Recruitment Warriors 2025/2026 Recruitment & Retention

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📝 Summary:

The forum focuses extensively on the Warriors' 2025/2026 contract situations, recruitment targets, and roster evaluations. Key discussions revolve around Marcelo Montoya's departure to the Tigers #223#230, which fans attribute to backline depth and family considerations, while debating Roger Tuivasa-Sheck's potential shift to wing. Erin Clark's signing as a middle forward #342 generates mixed reactions about his role conversion from hooker. Notable contract concerns include Bunty Afoa's uncertain future #391 and priority re-signings for young talents like Ali Leiataua. Positional debates feature strong opinions about Tohu Harris' reduced role #427, Mitch Barnett's workload management #401, and Jackson Ford's utility value #402. Recruitment speculation highlights interest in Leo Thompson #393#403 amid salary cap constraints. Critical analyses of departing players emerge, including Josh Curran's criticism of Andrew Webster #51#115932 and Jazz Tevaga's emotional exit #437. Fans consistently urge roster upgrades to address goal-kicking deficiencies and spine depth ahead of 2025.

🏷️ Tags:

Player Contracts, Outside Backs, Forward Recruitment

📊 Data Source: Based on ALL posts in thread (total: 9546 posts) | ⏱️ Total Generation Time: 20s
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Warriors 2025/2026 Recruitment & Retention Discussion
-Player20252026202720282029
1Bunty Afoa
2Tom Ale
3Mitchell Barnett
4Rocco Berry
5Tanah Boyd
6Kurt Capewell
7Erin Clark
8Jett ClearySS
9Wayde Egan
10James Fisher-Harris
11Jackson Ford
12Leka Halasima
13Morgan Harper
14Chanel Harris-Tavita
15Sam Healey
16Edward Kosi
17Jacob Laban
18Ali Leiataua
19Jye Linnane
20Freddy Lussick
21Te Maire Martin
22Luke Metcalf
23Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad
24Marata Niukore
25Adam Pompey
26Tanner Stowers-Smith
27Taine Tuaupiki
28Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
29Demitric Vaimauga
30Dallin Watene-Zelezniak
S1Kayliss FatialofaS
S2Kalani GoingS
S3Luke HansonS
S4Eddie Ieremia-ToeavaS
S5Sio KaliS
S6Patrick MoimoiS
-Kahu CapperTT
-Morgan Gannon-
-Haizyn Mellars
-Motu PasikalaT??
C = Club option, M = Mutual option, P = Player option, S = Supplementary contract, T = Train & Trial contract

Top 30 2026: 29/30
Supplementary 2026: 1/6

2026 Gains: Morgan Gannon (Leeds Rhinos), Haizyn Mellars (South Sydney Rabbitohs)
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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NZWarriors.com

November 1 Luke Metcalf will be offered 4 year deal and back to Sydney to sign with Dragons.
Link up with good mate Atkinson played lower grades together with sharks .






This is the post mentioning it. Rabbits was just a stab in the dark, but could them and eels being interested and a lure of heading back to Sydney come November 1
The guy posting that is a dreamer. He also said that dragons are signing Coates, Suali, Tino and Adam Reynolds just in the past month alone.

 
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Injury risk aside, crazy to seriously contemplate letting LM go. Also don't think LM wants to go because he can see the large upside potential in the club. Unless it's Melbourne or Penrith offering him a long term deal, I think we stand a strong chance of keeping him. I'm not worried with the Dragons approach if it eventuates. Why would Mets want to join that joke of a club when he could stay at a club with so much upside potential. Jett + LM behind the pack we are building is going to come close to opening a premiership window in a few years. Dragons are light years away.
 
The guy posting that is a dreamer. He also said that dragons are signing Coates, Suali, Tino and Adam Reynolds just in the past month alone.

Cheers for that, I hadn’t done a dive into his posting history. Just came across it and thought it might have been of interest. Again though, hard to imagine he’s not going to get an offer or two come November
 
With all due respect Wrighty (and I do have a lot of respect for you) this is exactly the opposite way we should be thinking. You do not win a comp with 2 average halves no matter how great your pack is. Webby will know that.
Fogarty and Strange are no better than our two halves and Raiders are good money to win it all

Still I am new to league so I will ask has my blueprint of stacked forwards and bog standard halves ever been premiership winners before? I don't know so a question?
 
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Injury risk aside, crazy to seriously contemplate letting LM go. Also don't think LM wants to go because he can see the large upside potential in the club. Unless it's Melbourne or Penrith offering him a long term deal, I think we stand a strong chance of keeping him. I'm not worried with the Dragons approach if it eventuates. Why would Mets want to join that joke of a club when he could stay at a club with so much upside potential. Jett + LM behind the pack we are building is going to come close to opening a premiership window in a few years. Dragons are light years away.
All our halves bar Linnane come off contract end of 2026, it could be that we let them fight it out to see who’s retained and look to debut Cleary and prepare him to take over 2027? Also Hanson too who’s looking impressive
 
Fogarty and Strange are no better than our two halves and Raiders are good money to win it all

Still I a, new to league so I will ask has my blueprint of stacked forwards and bog standard halves ever been premiership winners before? I don't know so a question?
No disrespect to all our halves or this opinion but if we had Fogarty and Strange as our halves we would be minor premiers this year they are both a big step above
 
November 1 Luke Metcalf will be offered 4 year deal and back to Sydney to sign with Dragons.
Link up with good mate Atkinson played lower grades together with sharks .






