The Kiwi-NRL Summer Guide finishes with Cronulla Sharks, St George Illawara Dragons, Canberra Raiders and Melbourne Storm to check in with lads from Aotearoa who are hunting more NRL footy in 2025

The third wave of New Zealand Warriors women signings has flowed down the river with Michaela Blyde, Tysha Ikenasio, Payton Takimoana, Kalyn Takitimu-Cook, Makayla Eli, Emily Curtain, Felila Kia, Lavinia Kitai, Lydia Turua-Quedley, Kaiyah Atai, Maarire Puketapu and Danii Gray locked in for the women Warriors return to NRLW.

The Kiwi-NRL Summer Guide wanders around around Sydney to cover the emerging talent from Aotearoa with Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Wests Tigers, Parramatta Eels and Penrith Panthers.

New Zealand Warriors will enter their third NRL season with Andrew Webster as coach and Andrew McFadden leading the recruitment/development department, which has seen a strong pipeline of young talent established and two different seasons of NRL footy on the field.

The Kiwi-NRL Summer Guide moves into New South Wales to cover Newcastle Knights, Manly Sea Eagles, South Sydney Rabbitohs and Sydney Roosters.

This Kiwi-NRL guide rolls through the Queensland NRL teams with fringe/development nuggets about North Queensland Cowboys, Redcliffe Dolphins, Brisbane Broncos and Gold Coast Titans

There is more clarity around the New Zealand Warriors wider NRL mix as kiwis roll into summer, although there are still murky waters in these estuaries that provide just as much intrigue.

Pacific Championships rugby league has ended with New Zealand Kiwis defeating Papua New Guinea to stay in the top tier and Kiwi Ferns losing to Australia in their final.

New Zealand Warriors have returned to training at Mt Smart and along with a few Pacific Championship wrinkles, they popped up with the surprise signing of Tanah Boyd from Titans.

The annual check in with Kiwi-NRL Juniors Who Helped Australian Teams Make Finals is slightly different this year as there was no Under 21 Hastings Deering Colts competition in Queensland.

Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns are in the Pacific Championship final where they will play against Australia on Sunday and the Kiwis have a crucial game against Papua New Guinea to keep their spot in the upper echelon of the Pacific Championships.

New Zealand Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns put on an admirable show in Christchurch but weren't good enough to get a win against Australia.

New Zealand Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns play against Australia in Christchurch on Sunday, with both teams coming off wins over the Aussies in their last outings.

The New Zealand Kiwi Ferns defeated Australia in their last outing and while there are a few tweaks to the squad named this year, they are all improvements to showcase the excellence of women's rugby league in Aotearoa.

The New Zealand Kiwis squad has been named to defend their Pacific Championships crown with a combination of a hearty core, clear development channels and the regular dose of funky eligibility wins for Aotearoa.

All four teams in the NRL/NRLW Grand Finals have at least two players from or representing Aotearoa and that delivers lots of enticing wrinkles relating to New Zealand rugby league.

New Zealand Warriors enter the kiwi summer with three important trends framing their recruitment and development.

New Zealand Women Warriors continue to build their NRLW squad by signing Laishon Albert-Jones, Emmanita Paki, Lavinia Tauhalaliku, Matekino Gray, Shakira Baker and Tyra Wetere.

The last time we checked in with Naufahu Whyte for a Kiwi-NRL Spotlight was after he churned out 68 minutes vs Raiders and while his mahi dipped for Roosters soon after round 12, the Bay Roskill junior was back near his best in the loss to Panthers last week.

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are showing their investment in rugby league talent from Aotearoa with a bunch of NRLWahine locked in for their first NRLW season as well as a pipeline full of young ladies from Aotearoa.

The New Zealand Women Warriors have started to build their 2025 NRLW squad by signing Apii Nicholls, Mya Hill-Moana, Harata Butler and Capri Paekau, who have all played for Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns.

Leo Thompson and Griffin Neame are two young middle forwards from regional Aotearoa who helped New Zealand Kiwis roll over Australia, now they line up against each other in the first round of NRL Finals.

