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	Jett Cleary	✔	S	S
9	Wayde Egan	✔	✔	✔
10	James Fisher-Harris	✔	✔	✔	✔
11	Jackson Ford	✔	✔	✔
12	Leka Halasima	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
13	Morgan Harper	✔
14	Chanel Harris-Tavita	✔	✔
15	Sam Healey	✔	✔	✔
16	Edward Kosi	✔
17	Jacob Laban	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
18	Ali Leiataua	✔	✔	✔
19	Jye Linnane	✔	✔	✔	✔
20	Freddy Lussick	✔	✔
21	Te Maire Martin	✔	✔
22	Luke Metcalf	✔	✔
23	Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad	✔	✔	✔
24	Marata Niukore	✔	✔
25	Adam Pompey	✔	✔	✔
26	Tanner Stowers-Smith	✔	✔	✔
27	Taine Tuaupiki	✔	✔
28	Roger Tuivasa-Sheck	✔	✔
29	Demitric Vaimauga	✔	✔	✔	✔
30	Dallin Watene-Zelezniak	✔	✔	✔
S1	Kayliss Fatialofa	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
-	Morgan Gannon	-	✔	✔	✔
-	Motu Pasikala	T	?	?

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

Top 30 2026: 28/30
Supplementary 2026: 1/6

2026 Gains: Morgan Gannon (Leeds Rhinos)
2026 Losses: Edward Kosi (South Sydney Rabbitohs)

Off Contract: Bunty Afoa, Tom Ale, Morgan Harper
Can negotiate with other clubs from Nov 1, 2025 (Entering final year) : Rocco Berry, Tanah Boyd, Kurt Capewell, Chanel Harris-Tavita, Freddy Lussick, Te Maire Martin, Luke Metcalf, Marata Niukore, Taine Tuaupiki, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck

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[Wellington Warrior]

Article by Michael Caryianis News corp papers today Aus
On Spine Health

Warriors
CNK to reject NZW contract extension for a Super League offer
TMM looking at immediate offer to join Leigh
Newcastle half young guy to sign long term contract with NZW name Jye Linnane

Warriors spine rated C for health
All other teams rated A or B

Is that our new recruitment strategy. Offer long term deals to young kids who are injured as less chance of getting into a bid war?? No way we are dumb enough to be chasing a kid that is out with his 2nd ACL injury in as many years!!!

 

[The Warrior Waka]

No way we are dumb enough to be chasing a kid that is out with his 2nd ACL injury in as many years!!!

These fools signed Harper. There is no limits to our dumb foolery

 

[KPWarrior]

Be nice to recruit in some of these positions where we've actually lost experieced guys...... compassionate or otherwise......not necessarily like for like but first grade eperience wise, so we're not delving in to too much depth.

I'm probably one of the few that actually liked Montoya, probably left with bigger wraps on him than he came here, not spectacular but solid enough, still a hole we haven't filled imo.

I just feel we're running a bit thin in some areas, and now probably about to lose another couple with any reported/rumoured targets not matching up to what we've lost or losing.

 

[afakasi247]

Wild that according to this CNK would reject a extension and go to the UK instead. Especially after the club has backed him so much, when they had many justifiable reasons to drop him from fullback. Never took him for someone who would turn back on that kind of good will.

Money and opportunity would’ve factored into this decision.

No loyalty in sports for either club or player, and fair enough. Players have a limited amount of time to make money and set up themselves/whanau comfortably financially, and clubs only have so much to spend and spaces to fill.

 

[roguei]

Money and opportunity would’ve factored into this decision.

No loyalty in sports for either club or player, and fair enough. Players have a limited amount of time to make money and set up themselves/whanau comfortably financially, and clubs only have so much to spend and spaces to fill.

Fair will be interesting then. Cannot be opportunity as we are looking to extend. So will be interesting to see if a UK club is looking to pay overs, considering good coin in the NRL is considered breaking the bank over there.

 

[Tohu’s_Knees]

This is semi-reflective of my posts earlier on about Boyd, which I got a fair bit of slack on.

I wanted us to concentrate on TMM and Metcalf. As I thought a halves combo of Boyd and Metcalf was to risky due to these “compassionate” releases.

He has his doubters, but it is so important we invest HEAVILY in CHT and give him time. He isn’t going anywhere and is relatively young.

2027 team……. 2027 is going to be so important with extra teams and alot of older halve retiring.

Metcalf comes off contract before then, if he significantly improves, easily 1 million. I feel we need to make an early call and upgrade his contract.

2 years of stable CHT and Metcalf halves combo.

