Recruitment Warriors 2026/2027 Recruitment & Retention

Warriors 2026/2027 Recruitment and Retention Discussion​

Player	2026​	2027​	2028​	2029​	2030​
Grant Anderson	-​	✔​	✔​	✔​
Mitchell Barnett	✔​	​
Rocco Berry	✔​
Tanah Boyd	✔​
Kurt Capewell	✔​
Erin Clark	✔​	✔​	✔​	✔​
Wayde Egan	✔​	✔​
Kayliss Fatialofa	✔​	✔​
James Fisher-Harris	✔​	✔​	✔​
Jackson Ford	✔​	✔​
Morgan Gannon	✔​	✔​	✔​
Leka Halasima	✔​	✔​	✔​	✔​
Chanel Harris-Tavita	✔​
Sam Healey	✔​	✔​
Eddie Ieremia-Toeava	✔​	✔​	✔​
Alofiana Khan-Pereira	✔​	✔​	✔​
Jacob Laban	✔​	✔​	✔​	✔​
Ali Leiataua	✔​	✔​
Jye Linnane	✔​	✔​	✔​
Te Maire Martin	✔​
Haizyn Mellars	✔​	✔​	✔​
Luke Metcalf	✔​	✔​	✔​
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad	✔​	✔​
Marata Niukore	✔​
Adam Pompey	✔​	✔​
Tanner Stowers-Smith	✔​	✔​	✔​
Taine Tuaupiki	✔​	✔​	✔​
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck	✔​
Demitric Vaimauga	✔​	✔​	✔​
William Warbrick	-​	✔​	✔​	✔​
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak	✔​	M​
Connor Bowden	U​	U​	✔​
Jett Cleary	S​	U​
Sio Kali	U​
Braelan Marsh	U​	U​	U​
Motu Pasikala	U​	U​

✔ = Signed to Top 30, C = Club option, M = Mutual Option, P = Player option, S = Signed to supplementary list, U = Unclear

2026 Top 30: 29/30
2026 Supplementary: 2/6

2027 Top 30: 22/30
2027 Supplementary: 0/6

2027 Gains: Grant Anderson (Brisbane Broncos), William Warbrick (Melbourne Storm)
2027 Losses: Mitchell Barnett (Brisbane Broncos), Marata Niukore (Newcastle Knights), Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (Wakefield Trinity)

Off contract and free to sign elsewhere for 2027: Rocco Berry, Tanah Boyd, Kurt Capewell, Chanel Harris-Tavita, Te Maire Martin
Will be off contract and free to sign elsewhere for 2028 from November 1st, 2026: Jett Cleary, Wayde Egan, Kayliss Fatialofa, Jackson Ford, Sam Healey, Eddie Ieremia-Toeava, Ali Leiataua, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Motu Pasikala, Adam Pompey, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak

 

[Matiunz]

I saw a three way swap with Haas, Barnett leaving early and us getting a Bunnies player.

Yeah I saw that one too lol got excited for a second before I realised the date and that my feed was flooded with other unbelievable bullshit

 

[~Navigator~]

What’s the latest on Barnett release deal and Brisbane. All gone quiet?

Apparently we're still working on this

 

[CWC]

View attachment 16588View attachment 16588
Apparently we're still working on this

Don’t get how we can’t get Anderson now since he’s out for 3 months anyway. We not giving Barney this year regardless

 

[Tookey 2.0]

Don’t get how we can’t get Anderson now since he’s out for 3 months anyway. We not giving Barney this year regardless

Yeah I was kinda thinking the same.
Similar with Barny. While its frustrating now, a small positive is that well have a few guys fresh towards the mid/later part of the year. Its a hell of a long season, and to have a back of Anderson's quality who can fit in the whole back line

 

[CWC]

NRL: Warriors trade target Grant Anderson suffers lengthy injury blow

The Broncos winger will miss up to 12 weeks of action.

sportnation.nz

Oh man what happened, tibial fracture and grade 3 MCL, they say 10-12 but sounds potentially season ending, if we are after him then it’s a no brainer to release him now

 

[tajhay]

NRL: Warriors trade target Grant Anderson suffers lengthy injury blow

The Broncos winger will miss up to 12 weeks of action.

sportnation.nz

Oh man what happened, tibial fracture and grade 3 MCL, they say 10-12 but sounds potentially season ending, if we are after him then it’s a no brainer to release him now

What value does he provide for us this year being injured and eating up our salary cap (whilst at the same time benefitting Broncos by providing them cap relief)?

 

[Makasene]

Contracts mean nothing in the modern NRL

I've never understood this rhetoric.

You are confusing loyalty with contract law.

Contracts are everything in the modern NRL!

Loyalty, well that has long gone.

 

[Makasene]

What’s the latest on Barnett release deal and Brisbane. All gone quiet?

The latest from a week ago was that we were working on a deal for Grant Anderson next year before turning our attention to seeing if we can get him this year.

I would guess that the injury over the weekend will have put a pause on negotiations if they were ongoing, or we are in a 10 day cooling off period.

The injury on the weekend was really quite shocking, would not surprise me if Anderson himself has pushed pause and will reassess in a couple of weeks once he is in better shape.

10 - 12 week injury, can't see him coming this year now.

 

[CWC]

What value does he provide for us this year being injured and eating up our salary cap?