The NRLWahine wave continues to build momentum after the debuts of Tatiana Finau for Raiders and Sarina Masaga for Titans.

The 2024 Aotearoa Kiwis mixer needs an update after injuries to Brandon Smith and Dylan Brown, both of whom were penciled in as top-17 players for New Zealand.

Alexis Tauaneai was already shining in Aotearoa as a teenager playing for Wellington in the Farah Palmer Cup and since committing to rugby league, the 19-year-old has dominated every level except for international footy.

Despite not playing consistently in NRL or NSW Cup this season, Ali Leiataua was quietly simmering away in both grades before exploding with dominant mahi for New Zealand Warriors in their win over Cronulla Sharks.

There continues to be a flood of NRLWahine moving from Aotearoa and into NRLW with Tongan international Lavinia Tauhalaliku making her debut for North Queensland Cowboys in their loss to Brisbane Broncos.

For the second season in a row, New Zealand Warriors have a good NSW Cup team and they will be eager to make a deep finals run while the NRL team is kicking back.

Former Black Fern Tafito Lafaele hasn't generated the same headlines as Brisbane Broncos comrade Stacey Waaka and yet she is another wahine from rugby union in Aotearoa who is thriving in NRLW.

Sebastian Su'a made his NRL debut with Newcastle Knights in their win over Rabbitohs as the 18th man and almost spent more time in the sin bin than he did playing footy.

We just had one of the most open, competitive, and unpredictable Men’s National League seasons we’ve ever witnessed and would you believe it the damn thing ended with Auckland City as champions

After another thrilling season of National League football... the expected outcome prevailed for Auckland United to complete their quadruple and make it through the entire calendar year undefeated

A couple of weeks ago, CJ Bott and Liberato Cacace were each nominated for the FIFA Best Awards. Cacace followed that honour up by scoring his first goal for Empoli. Then, a few days later, CJ Bott did the same thing for Leicester City

It’s been a long time since Liberato Cacace last scored a goal at club level. He did score an important one for the All Whites in 2022 when he bagged the winner in the Oceania World Cup qualifying tournament semi-final against Tahiti

There was scrap, there was niggle, and there were flashes of high-quality A-League football for all to see. Nothing silly, just good competitive fun. The appetite was there and the meal has been served accordingly.

It has been a slow and steady build for Sarpreet Singh since he joined União de Leiria. They had to make sure he was at 100% fitness before letting him loose, meaning Singh had only got a couple of substitute appearances prior to the last international break

The Men’s Grand Final didn’t have the same clearly defined champ and challenger dynamic as the Women’s one did. For starters, the defending champs were Wellington Olympic and they didn’t even come close to qualifying this time

The stage was set at North Harbour Stadium, with Auckland United one game away from an absolutely unprecedented achievement. Not only were they on the brink of a quadruple but they were also ninety minutes (maybe more) away from going through the entire calendar year undefeated

Kate Taylor has always had the ability to score goals. She scored in each of her three seasons with the Wellington Phoenix and already has a couple of goals for the Football Ferns

The Men’s NL had four teams still with hopes of qualifying for the final as week nine began and none of them were playing each other so almost all of the games had ramifications. The WNL did not have such consequences

Right around the same time that the Cashmere-Birkenhead game reached it’s midpoint, this one was kicking off. Last year’s champions Wellington Olympic were at their Martin Luckie Park home trying to finish the season on a high

After scoring 16 goals across 180 minutes during this past window, the All Whites are only two further wins away from qualifying for the FIFA World Cup for just the third time in their history

Ten days after making her club debut at Sampdoria off the bench in a Coppa Italia match, Kiara Bercelli got to add a league debut to her list of milestones. And not only did she get her league debut, she got it as a starter. But wait there’s more…

The Phoenix Reserves have found some recent form as first team players have been freed up to participate. But like the Men’s Reserves, the academy goes way beyond those prospects with A-League contracts