 

[cock_o]

What about Tom Ale have they given up on him? Off Contract and still only 25.

 

[jumpman5xl]

He can only play 9 so wouldn’t make any sense. Already have Healey

Unless we turn Healey into lock, i.e Cotter Clark Watson Radley Plath Smith Hetherington. All hookers/locks. Seems to be the new mold. He's pretty big too so could work well.

 

[Wrighty]

What about Tom Ale have they given up on him? Off Contract and still only 25.

Injured until I think Round 9 by memory

 

[Christchurch_Warrior]

Fair will be interesting then. Cannot be opportunity as we are looking to extend. So will be interesting to see if a UK club is looking to pay overs, considering good coin in the NRL is considered breaking the bank over there.

Brodie Croft is suppose to be on £350,000 which is over $700,000 in Aussie dollars. Not too bad really. CNK unlikely to get that but I could see TMM getting close to that.

 

[roguei]

Brodie Croft is suppose to be on £350,000 which is over $700,000 in Aussie dollars. Not too bad really. CNK unlikely to get that but I could see TMM getting close to that.

Oh i can totally see TMM going. And thats not even with him reaching out for a deal, looks like the lepords are really out hunting for some NRL halfback. And with how awful they are going at the moment, i can imagine it could be big bucks.

 

[Noitall]

Oh i can totally see TMM going. And thats not even with him reaching out for a deal, looks like the lepords are really out hunting for some NRL halfback. And with how awful they are going at the moment, i can imagine it could be big bucks.

Reckon there’ll be too much nepotism to see Adrian Lam shift his son from halfback, so I reckon it’ll be 6 or 1 initially. Not to say he wouldn’t get a shot at halfback if results aren’t coming. Long kicking is still a big part of a halfbacks job and TMM is still fairly limited in that area

 

[Warriorsfan92]

What about Deine Marriner? Auckland boy, family in Auckland & shibisaki getting selected over him. He must be pretty pissed off a journeyman has jumped him in ranks, whereas he’d be a starter here.

 

[John Nick]

What about Deine Marriner? Auckland boy, family in Auckland & shibisaki getting selected over him. He must be pretty pissed off a journeyman has jumped him in ranks, whereas he’d be a starter here.

Not sure but I would love to have his wheels. Something we sadly lack

 

[BangBro's (still banging)]

What about Deine Marriner? Auckland boy, family in Auckland & shibisaki getting selected over him. He must be pretty pissed off a journeyman has jumped him in ranks, whereas he’d be a starter here.

We already have Berry and Leiataua so no.

 

[sydneywarrior92]

This phenomenon of compassionate clauses/not honoring contracts has to be a generational thing. I'm a millennial and the thing that irks me so much about my generation and gen Z is the lack of resilience. When you face even a little bit of adversity, you try to quit by spitting the dummy and acting like a child until you get what you want. This is not a Warriors only problem as well, it's happened with other clubs like Canberra with John Bateman.

In an ideal world, the market would co-ordinate to impose reputational penalties on players that try this shit on a regular basis. But since there is too much money chasing too few players (especially in the halves), unfortunately all the leverage lies with the talent. This is why I hope the NRL buys super league and hence facilitates the flow of talent across the two comps. Increased supply of total playing talent might mitigate some of these bad incentives.

 

[Inruin]

We already have Berry and Leiataua so no.

But no wings

 

[WA Warrior]

This phenomenon of compassionate clauses/not honoring contracts has to be a generational thing. I'm a millennial and the thing that irks me so much about my generation and gen Z is the lack of resilience. When you face even a little bit of adversity, you try to quit by spitting the dummy and acting like a child until you get what you want. This is not a Warriors only problem as well, it's happened with other clubs like Canberra with John Bateman.

In an ideal world, the market would co-ordinate to impose reputational penalties on players that try this shit on a regular basis. But since there is too much money chasing too few players (especially in the halves), unfortunately all the leverage lies with the talent. This is why I hope the NRL buys super league and hence facilitates the flow of talent across the two comps. Increased supply of total playing talent might mitigate some of these bad incentives.

It goes both ways as well.
The clubs are just as bad, they push players out they don’t want.

 

[sydneywarrior92]

It goes both ways as well.
The clubs are just as bad, they push players out they don’t want.

depends on the quality of the player. Top echelon talent like AFB and DCE can take clubs for a spin. Middle of the road players not so much.

 

[WA Warrior]

depends on the quality of the player. Top echelon talent like AFB and DCE can take clubs for a spin. Middle of the road players not so much.

Yeah I don’t disagree with your point with the players but both parties are doing it so contracts really are worthless these days.
It’s BS but it’s just the reality.