This is the post mentioning it. Rabbits was just a stab in the dark, but could them and eels being interested and a lure of heading back to Sydney come November 1
He came through the lower grades at Manly not Sharks.
 
I think there is another option.

We offer a good but realistic value and other teams offer more and we let him choose.

This is the Storm way. Offer intangibles - coach, security, premiership potentioal, etc. but less money.

If he’s money hungry, let him walk. Wrong attitude anyway. If he stays for less, then that’s someone we really want!
Yup agree, the club has done good by him, we need some protection also. Even if we extend him for one year and target 2027 for his "big contract".

Give him the keys again and the time to lock in. Im happy for metcalf to stay, but he also needs to prove hes worthy of a lucrative deal at the warriors. If others want to blow thier cap and offer 4 year deals then so be it.
 
Fogarty and Strange are no better than our two halves and Raiders are good money to win it all

Still I am new to league so I will ask has my blueprint of stacked forwards and bog standard halves ever been premiership winners before? I don't know so a question?

Hi Wrighty. Your point somewhat stands when talking about the Raiders this year but they have yet to win a premiership and I think the Storm are odds on favourites with Hughes coming back and there are always outliers.

Since 2011 when we were last in the grand final here are the halves combos which won the premiership.

2024 - Penrith - Cleary & Luai
2023 - Penrith - Cleary & Luai
2022 - Penrith - Cleary & Luai
2021 - Penrith - Cleary & Luai
2020 - Melbourne - Munster & Hughes
2019 - Sydney City - Keary & Cronk
2018 - Sydney City - Keary & Cronk
2017 - Melbourne - Munster & Cronk
2016 - Cronulla - Maloney & Townsend
2015 - North Queensland - Morgan & Thurston
2014 - South Sydney - Keary & Reynolds
2013 - Sydney City - Maloney & Pearce
2012 - Melbourne - Widdop & Cronk
2011 - Manly - Foran & DCE

This supports my position that you need two very good halves to win a premiership.

The only year that did not happen above is 2016 when Townsend won a premiership but Melbourne really should have won that game and Cronulla had the peptide scandal but did not have their premiership taken off then. It is the outlier.

Further supporting this is that the only 2 times we have reached the grand final were 2002 and 2011. In 2011 we have a halves combo of Maloney & Johnson and in 2002 we had arguably our greatest ever half Stacey Jones.

So perhaps once every 14 years a team may win the comp with 1 average half and 1 very good half. The other 13 times the team winning the comp had 2 very good halves. It is not the only reason they won but it is a big factor.
 
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Hi Warriors

The fact he insists on being the goal kicker despite being very very mediocre at it and I value goal kicking.

The winning of the game last night was Boyd kicking a penalty to go up 20-18. I saw the Titans drop their lips at that point. Maybe Metcalf misses that penalty.

If Metcalf this year had let Pompey do all the goal kicking, and I view Pompey as being much better, then I could get in behind Metcalf. But I see Metcalf keeping the kicking.
SO you would let go a player that was heads and shoulders above others in the Dally M's for his position before his injury, I know he has had injuries before but so has so many other great players.
I would sign him up at a slightly lower rate like $900,000 for 3 years,
He says that he is enjoying Auckland life style so why not hit him up.
 
If Metcalf can land a four year deal on good coin he should definitely take it. I just dont think it should be the Warriors given his injury history. He was great this season, but an 2nd ACL on a guy whose best asset is his speed is a concern.

I’m not completely sold on Jett Cleary yet, but I dont know whether the Panthers would be that keen given he is a very similar type of player to his brother. He was born here and his father is a club legend. I think he will stay as long as he is progressing here.
 
SO you would let go a player that was heads and shoulders above others in the Dally M's for his position before his injury, I know he has had injuries before but so has so many other great players.
I would sign him up at a slightly lower rate like $900,000 for 3 years,
He says that he is enjoying Auckland life style so why not hit him up.

Because of these two reasons

1) Luke Metcalf has never played a full NRL season or come close to doing do.
2) Luke Metcalf in my humble opinion will never play a full NRL season due to being so fragile.

The reason why some of us have different conclusions on Luke Metcalf is due to reason number 2. Some people agree with me that he is chronically injury prone and we should let someone else invest in him. While other members of this forum believe that players can have bad luck with injuries and that he is bound to bounce back and have 5-6 years relatively injury free rugby league seasons if we give him a chance.

No body knows what the right answer is. I could easily be dead wrong and you could be right. This is called decision making under uncertainty. There are no wrong answers here. But it is fun to debate.

I think Luke Metcalf topped the Daly Ms is illegitimate evidence as I really don't think anyone believes he was the best half back in the NRL this year. Who knows why he was winning it. Certainly not based on dominating the matches he was in.
He was good this year but not elite in my view.
 
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