Wellington Olympic didn’t get their best case scenario with those other results but a win against the WeeNix would at least keep them in with a mathematical chance of defending their 2023 championship

Maybe, just maybe, something might be changing at Empoli because Libby Cacace got another start this weekend. Two in three games after none in the previous ten Serie A matches

You know it’s going to be a good game when the bouncy castle is up. Western Springs hosted Cashmere Technical in the second game of a club double-header, their WNL side having earlier beaten Central 6-0…

It’s been a tricky campaign for Western Springs, dealing with a few too many injuries amidst what was already something of a rebuilding season, and that’s been reflected in a lot of close games delivering merely a single victory

There are a couple of things about Darren Bazeley’s selection tendencies that people should have picked up on by now. One of them is that Tommy Smith is going to be there no matter what

There was still a small glimmer of hope that Racing Louisville might make the playoffs entering the final round of the regular season, despite their inability to ever find a consistent run of form.

Big time footy over here. Wellington United suffered their first loss last week and more dropped points this week would take them out of the running for top two... and their opponents were Auckland United who haven’t lost a game all year

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon at Linfield Park... ripe for some footy. Coastal Spirit have been a surprise package this year, continuing their magnificent year of achievements by nestling into a final contention in the Nats

Every game he plays is an opportunity for Chris Wood to score goals. The form he has been in lately, the opposition doesn’t even matter. Chelsea. Tahiti. Malaysia. Crystal Palace. No dramas in sight.

David Ball was left out of the Wellington Phoenix’s A-League squad for the trip to Perth this weekend and Giancarlo Italiano said the reason for that was to get him some minutes for the reserves. Instead of Perth he got to go to Auckland’s North Shore

Someone may have forgotten to alert the groundskeepers about the weekday footy because four minutes into the match they had to hit the pause button when the automated sprinklers went on. Look, we’ve all been there.

Phil Neville promised that he’d get Finn Surman some game time before the year was through. He went on record stating his intent. It was looking dicey there for a while but, folks, it turns out Phil Neville is a man of his word

Ah yes, the Southern Derby. Logan Park in Dunedin was the venue. For years the Canterbury United dynasty owned this league with Southern hovering around the very bottom of the table and the results reflected that chasm. But in recent years the results have flipped.

At the beginning of this round, Western Suburbs were last with comfortably the worst defence while Auckland City were first with the equal-best defence. Winless versus undefeated.

What we witnessed on Saturday afternoon at Mt Smart Stadium was a capital-e Event... but it was also just another game of football. Auckland FC versus Brisbane Roar. Three points on offer.

Heading into this international window, the All Whites had a rare opportunity. They’d managed to bag a 1-1 draw against the USA in their previous match and now they had two immensely winnable fixtures on the calendar

There were plenty of reasons to discount the New Zealand Breakers heading into NBL25. Yet they were 2-0 when they flew to the USA and then they returned and they kept winning.

The moment is near. Steven Adams is on the verge of making his NBA return after 21 long and boring months without his basketballing presence.

It may have snuck under the radar but the Tall Ferns were in Mexico last week playing some games. They had a Pre-Qualifying Tournament for the next FIBA World Cup. Very similar to the format they went through with Olympic Qualifiers earlier in the year...

Last season the Breakers gave fewer minutes to NZers than ever before (a record that they’re going to crush again in NBL25) and yet it was still the most prosperous season we’ve ever witnessed for kiwi players in that league.

These are glorious times for basketball in Aotearoa. Already established as the fastest growing sport in the country, we recently saw the New Zealand team finish fourth at the FIBA Men’s U17 World Championships, with Oscar Goodman crowned as part of the tournament’s All Star Five…

A record was broken last Thursday afternoon when, at the 2024 NBA Draft, the Washington Wizards selected Alexandre Sarr with the second overall pick. Sarr just so happened to have spent the past season with the Perth Wildcats as part of the Australian NBL’s Next Star programme

As we traversed what was already shaping up to be a concerning offseason, the feeling was that the Breakers would be alright as long as Head Coach Mody Maor was around. But now he’s leaving.

