be disagreeing with me.

Zerotackle is an AGGREGATOR who use "editors"/AI to reword articles so they dont get penalised from google and get authorative originality for SEO. Add in clickbait titles. IF you actually want to get latest info, you could do what they do, collect all media RSS feeds (nrluniverse.com does this without modifying content), put that into a RSS feed app and get more content then you have time to read.

If you want just warriors related news/content just follow this for example: https://nrluniverse.com/new-zealand-warriors-news/

Its all via RSS feeds. They even connect to this forums RSS (though that seems to be pre hack so that info they prob need to update lol)

 

[run_it_str8_again]

100%. Cobbo is a guy that will give you a 10/10 one week, but then run for 40m and make 5 errors for the next three.

True. We've got plenty of those blokes

 

[Leon Black]

OK don't hold back tell us how you really feel.
100% disagree. The year we were waiting for news on Joey Manu we heard tell tale rumours (we were not getting him) maybe two weeks or so after Nov 1.
I won't defend zero tackle but it recycles its content refresh rate the fastest on the Interweb. (Some license taken with that statement in case you fact check it).

We locked up Isaac Liu… was that not Zero Tackle? Only thing they are good for are player contracts

 

[Dannevegas]

Mikey Lewis is keen on the nrl apparently for next year. (Young Highly rated half from the super league) I’d be throwing the cheque book at him.

Speed kills and him and metcalf in the halves would be deadly

 

[wizard of Tauranga]

Priority 1 right now should be resigning Ali Leiataua before other clubs can approach him in November.

What’s taking so long? Are there road bumps in the negotiations ?

What’s his value? We’re stuck with 2 centres we’re already paying starter money to (Berry and Pompey). What money do we have to offer him and what’s his worth?

Is Ali seeing a pathway to first grade to want to resign? He will be 22 next year which is getting relatively ancient for a power player and it’s not guaranteed he’s got a starting position locked in.

 

[Ferdie]

What’s taking so long? Are there road bumps in the negotiations ?

What’s his value? We’re stuck with 2 centres we’re already paying starter money to (Berry and Pompey). What money do we have to offer him and what’s his worth?

Is Ali seeing a pathway to first grade to want to resign? He will be 22 next year which is getting relatively ancient for a power player and it’s not guaranteed he’s got a starting position locked in.

I doubt Pompey is on starter money, he extended his contract in July 2023 for the 2025 season, 3 months after RTS was announced as returning, who was supposed to be the new centre.
Ali's progress has been held up a bit due to being injured twice in his first two first grade games and having to have 2x extended periods out injured.
My thoughts are they are possibly planning on giving him Montoya's money (with the plan to shift RTS to the wing), but are just waiting for negotiations with the Tigers to be completed.

 

[Cces]

Granted it's only a SG Ball signing but good to see a kid from Dunedin in the pipeline who has grown up as a fan

Mason Lome-Hindle signs with the NZ Warriors

We are thrilled to share that Southern Zone Academy player Mason Lome-Hindle has officially signed with the NZ Warriors ...

www.sporty.co.nz

 

[Defence]

True. We've got plenty of those blokes

We’ve got plentiful blokes like cobbo? Farkin hell- where are we hiding them?

 

[run_it_str8_again]

We’ve got plentiful blokes like cobbo? Farkin hell- where are we hiding them?

The post I quoted has context if you'd like to go back and get it.

 

[Tragic]

I would take Cobbo, we need strike and he has it. He would win us a few games that we lost this year. He would be annoyingly inconsistent but we came 5th to last so we aren't consistent anyway

 

[run_it_str8_again]

What’s taking so long? Are there road bumps in the negotiations ?

What’s his value? We’re stuck with 2 centres we’re already paying starter money to (Berry and Pompey). What money do we have to offer him and what’s his worth?

Is Ali seeing a pathway to first grade to want to resign? He will be 22 next year which is getting relatively ancient for a power player and it’s not guaranteed he’s got a starting position locked in.

Imagine what Penrith or Melbourne could do with him. He has longer upside than say Roger I reckon. He might not be their future centre if delaying a renewal

 

[hornbybrown]

Paid close attention to JFH last night. His attitude and effort on defence is something I don’t know that anyone in our team has.
No laying down, slowly getting up after a tackle being late back into the line leaving a hole. He sprints back into the line and this happens at the start of his stint and the end.

I love Tohu but it really pissed me off at times how often he would slowly get off the ground and slowly get back into the line. Tohu wasn’t the only one to do it but he really stood out for it.

JFH is going to bring new standards

 

[Warriorshopeful]

Paid close attention to JFH last night. His attitude and effort on defence is something I don’t know that anyone in our team has.

Barnett?

 

[Noitall]

Barnett?

Could go to another level even after going to another level this season

 

[Funky Ed Koosie]

Paid close attention to JFH last night. His attitude and effort on defence is something I don’t know that anyone in our team has.
No laying down, slowly getting up after a tackle being late back into the line leaving a hole. He sprints back into the line and this happens at the start of his stint and the end.

I love Tohu but it really pissed me off at times how often he would slowly get off the ground and slowly get back into the line. Tohu wasn’t the only one to do it but he really stood out for it.

JFH is going to bring new standards

Tohu was lucky to get up off the ground most of the time, he got up like someone who was physically broken.

 

[hornbybrown]

Barnett?

Only one close but not on JFH’s level

 

[hornbybrown]

Tohu was lucky to get up off the ground most of the time, he got up like someone who was physically broken.

Yep and like I said I love Tohu but that made him a liability at times

 

[kos]

Tohu was lucky to get up off the ground most of the time, he got up like someone who was physically broken.

Yeah that’s right his old body is probably tight tired and inflexible and he just can’t get up quickly like JFH
Need an ex player like John Nick to tell us how it is at Tohu s age