Every time I take a moment to sit back and appreciate the vast changes that have taken place on the field and off the field at Mt Smart for Aotearoa Warriors, there's another piece of recruitment that tickles my fancy. This time around, it's news of Nathan Cayless being appointed as the reserve grade coach for two years with the Warriors.

Cayless joins a Warriors staff that now resembles an All-Star cast of the game's best minds in the various niche roles required. Todd Peyton was recently recruit to be an assistant coach to Stephen Kearney after Peyton built up an impressive resume and was in demand as both an assistant coach as well as a possible head coach around the NRL. Stacey Jones is thriving as an assistant coach as well and then we have Alex Corvo and Peter O'Sullivan who have earned the reputation of being the best in the game in their respective roles.

Brian Smith is overseeing all of this as GM of Football and the big boss dawg Cameron George continues to make a strong impression any time he speaks out publically. Just on this All-Star staff; many people have long put the responsibility of underwhelming performances on the players, but as the strength of the staff reaches nek level status, it's becoming clearer to see that much of this starts with the quality of staff and leadership in the offices.

That's where the seeds of the culture of Mt Smart are planted and cared for, then the players feed off of that. Every staffing appointment has been impressive in this new regime and it's no coincidence that this has been reflected in on-field performances, as well as the recruitment of further staff and players.

If you needed any convincing of the new direction of the Warriors, you only need to understand that some very smart, experienced players and staff can see the vision. Those players and staff are only at Mt Smart because of the changes that have been made and where the club is heading.

As for Cayless himself, he takes on the low key crucial role of developing the Warriors up and coming talent through the Intrust Super Premiership team. You could make a serious case that this position is as important as any other at the Warriors, especially given that the club has now made rather drastic changes in how they use the ISP team to develop talent for the NRL. This role is nicely suited to Cayless as he has experience with young players (Parramatta U18 and U20, Junior Kiwis) and was previously the Wentworthville Magpies coach - Parramatta's reserve grade team.

There will always be room for older players, fringe NRL battlers to play reserve grade but we have already seen that since Kearney's arrival, reserve grade is where the young players will spent most of their time. Hayze Perham came straight out of Rotorua Boys High School to play fullback for the ISP Warriors this year, while Chanel Harris-Tavita, Joe Vuna and Tom Ale were all named for the Junior Kiwis and featured in reserve grade this year. Not to mention Lewis Soosemea and Preston Riki who both made the Junior Kiwis wider squad and got reserve grade game time.

Cayless has the unique combination of knowing how to work with younger players as well as being in and around NRL systems, allowing him to best prepare those younger players for footy against men in reserve grade. That will naturally also enable him to get the most out of players who have featured consistently in reserve grade for the past year or so, but the main objective will be to provide the best platform to prepare younger players for NRL footy.

Cayless worked with Harris-Tavita and Isaiah Papali'i in the Junior Kiwis last year, a role which along with being Kiwis assistant coach to Michael Maguire, could open up some nifty recruitment pathways. Ushering young players into reserve grade asap instead of relying on U20s footy is one massive trend in the winds of change through Mt Smart and the other is using personal connections/relationships to bring people to Mt Smart.

Obviously getting Kiwis back to Aotearoa has been huge, while Kearney has used his connection with Alex Corvo to get him to Mt Smart and Kearney's agent was also the agent of Blake Green, Gerard Beale and Adam Blair. The Warriors noted in their announcement of Cayless' appointment that he shares a relationship with GMoF Smith from their time together at the Eels, again highlighting how these connections are working in the Warriors favour.

Cayless has been on the scene as a coach for a few year now, in a variety of different, but funky roles. I'm keeping a close eye on any recruit, staff or player to the Warriors and their connections to various people already at the Warriors and now Cayless is on board, this could lead to some low key moves to utilise his experience and relationships.

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Peace and love 27.