A few months ago, the Tall Ferns set out to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics. They did not make it. So can the Tall Blacks end the drought instead?

Gotta love a bit of Aotearoa’s National Basketball League. It’s a rapidly growing competition that regularly attracts most of the country’s best players whilst also attracting a decent level of import and still finding room to boost up the next generation

In a topsy-turvy, up-and-down season... the Breakers finished about where they should have: right in the middle. They made the play-ins but not the playoffs, winning one knockout game but losing the other

The Tall Ferns will not be going to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. A narrow defeat against Puerto Rico in their qualifying tournament made sure of that, as a very inexperienced and injury-ravaged Aotearoa side fell agonisingly short of their goal

The news came through at 12:41pm on Friday in the same way that all NBA news comes through: via a tweet from Adrian Wojnarowski.

It’s been a long time since Aotearoa last had a basketballing presence at the Olympics. You’ve got to go all the way back to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing for the last appearance.

It’s just not the same without Steven Adams. Even since he first got injured diving for a loose ball late in a game back in January, the NBA has been missing its heartbeat

There is a possibility, something we need to at least consider, that perhaps maybe potentially we might have given the New Zealand Breakers too much credit. When they turned everything around so suddenly last season it was natural to feel as though…

After several years of mediocrity, some pandemic-influenced and some not, the Breakers surged back into Australian National Basketball League prominence last season under the inspirational guidance of new head coach Mody Maor

There’s one thing you can never doubt about any Tall Blacks team: no matter who’s got that black singlet on, they’re going to bring the passion, the commitment, the mana that has become a prerequisite for this team

There hasn’t been a kiwi in the NFL since Paul Lasike’s short but memorable stint and as the 2023 season edges close to its kickoff there isn’t going to be one this year either. But there is a bloke who comes close.

The Tall Blacks always bring a certain level of mana with them no matter who’s reppin’ the jersey. There’s going to be passion and cohesion and defensive grit. Regardless. That’s just how this team operates

The Tall Ferns hit up this Asia Cup with a clear target in mind: a top four finish. Make the semi-finals of this tournament for the first ever time, see if they can’t win a medal while they’re at it, and most importantly stay in the hunt for Olympic qualification

It was a season like none other for Aotearoa’s finest basketballing export. For half of it he was an unstoppable rebounding machine even by his own high standards. Then he got injured.

The FIBA Women’s Asia Cup is taking place in Sydney, Australia next week and the Tall Ferns have a task ahead of them. Winning this thing may not be realistic but that’s fine, the real task is getting into the top four

New Zealanders are steadily infiltrating the Australian NBL and folks are slowly starting to notice… although those on this side of the Tasman Sea understand that this is not a new trend

The Memphis Grizzlies came to an inglorious conclusion as they were bounced in the first round by a seventh seed. Steven Adams didn’t play a single game after the month of January and that whole situation has been kept annoyingly murky

The whole Next Star journey has been a strange one for the Breakers but as their latest foreign prospect officially declares for the NBA Draft it seems as though they’ve finally figured it out

Breakers recruitment this season was top notch and for once they’ve actually got the structure, the success, and the coach to be able to do something they have not yet done since the change in ownership: retain an import signing.

They said it’d be 3-5 weeks before Steven Adams could return from his knee strain. The All Star break fell at roughly the four week mark but he wasn’t quite ready to go at the end of it. The fifth week also went by. Then a sixth and then a seventh.

As the final buzzer sounded in the Pac-12 Women’s Basketball championship final, it was fitting that the ball happened to be in the hands of Charlisse Leger-Walker. Almost like it was scripted by destiny

It’s not supposed to happen that a team finishes dead last one season then surges into triumphant championship contention the next. Standard convention says that it takes time to traverse that distance

The Blackcaps year of Test cricket has wrapped up and they finish 2024 with a 6-6 record, which holds steady at 7-7 in the World Test Championship where New Zealand is currently fourth.