If he’s tracking for 10-12 weeks then he could be valuable for the squad in the last 8 rounds plus playoffs, but if it’s season ending then ya won’t help, just that we have a good medical team and a support group of chronic players to bond for next season lol, unless we get freight and gamble he heals on time

 

[WAH MAN]

I've never understood this rhetoric.

You are confusing loyalty with contract law.

Contracts are everything in the modern NRL!

Loyalty, well that has long gone.

Thanks for expressing that. Gives me food for thought. Ta

 

[Playdaball]

Herbie Farnsworth would be the dream pick up.
We need a decent inform centre .

 

[Damo]

Herbie Farnsworth would be the dream pick up.
We need a decent inform centre .

He would be an outstanding Fullback imo.

 

[Noitall]

Herbie Farnsworth would be the dream pick up.
We need a decent inform centre .

Roosters hunting him apparently

 

[Tookey 2.0]

Roosters hunting him apparently

Didn't realize he could negotiate at the end of this year for 2028. He'd be 28 at the beginning of the 2028 season so you would get at least 5 decent years out of him imo.

Id offer him 1.1 or even 1.2 mill a year to play full back.

Deffo paying overs, but with all the amazing young talent coming through youre probably going to get a few of those boom rookies on cheap for a few years so that certainly off sets paying overs for one of the most attacking players in the comp.

Also...we over pay all the time lol. Niukore was probably on 300k a year more than what he waa worth...at least! At least with Herbie youre paying a premium but youre going to get a shit tonne of tackle breaks, line breaks and tries

 

[Noitall]

Didn't realize he could negotiate at the end of this year for 2028. He'd be 28 at the beginning of the 2028 season so you would get at least 5 decent years out of him imo.

Id offer him 1.1 or even 1.2 mill a year to play full back.

Deffo paying overs, but with all the amazing young talent coming through youre probably going to get a few of those boom rookies on cheap for a few years so that certainly off sets paying overs for one of the most attacking players in the comp.

Also...we over pay all the time lol. Niukore was probably on 300k a year more than what he waa worth...at least! At least with Herbie youre paying a premium but youre going to get a shit tonne of tackle breaks, line breaks and tries

Would assume that roosters are keen for him at fullback to replace Tedesco, or else they’re not sold on Billy Smith? Toia has one centre spot locked up you’d assume?

 

[Uster101]

Damn - recruitment have got a lot of work to do - after the last couple of games, I'm sure the warriors players have turned into Soccer Softcocks. really need to look at getting some actual Rugby League players1

 

[Ever Hopeful]

Damn - recruitment have got a lot of work to do - after the last couple of games, I'm sure the warriors players have turned into Soccer Softcocks. really need to look at getting some actual Rugby League players1

Our recruitment team have had work to do since Montoya left and wasn't replaced. We've tried to get by on a skeleton crew. It has been horribly evident we have needed backs, but they have stuck to the guns and focused on making this a development club as they said they would. Recruitment was always going to be lean for a couple of seasons to get the later payoff, as they said it was going to be. Long-term injuries to Metcalf and Berry have really hurt with no depth. Ali has been injury disrupted and hasn't kicked on. As is the way in the NRL we have usually had at least another backline injury at any given time to compound things.

2 years later with the likes of RTS, Niukore, Barnett etc. coming off contract and lots of forwards coming through, and the club has to invest cannily, especially centre and fullback.

 

[Noitall]

Our recruitment team have had work to do since Montoya left and wasn't replaced. We've tried to get by on a skeleton crew. It has been horribly evident we have needed backs, but they have stuck to the guns and focused on making this a development club as they said they would. Recruitment was always going to be lean for a couple of seasons to get the later payoff, as they said it was going to be. Long-term injuries to Metcalf and Berry have really hurt with no depth. Ali has been injury disrupted and hasn't kicked on. As is the way in the NRL we have usually had at least another backline injury at any given time to compound things.

2 years later with the likes of RTS, Niukore, Barnett etc. coming off contract and lots of forwards coming through, and the club has to invest cannily, especially centre and fullback.

My impression of Webster is that he gives the players in the squad first opportunity to fill the position they’re looking for and if it can’t be successfully filled, they go to market. They’ve identified Warbrick, and potentially Anderson at centre so the backs is certainly where we’re looking to add. I didn’t see much of any games this weekend, but did see the Leiataua try in nsw cup on a highlight. He has all the makings of a great centre, just needs to apply himself I reckon. Fullback is definitely a position we could use some firepower

 

[Old Sid]

I see the period we are entering as a real test for Webby and his player management team. Form slumps at a time immediately after announcement of leaving (RTS, Niukore), the risk of perceptions of packing a sad with position changes (LM, CNK) and key injuries to experienced heads when desperately needed (Capewell, Barney) could see us in a negative spiral which will be challenging to stop before it's too late.

Factual or not, this combination creates unnecessary doubt amongst the group, a general lack of confidence and results in less than 110% effort, especially in defence. We saw this yesterday.

If even some of this is the actual situation it's a significant challenge ahead for Webby to address, requiring big calls and further significant risk. We face an interesting few weeks. The best way to allay such fears is to put on a massive show against Melbourne, even if we eventually lose by a few points. A hammering will add to any doubt.

Staying on for another run on the roller coaster?

 

[Naumaifooty]

Mason Barber or Jaxon Purdue should be on Cappy’s hitlist. Cowboys surely would have to give up 1 of them if we came in with a big offer.