2017 RLWC: Aotearoa Kiwis Squad
Bloody oath.
"The key, is we".
That's the Kiwis slogan, a monumental gem dropped by David Kidwell at the naming of his Kiwis squad. The Ki is Wi, get it?
The last 48 hours has been super hectic with so much news or information, let alone my own thoughts about Aotearoa's squad and the Rugby League World Cup in general. As we all know, Jason Taumalolo has decided to play for Tonga at the World Cup and fair play to him as that's well within the rules, plus Taumalolo played for Tonga at the last World Cup. That in itself is a super complex thingy to unpackage and I don't really want to go down that route as we start to get into eligibility rules and pondering the whole situation; from how funky the World Cup now is to the Taumalolo x Kidwell dynamic, leads me to the bong.
Some important things from that Taumalolo situation that relate to the Kiwis that are of interest:
The scale of this Tongan-Kiwis pact was highly over-stated. Taumalolo, Sio Siua Taukeiaho (who played for Tonga earlier this year) and Manu Ma'u - so only really Taumalolo and Ma'u were like to be in consideration for a Kiwis spot. Addin Fonua-Blake who was mentioned in this group has actually been named in the Kiwis squad. So headlines about eight players making a secret pact, is a bit weird because only Taumalolo and Ma'u really needed to suss out some sort of pact.
Then you have the narrative of Taumalolo hating on Kidwell for his decision to punish Jesse Bromwich and Kevin Proctor. We don't need to talk about the Bromwich/Proctor situation, but this yet another reasonably silly narrative thrown out by silly Australian media. If this was the case, why would Kenny Bromwich be in the Kiwis squad?
The Bromwich bros have some Tongan in them (reasonably, 97% sure of that) so in theory, if there was this beef with Kidwell for his treatment of Bromwich and Proctor, then Kenny and Jesse could have followed Taumalolo to play for Tonga. Taumalolo's only RLWC experience is with Tonga and he has chosen to uplift his little nation on the World Cup stage, cool.
Lemme pose a question though; would you pick Taumalolo for Aotearoa after this RLWC?
As Benji Marshall said, Taumalolo could have made this decision public long ago and made life easier for everyone. If Aotearoa Kiwis can't fully trust Taumalolo to have a long-term future in the black and white jersey, then there's no real point in selecting him.
Especially when Taumalolo - despite being the best forward in the NRL for two years straight - has not helped the Kiwis play well and started at lock in a horrible Kiwis Four Nations forward pack and a Kiwis team that got smoked in the Anzac Test. Just something to think about, ya know?
And ease up on the floodgates opening because Fonua-Blake's in the squad, as is Roger Tuivasa-Sheck who could very easily switch to rep Samoa. Isaac Liu's been named as well and if there was really a major problem, Martin Taupau and Nelson Asofa-Solomona would be within their rights to play for Samoa.
All of this distracts us from a bloody weird Aotearoa Kiwis squad and this has been brewing ever since Kidwell and his selector homies went public with their weird ol' opinions. Leading the weird shit, is that no specialist edge forward has been selected in this Aotearoa Kiwis squad.
Let me repeat; there is not one player in this Aotearoa squad who plays edge, week in, week out for an NRL team.
Kenny Bromwich, Joseph Tapine and Elijah Taylor all spent most of 2017 as middle forwards. Simon Mannering is the Warriors No.13 and the rest of the forwards are big boppers.
Tohu Harris was ruled out and Ma'u is playing for Tonga. Fair play, but Alex Glenn has been fantastic on the left edge for Brisbane Broncos this season and Glenn is the third best edge forward available, without Harris and Ma'u he is the best edge forward available. Bromwich, Tapine and Taylor all have something to offer though and are more than capable of contributing to a successful Kiwis RLWC campaign, it's just super weird to ignore the one specialist edge forward available.
I thought Jordan Kahu may have been shafted, he's unavailable through injury though. Jason Nightingale is a Kiwis legend so that's cool, while Gerard Beale, Brad Takairangi and Peta Hiku are all versatile outside backs. Harris and Kahu should be in any Kiwis squad, so it's just as stink to have them unavailable as it is any other player.
While Kahu needs to suss out his body, Glenn was ignored despite being the best edge forward available and being the only specialist edge forward available. That makes zero sense.
I'm also of the view that Issac Luke is the best dummy half available. Yet Luke has been ignored for Thomas Leuluai who plays halfback for Wigan and Danny Levi, who is clearly talented but is not better than Luke right now. Here's how Levi vs Luke stacks up stat-wise...
Offloads: 0.17/game (Levi) vs 0.43/game (Luke)
Runs Metres: 47.04 vs 63.87.
Runs: 5.54 vs 6.87.
Metres per run: 8.48 vs 9.28
Tackle Busts: 0.71 vs 1.87.
Kicks: 0.25 vs 1.04.
Missed Tackles: 2.29 vs 2.61.
Luke's better by a considerable margin in most of those stats and is slightly worse than Levi in missed tackles; Levi missed 55 tackles this season while Luke missed 60, nothing dramatic. I suspect we'll see Leuluai play hooker with his defence being a key factor in his selection, with Levi adding some spice off the bench. Again, that's all good, Luke's just better than both of them at hooker and everything that has gone down with this Kiwis squad - Taumalolo and Ma'u, Glenn, Luke - leaves an incredibly fishy smell permeating from Kidwell's regime, let alone the Bromwich/Proctor situation. Funky fishy smells ain't good yo.
There was even noise that Simon Mannering might not get selected. Mannering who is now the best edge forward in the squad thanks to the lack of any specialists, but Mannering who will now likely play lock to cover Taumalolo's absence. And to think Mannering was possibly on the outer - wtf.
Oh and how about this Jared Waerea-Hargreaves situation where he got told he was in the squad, then told he was out of the squad and then told he was back in.
Like, totally, actually, omg, lolz, WTF IS GOING ON HERE.
This is the squad though. We can't do anything to change it and as Kiwis all we can do is watch and see how Kidwell's circus unfolds. It's kinda sad because all these shenanigans have now robbed me of any expectation and I was super hyped to see a strong Kiwis team re-connect with their fans in Aotearoa with a World Cup on our soil. Now I've got no expectations and perhaps, maybe that's a good thing because up until this point, expectations of the Kiwis playing well under Kidwell had only resulted in disappointment.
These are the lads that will represent Aotearoa, sweet. This is the group that will live by 'the key is we' motto, Kidwell is the bloke who will figuratively die by that motto though and if that's the case, here's hoping his selectors fall with him.
Peace and love 27.
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