A major off-season tournament can have a major impact on the playing rosters of NRL clubs as players risk injury and put themselves in the shop window for a few weeks. All of that takes place at a time when NRL clubs are making minor tweaks to their salary cap and may be looking to get rid of some salary, or perhaps they've got some cap to spend on a player who impresses during say, Rugby League World Cup.

That's exactly what has happened for Canberra Raiders as Josh Hodgson suffered a major injury, thus ruling him out for a large chunk of next season. This resulted in Canberra hunting for another dummy half and as they seem to be looking to offload Kurt Baptise and his contract to free up some cap space, they went out and signed Siliva Havili from the Dragons; fresh off of his RLWC campaign for Tonga.

Before going any further, this is a good time to address my #KiwiNRL classifications and how I report on such instances as Havili - especially after RLWC. There are some general guidelines in who falls under my #KiwiNRL umbrella and that's led by the player being born or growing up and thus playing the bulk of their junior footy in Aotearoa. Players who don't quite fit those guidelines but have themselves made a decision to be eligible for Aotearoa, also fit the bill.

From there I can further distinguish players into cuzzies (kiwis), usos (Samoa) and tokos (Tongans) depending on which international team that player has played most of their football for. 

This is merely for logistics and I only write about stuff that interests me and that I think will interest people in Aotearoa, which I believe services a Pacific Island community that desperately needs plenty of attention. Whether it's South Auckland, Auckland or Aotearoa, my interest in Havili stems from him coming from where I'm from and although that results in me writing about Havili from a #KiwiNRL perspective, I'll always mention Havili or anyone else in his position as a Tongan international/toko. 

Havili has been signed by Canberra for a year, which isn't any great reward for his RLWC but given that he had spent the bulk of his contract at the Dragons in reserve grade, is something. Despite being a regular presence in the Illawara Cutters team, Havili was never really given a decent crack in the NRL and the Dragons consistently played other blokes ahead of Havili, or went out and recruited Cameron McInnes to play hooker while Havili and Mitch Rein were in their squad.

The Cutters enjoyed success as well, with Havili playing hooker or lock and this stage of Havili's career reached a climax during RLWC. Although Havili never really leveled-up at the Dragons like so many former Warriors do, Havili's time at the Dragons culminated in him featuring heavily for Tonga and leading the sipi tau. Much is made of the mana of the bloke leading an Aotearoa haka and I'd suggest that the same applies for the sipi tau of Tonga and Samoa, thus meaning that Havili was a young leader in a fairly experienced Tongan squad.

A few more stars had to align for Havili as well, other than just Hodgson's injury and the possible departure of Baptise. Another former Warriors player and uso Erin Clarke made a weird ol' mid-season shift to Canberra after getting an brief stint in the NRL earlier this year under Stephen Kearney. Clarke was then released from his contract a few weeks ago and despite featuring for Samoa in recent times, Clarke was overlooked for their RLWC squad and now seems to be sitting in rugby league no-man's-land,

The Raiders also had Adam Clydesdale on their books, bringing him back to Canberra after he went to help Cronulla Sharks during their injury crisis this year. Clydesdale then retired from footy at 24-years-old, meaning that Canberra have not only lost their best hooker, they have also lost two depth options and all in a matter of months. 

Canberra needed cheap hookers, so they plucked Craig Garvey away from the Bulldogs and now Havili as well. Both are on one-year deals and they'll possibly be competing to start the first round of next season, with the other likely to come off the bench. For Havili, there is an opportunity for him to seal a long-term future at Canberra or if Canberra are only interested in this year, Havili will have opportunities to to play NRL footy and attract interest of other clubs.

There's a genuine path to NRL footy in the short-term for Havili with the Raiders, something that wasn't coming at the Dragons. What Havili does on that path is now a super interesting narrative to follow and as he's played a fair bit of lock previously, Havili could form a low key combo with Hodgson who has often played at lock or in the halves while Baptise played hooker. 

First things first though and Havili's gotta win that starting spot over summer by impressing coach Ricky Stuart.

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Peace and love 27.