As the #KiwiNRL takeover continues, NRL clubs are stretching their net far and wide across Aotearoa. This season the Cronulla Sharks rolled out a 17-man squad that included Fa'amanu Brown and Matt McIlwrick, putting two lads from Christchurch in their spine while earlier in the season when Te Maire Martin debut, I highlighted a large Maori contingent at the Penrith Panthers; Martin's from the Waikato, so is Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and then they young beast James Fisher-Harris hails from Northland.

This season we also got to enjoy the breakout talents of Joseph Tapine with Canberra and Nelson Asofa-Solomona with Melbourne, two massive lads who epitomise the modern middle forward. Both hail from Wellington, so is Ava Seumanufagai who enjoyed a great season with Wests Tigers and reps Wainuomata.

NRL clubs aren't messing around in finding the best kiwi talent, although South Auckland still holds it down and the recent awards gifted to Jason Taumalolo and Jesse Bromwich put South Auckland in a rare place as a breeding ground. Taumalolo was named The Players Champion a few weeks ago, perhaps the award that every NRL player would want to win the most as it's voted on by other NRL players. Taumalolo then won the Dally M award along with Cooper Cronk, the prestigious award steeped in history which Taumalolo won by dominating the middle of the field for the Cowboys, often leading them to victory with big metres ... despite the Cowboys also having Matt Scott and James Tamou as their starting props.

Also at the Dally M awards, Jesse Bromwich was named Dally M Prop of the Year. Handing out the title 'best prop in the game' is something that we all do without much fuss with everyone from fans to coaches debating who the best prop is; there's a long list of contenders. I've always tended to settle on the older Bromwich brother, partly thanks to my South Auckland bias but also because the stats don't lie and that's exactly why Taumalolo is being rewarded for his freakish performances.

There are many similarities in the career arcs of Taumalolo and Bromwich, yet there are also a few major differences. Taumalolo was an Otahuhu Leopards junior, spending a year at De La Salle College before he was whisked away to Townsville to join North Queensland Cowboys and their development system. To those who have been following Taumalolo's career for a while, his recent achievements in winning a Premiership and enjoying the recognition of others via awards is him fulfilling his potential - at least some of it. Taumalolo was a phenom as a teenager and his ability smacked you in the face, yet it took him a few years to come to grips with the NRL and find his niche as a ball-running forward through the middle.

No one should view it as a coincidence that the Cowboys finally snatched a Premiership last season, the same year in which Taumalolo took his game to greater heights. This is a story that can be applied to all young athletes who have been dubbed as the 'next best thing' as Taumalolo was; it still takes some time and a lot of graft to truly cash in on those talents.

Bromwich was never dubbed anything and as we've heard many times in the past month, it's kinda accidental that Bromwich joined the Storm in the first place. Bromwich was never scouted by anyone, but younger brother Kenny was and Kenny told the Storm's coaching staff that he had an older bro who was better than him. The Bromwich brothers are Manurewa Marlins juniors and with Kenny chucked into the Storm's junior system, Jesse was left in the wilderness until he showed up at that one training session.

The rise of Jesse Bromwich from kickin' back out in 'Rewa somewhere, to playing park footy in Orange (NSW) and then being officially celebrated as the best prop in the NRL is a tale for those young athletes who might not have a manager and scouts hitting them up when they are 13-years-old. Two South Auckland lads, two different paths to rugby league greatness.

Statistically, Taumalolo finished the season ranked 1st in run metres and 4th in runs. What is special about Taumalolo is that he averaged 10.63m per-carry and the easiest way to put that into some context is ponder that defences are lined up 10m away from the play-the-ball. Every time Taumalolo ran the footy for the Cowboys, it was a near-certainty that he'd get the Cowboys on the front footy and gift their play-makers with a quick play-the-ball, hence he's so important to the game's best wizard Jonathan Thurston. Not to mention that Taumalolo led the Cowboys in tackle busts.

Bromwich isn't quite as powerful as Taumalolo, however he ticks all the boxes of what a great prop needs to do. Ahead of today's Grand Final, Bromwich averaged 9.34m per-carry (which only highlights how freakish Taumalolo's feats were) and while Bromwich wasn't as dominant as Taumalolo in rolling down field, he offered a wee bit more in the middle for Melbourne.

Bromwich is 6th in offloads right now and possibly the best mark of his work this season is that he never had less than 10 carries/100m, not once. We must also factor in that Craig Bellamy is a shrewd operator in Melbourne and he worries less about what happens in the middle of the season and more about what happens in the clutch stage of the season; Bromwich has three games in which taken more than 20 carries and two of those have come in the past two games of Finals footy.

Consistency across the season by not dropping below 10 carries/100m and then standing up when it matters the most to lead his Melbourne forward pach with 58mins, 20 carries and 180m against the Cowboys before playing 69mins with 21 carries and 196m against Canberra.

The Kiwis, Storm and Cowboys have other pieces to their puzzle, however their recent success has only come with Taumalolo and Bromwich playing key roles. For those of us who call Aotearoa home, the prospect of watching Taumalolo and Bromwich in the black and white jersey for many more years is mind-boggling. For those of us who call South Auckland home, having two of our southside siblings take different paths to greatness is yet another example of what sport can do for a youngin'.