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

 

[Shauns_Johnson]

Hand on heart do you think Boyd can go to another level at finals time?

I'm personally not Tanah's biggest fan so probably not the right person to ask

 

[CWC]

You're not wrong - I think it's two of them and that includes Metcalf.

Tanah was signed on unders, CHT came back from a sabbatical and then added one more year on. I reckon they're both on say 350-400k. Both will want 650-700k in this market (ie what they cost combined). It's just not smart cap management to have them both and Metcalf.

I just find it unlikely that Metcalf will leave this year. If this was all coming to a head next year then maybe, but even if management was brutal and ditched him one year into a new three year deal I don't think teams have a mill in cap space sitting around when Metcalf is a risky signing.

I think this year will be him getting his body together and an option to go to when we're sliding, but the offseason could be interesting because they could work out us chipping in say $400K then he'd only cost $500K for others and we can use the different to retain other halves or upgrades...and we just had set a precedent for player swap so that could be another possibility for the other team to manage cap as well...

Would be wonderful if Webby can make all 3 work in the 17 somehow this season....

 

[CWC]

Hand on heart do you think Boyd can go to another level at finals time?

He did last year, we should have knocked over the 4x premiers

 

[Cces]

He did last year, we should have knocked over the 4x premiers

Not much love from the forum for his efforts that day. Different tier this year though. Looking back to the stats that day it shows CHT was our main kicker. Granted he played an extra 16 minutes, but there was quite a disparity (389m vs 189m)

 

[roguei]

Not much love from the forum for his efforts that day. Different tier this year though. Looking back to the stats that day it shows CHT was our main kicker. Granted he played an extra 16 minutes, but there was quite a disparity (389m vs 189m)
View attachment 17136

Probably been brought up before but for some reason this is the first time I've seen one of the old stat blocks @tajhay has made for the site come up in a thread. Quite cool to see historical data recorded back then come up in threads!

 

[tajhay]

Probably been brought up before but for some reason this is the first time I've seen one of the old stat blocks @tajhay has made for the site come up in a thread. Quite cool to see historical data recorded back then come up in threads!

Theres stats for every player, every game (that has recorded stats going all the way back to 2002 or so

For example if you wanted to see how shaun johnson went throughout his career...

https://nzwarriors.com/showcase/shaun-johnson.1/mpt-stats

 

[Rick O’Shay]

Hand on heart do you think Boyd can go to another level at finals time?

Yes.

Same question can be asked of the whole team. If they are reaching another level it will make it easy for both halfs

Guy can't do it on his own nor should he be expected to.

Will he choke as you suggest?, maybe, however we are already seeing some subtle increases in confidence.

Nailed the conversion to win us the game on the weekend. Pretty clutch kick

 

[Noitall]

Yes.

Same question can be asked of the whole team. If they are reaching another level it will make it easy for both halfs

Guy can't do it on his own nor should he be expected to.

Will he choke as you suggest?, maybe, however we are already seeing some subtle increases in confidence.

Nailed the conversion to win us the game on the weekend. Pretty clutch kick

As much as it likely comes across as I’m hating on the guy I’d say the same of all our halves, but the more appearances, the more accustomed they will become. 2023 was a window really because of SJ’s purple patch of form and even throughout his career we weren’t exactly regulars at finals time. I’ve mentioned constantly that I back the club to make the right calls and nothings changed

 

[Tookey 2.0]

Hand on heart do you think Boyd can go to another level at finals time?

What im excited about at the moment is we seem to have genuine options around the park atm.

• Taine is sniping and looks dangerous
• AKP on the wing with his speed
• Ali is making breaks and has good hands to tip on to Dal.
• Leka as an ariel, hole running or tackling breaking threat on the edge.
• Healey off the bench
• CHT and his unco looking kicks and top decision making
• Forward interpassing and offloading

Most of that list wasnt part of our team last year. I think if Tannah leads us around the park well we now seem to have so many genuine attacking options that he just needs to work on those goal kicks, repeat sets and kicking us out of trouble and imo were not too far off. A little run of form from someone, or an injury to a key player on the other team on grand final day and I think weve got a chance

 

[CWC]

What im excited about at the moment is we seem to have genuine options around the park atm.

• Taine is sniping and looks dangerous
• AKP on the wing with his speed
• Ali is making breaks and has good hands to tip on to Dal.
• Leka as an ariel, hole running or tackling breaking threat on the edge.
• Healey off the bench
• CHT and his unco looking kicks and top decision making
• Forward interpassing and offloading

Most of that list wasnt part of our team last year. I think if Tannah leads us around the park well we now seem to have so many genuine attacking options that he just needs to work on those goal kicks, repeat sets and kicking us out of trouble and imo were not too far off. A little run of form from someone, or an injury to a key player on the other team on grand final day and I think weve got a chance

Me losing hair trying to add Metcalf to complete the premiership puzzle

 

[Ref]

Metcalf wasn’t flash in his two appearances this year.
Obviously returned too soon given he was hesitant in contact both sides of the ball.
I’m not worried.