No one should be expecting Aotearoa's White Ferns to win the ODI series vs Australia in Wellington but they have the opportunity to shake up women's cricket once again and move into a fresh phase full of confidence.

Otago is 6-0 after the first stanza of HBJ Shield after two wins over Northern Districts and there is a bonus Young All Stars team named featuring the best emerging players before entering Super Smash.

Canterbury is first on the Plunket Shield ladder and second on the Ford Trophy ladder with Aotearoa's strongest concentration of young talent leading their mahi.

Rhys Mariu is piling up runs and he isn’t alone as a youngster shining in Plunket Shield as Zak Foulkes, Mitch Hay, Matt Fisher, Will Clark, Luke Georgeson, Max Chu and Adithya Ashok all impressed in the last round.

An English dose of reality has smoked Blackcaps and it serves as a word of warning for New Zealand Cricket with White Ferns hosting Australia for an ODI series later this month.

Defending Hallyburton Johnstone Shield champions Otago have maintained their perch at the top of the ladder this season after a 4-0 start.

New Zealand's loss to England in Christchurch saw them slide back into their status-quo and perhaps some expectations need adjusting given how different the tour of India was compared to nearly everything else Blackcaps have done in recent years.

Rhys Mariu hit another century as Canterbury captain, while Brett Hampton and Ben Pomare blasted lots of sixes for Northern Districts.

Bella James is quietly stacking up big runs for an Otago team that is undefeated in HBJ Shield.

A decent chunk of domestic cricket has been played with the first stanza of Ford Trophy followed by a couple Plunket Shield games and that provides a nice spot to check in with the most impressive emerging cricketers in New Zealand.

New Zealand starts the kiwi summer of cricket with the first Test against England at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Thursday.

Otago are the only HBJ Shield team with two wins and leggy Ocean Bartlett leads all bowlers for wickets.

Northern Districts is the only Plunket Shield team with two wins and 22-year-old Rhys Mariu is the only bloke with a double century.

New Zealand's Blackcaps are in Sri Lanka were they drew the T20I series 1-1 and lost the first of three ODIs.

Cricket in New Zealand has always been the headline act of an Aotearoa summer and it is one of the many sports in which kiwis out-perform nations with far more resources.

The first stanza of Ford Trophy has finished with Auckland at the top of the ladder, one point ahead of Canterbury.

The smallest Test playing nation in the world won the first World Test Championship and now we can now add a 3-0 series sweep in India to New Zealand's glorious achievements in Test cricket since the pandemic started this decade.

New Zealand's White Ferns had to quickly switch into ODI mode after their T20 World Cup success and went down 1-2 to India in the Women's Championship.

Auckland are top of the Ford Trophy ladder after their win over Canterbury and a big hundy from 21-year-old Curtis Heaphy led Central Districts to their first win of the season.

Canterbury is the only undefeated team in Ford Trophy after Chad Bowes' crazy double hundy last week and despite the rain impacting two games on the weekend, Auckland had a win over Otago to snap up second spot on the ladder.

Last month New Zealand's Blackcaps lost two Tests in Sri Lanka and now they have won two Tests in India.

The White Ferns are T20 World Cup champions.

Ford Trophy cricket has started with wins for Otago, Auckland and Canterbury.

New Zealand defeated India in the World Test Championship, doing what very few kiwi cricket teams have done over the past century by winning in one of the trickiest countries to tour.

Aotearoa's White Ferns are in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa after defeating West Indies in the semi-final, so here are a bunch of last minute notes to set the table.

It kinda feels like the stars are aligning for New Zealand's White Ferns at the T20 World Cup as they return to the semi-final stage for the first time since 2016.

New Zealand are 2-1 in the T20 World Cup after defeating Sri Lanka with Georgia Plimmer finding a groove at the perfect time.

New Zealand heads to India for three Tests in the World Test Championship and while that's always a recipe for kiwi underdog status, expectations for this Test series should be low.

The White Ferns started their T20 World Cup campaign with a fabulous win over India, their second T20I win in 14 games this year.