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​
Luke Hanson	S​
Motu Pasikala	S​	U​
Caelys-Paul Putoko	S​
Jason Salalilo	S​	U​	U​
Makaia Taufa	S​	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: 6/6

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

 

[Lance155]

I truly believe Mitch wanted to stay until the end and loves it here. I don't think this was easy for him and isn't the classic compassionate release we normally see.

 

[JustLikeStartingOver]

32 years old, coming off an ACL, could be a blessing in disguise. (This is copium )

But srsly we’ve got the best years out of him, shame he had to miss half of last year, but we saw with Tohu’s final season these forwards who are all body on the line, they don’t last forever. Hope he gets a nice retirement contract somewhere sunny

 

[Wahs_Ultras]

there’s no real replacements available on the market for the end of 26.

There are a few decent forwards off contract at the end of 27 though- Willison, Te Kura, Fotuaika, Utoikamanu, Couchman, Flegler, Oregon Kafusi. Leniu, Leota, May, Max king, Josh King, Patea, Pasifki Tonga, Seb Su’A and a few more quality forwards

 

[MrFrankWhite]

32 years old, coming off an ACL, could be a blessing in disguise. (This is copium )

Both can be true. Barnett is a legend, stiffened up our defence and really upped his and our game. But he is also 32, a few serious injuries in his career and is coming to the crunch time.

We may actually win out here, we get the absolute best out of a player at the back end of their career, plenty of notice, great back ups in place and get to have a clean break.

The King is dead, long live the King.

 

[LUKAMIKIAFU]

he better not go to panthers. that's all i'm asking

 

[Christchurch_Warrior]

he better not go to panthers. that's all i'm asking

If he did we should try and steal Leota off them then.

 

[Tohu’s_Knees]

Mitch has been a great signing for us.
But he’s getting old and has a history with injuries.
I personally think this is rightly timed. Now we squeeze every bit of juice we can out of him.

Demetric should have 50 games under his belt by next season. He is coming along nicely. There may be a bit of a hole in our front rowers for 2027 though.

I actually wouldn’t sign a front rower. I’d concentrate on our development stock and sign a fullback.

(I wouldn’t even sign Tapine, and Tapine and Hughes are literally my favourite players)

 

[jonesy101]

At the end of the day it's always going to be family first no matter what profession you work in. Sydney and South East Queensland will always have an advantage, but when you think about it for every Chad, Reece, Euan, Addin and Mitch there's always been a Tohu, Fish, Blair, Luke, SJ, TMM that has come back to NZ for the same reasons.

 

[WAH MAN]

This situation is well understandable. And spoken about by those who know that going home matters at some point. Tapine does make sense if we can get him but I don't think he wants to. Do we think the Auckland Muslim community would do us a solid and tell Payne to come here instead?

Anyway. Although it's somewhat a bitter pill. We'll be right. Thanks Barney. Glad you got a good improvement out of your career here and all the best for your whanau and the Taree mob.

 

[Evil_Mush]

Yeah, Mitch Barnett has been great for us, brought that no-nonsense steeliness that we will always need to keep the team grounded, unfortunate that he's been hampered with injuries (effectively a whole years worth of games given he's not yet at 50 for us over 3 seasons) especially last year when we were flying high.

Do not begrudge this 'compassionate grounds', but wish him all the best going forward, hopefully he gets to play the rest of the year fit and healthy not to mention lifting that trophy at the end of it

 

[WAH MAN]

Family first. I respect that.

 

[MrFrankWhite]

Hopefully he goes back to Newey. He's a legend there, can probably get more than he's worth for a year longer than he should too. A sweet 3 year retirement contract, he deserves it.

 

[BabylonPink]

Mitch has been a great signing for us.
But he’s getting old and has a history with injuries.
I personally think this is rightly timed. Now we squeeze every bit of juice we can out of him.

Demetric should have 50 games under his belt by next season. He is coming along nicely. There may be a bit of a hole in our front rowers for 2027 though.

I actually wouldn’t sign a front rower. I’d concentrate on our development stock and sign a fullback.

(I wouldn’t even sign Tapine, and Tapine and Hughes are literally my favourite players)

You can change your name to Barnett's Leg now

 

[Five&Last]

I think Tanner’s unexpected rise this offseason played a part in this.

Still have some pretty handy front row stocks next year in JFH, Demetric, Tanner, EIT, Ford, Salalilo, RTV.

I don’t think we need to go out and spend large on a replacement prop. I’d be looking at fullback like others have said.

 

[Jaffa J]

Nas commented this “” on BIAB post regarding Barnett leaving must want a contract

 

[WAH MAN]

Barney for KP?

 

[Tookey 2.0]

I know weve spoken about the potential log jam with our edges in the near futue - Laban, Leka, Fatialofa, EIT and Neil (although few years away).

I wonder with Barny moving on if that could mean we look at shifting someone sooner, rather than later? Out of that list Laban is probably the most well suited to move to the front row?

It's pretty mad to think, but with Tuaupiki and Berry potentially having their last year here too, we could have upwards of 3mill to spend for 2027 onwards, and if you look at the value weve gotten out of Cape, Marshall, Barny, Berry and Tuaupiki for the 2025 year alone, with injuries etc we didn't get much value at all. Imagine adding 2 mill value to that team...we'd be looking pretty good

 

[WHB]

If he did we should try and steal Leota off them then.

He the only one who appealed to me too.

 

[LUKAMIKIAFU]

just found out he's leaving because his child is unwell 110% understand and I hope everything goes well for his family

 

[juju]

Nas commented this “” on BIAB post regarding Barnett leaving must want a contract

He probably wants to box Barnett.