 

[John Nick]

Me losing hair trying to add Metcalf to complete the premiership puzzle

View attachment 17142

Don't think you are alone with your thinking
But wouldn't it be awesome to have him back to where he was early last season
I have my doubts about him ever getting back to his best but here's hoping

 

[Shauns_Johnson]

What im excited about at the moment is we seem to have genuine options around the park atm.

• Taine is sniping and looks dangerous
• AKP on the wing with his speed
• Ali is making breaks and has good hands to tip on to Dal.
• Leka as an ariel, hole running or tackling breaking threat on the edge.
• Healey off the bench
• CHT and his unco looking kicks and top decision making
• Forward interpassing and offloading

Most of that list wasnt part of our team last year. I think if Tannah leads us around the park well we now seem to have so many genuine attacking options that he just needs to work on those goal kicks, repeat sets and kicking us out of trouble and imo were not too far off. A little run of form from someone, or an injury to a key player on the other team on grand final day and I think weve got a chance

Agree 100%.

And tbh most of that mob made a ton of errors last week. If we can:
- Get Taine more synced up with the halves both sides of the ruck
- Sort out AKP's sliding defence and stop him dropping back towards the line
- Get Ali more involved
- Have Leka not give away four pens in first 20 mins
- Entrust Healey to more than 20 mins and possibly allow him and Egan (who seems to be slow to rucks on yardage sets) on at the same time

We go to another gear altogether

 

[RobRoyMcCoy]

Hand on heart do you think Boyd can go to another level at finals time?

I don't think he needs to go to another level for us to win the comp. If he plays as well in the GF as he has already played in his best game so far, that would be good enough. It would need all other players to play to their best as well. When he was playing his best footy he was being called the best half in the game by the Oz media.

 

[John Nick]

Metcalf wasn’t flash in his two appearances this year.
Obviously returned too soon given he was hesitant in contact both sides of the ball.
I’m not worried.

While you are right (as usual) our forwards were dominated in those 2 games I thought.

 

[Shauns_Johnson]

While you are right (as usual) our forwards were dominated in those 2 games I thought.

Yeah this is the untold story. Warriors pack was pretty shit against Tigers by our standards this year (and Ford only played 50 mins...); and in the Sharks game it was a very very slow ruck, they were lying all over it, so we couldn't get on top. I actually don't think the Warriors were that bad against the Sharks, just leaky in defence (and poor CNK had a mare out of position) and the pack wasn't allowed to get on top, so Boyd/Metcalf didn't get quality ball.

 

[CWC]

Yeah this is the untold story. Warriors pack was pretty shit against Tigers by our standards this year (and Ford only played 50 mins...); and in the Sharks game it was a very very slow ruck, they were lying all over it, so we couldn't get on top. I actually don't think the Warriors were that bad against the Sharks, just leaky in defence (and poor CNK had a mare out of position) and the pack wasn't allowed to get on top, so Boyd/Metcalf didn't get quality ball.

We scored 22 should be competitive enough, the edges killed us but they’ve turned it around

 

[Shauns_Johnson]

We scored 22 should be competitive enough, the edges killed us but they’ve turned it around

Helps when you can bring back an origin second rower into a dodgy right edge

 

[WAH MAN]

I'm personally not Tanah's biggest fan so probably not the right person to ask

To address the original question about whether Tanah can go to another level is linked to "can the whole squad go to another level and higher?"

If the answer to the second is yes, then that might crank Tanah up to be Super Tanah.

 

[sup42]

I don't think he needs to go to another level for us to win the comp. If he plays as well in the GF as he has already played in his best game so far, that would be good enough. It would need all other players to play to their best as well. When he was playing his best footy he was being called the best half in the game by the Oz media.

First three games of this season Boyd and CHT combo was on fire eh.

I am with you, in that I do not think Boyd and CHT for that matter need to find higher levels, they just need to win their moments with the ball and let the collective effort of the team put us in the big dance.

Extremely likely that anyone who wants to wear the ring is going to have to beat the Panthers. You could elevate Boyd as much as you want, but it won't match Nathan Cleary's best....to win a game like that we would have to have our forwards play the games of their lives and neutralize Cleary.

No halfback in this competition will elevate to Cleary finals level if Cleary's forwards give him free reign.