After Aotearoa Warriors ran through their best NRL season in a while, it's time for my annual geeze at how the Warriors are going about their recruitment and development antics. I'm bloody glad I made this a regular occurrence because in trying to decipher trends and patterns, there has been immense change in how I view the Warriors recruitment and development, along with changes to the structures at an NRL level.

All of this started because a few years ago, it was blatantly obvious that the Warriors sucked at recruitment and development. When I talk about recruitment and development, I tend to use those broad terms to focus on junior talent and while the Warriors have been able to recruit some impressive players to Mt Smart over the last five years, when I first dove into this general topic, the Warriors were severely lacking in how they went about getting the best young kiwi talent to Mt Smart.

Let's set the scene a bit more, because this year's look at how the Warriors are doing the junior recruitment and development thing requires that wider context. Sliding back to the start of the NRL's Under 20s competition that ran parallel to the NRL, the Warriors have enjoyed the services of a bunch of players who impressed at U20s level and then worked their way into the NRL, to establish themselves as NRL players. The bulk of the players in the Warriors U20s dynasty didn't amount to anything with the Warriors though.

Most, couldn't make the jump to NRL footy and I'll discuss the change in priorities as we move through this yarn. Others have moved on to other NRL teams, Super League teams or Super Rugby and while I think it's cool that the Warriors can produce professional league/union players, throughout the U20s tenure, not enough players went on to make serious contributions to the NRL group.

This could be because the Warriors didn't do a good job in talent identification, or because they didn't have any leverage to keep players who wanted to go back to rugby union. As part of talent ID, the Warriors relied heavily on recruiting Auckland juniors without much life experience and who had been the cream of the crop coming through so they were never really, genuinely, mentally challenged. Hence, when shit got real at the NRL level or around the NRL level, these guys faded.

The Warriors had a clear intent to recruit players out of 1st 15 rugby union. Nothing crazy in that, especially as they still do ravage the rugby union stocks in Aotearoa and even more so, because that's exactly what Australian clubs are doing; Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Suliasi Vunivalu, Jamayne Isaako, Paul Roache (Junior Kiwis squad), Patrick Herbert, Kayleb Milne (JK) etc etc. Yet the Warriors didn't seem to get the best rugby union talent, or have the environment to get the best out of someone like Ngani Laumape. At least Laumape has gone on to showcase his talents with Wellington Hurricanes (alongside another Junior Warrior Sam Lousi), where as Ngataua Hukatai was a 1st 15 gun for Kings College, cracked Junior Kiwis in 2012 and what's he up to now?

All you need to do is run through a list of familiar names from the Junior Warriors and scratch your head, asking 'what happened to that dude?' ... Glen Fisiahii, Siuatonga Likiki, Nafe Seluini, Carlos Tuimavave, Omar Slaimankhel, John Palavi. Most recently, we only need to look at the likes of Albert Vete, Brad Abbey, Raymond Faitala-Mariner, Sosaia Feki, Ata Hingano and Marata Niukore to get this vibe even more entrenched in your brain.

This combination of not getting talent that could kick on and being unable to get the best out of the talent that has now gone on to be solid contributors in NRL, Super League or Super Rugby is what sparked this whole idea in the first place. It smacked me in the face that something wasn't right and since then, the winds of change have swept through Mt Smart to completely flip this script.

Last year, when I went on my deep-dive, I was eager to see how the changes to the U20s structure around the NRL would impact the Warriors. Gone was the NRL's U20s competition, in its place were U20s competitions in New South Wales and Queensland. The Warriors entered a Jersey Flegg team this year and finished 10th (12 teams), which looks reasonably crap considering that the Warriors finished dead last in the 2017 U20s competition, winning just three of 24 games.

Bit of a change from the U20s dynasty right? What has changed, is a greater reliance on reserve grade (NSW Intrust Super Premiership) to prepare youngsters for NRL footy. All the best U20s players used to stick with U20s footy and the Warriors rolled through Premierships and Finals appearances; none of which actually helped the NRL Warriors.

Now though, the best U20s players at the Warriors are playing reserve grade. Hayze Perham went straight from Rotorua Boys High School to play fullback in reserve grade, while Joseph Vuna and Chanel Harris-Tavita were reserve graders this year. All of the Warriors Junior Kiwis this year, played reserve grade as Paul Turner and Tom Ale also made ISP Warriors appearances.

This change in preparation, coinciding with the arrival of Stephen Kearney as coach should see the Warriors develop more NRL talent for themselves. The Warriors won't be able to keep all this talent; any Warriors winger coming through the club is going to have to be incredibly patient as Ken Maumalo and David Fusitu'a ain't going no where. Having a constant flow of talent pushing for NRL selection will ensure that even though, if some players do leave, there is always someone else ready to go.

That's helpful for the salary cap as well. Having a constant flow of players who can genuinely crack NRL footy, means that there is always a cheaper option already at the club. This is what has happened at Penrith Panthers and regardless of who leaves, there is always someone else ready for their opportunity who has been developed by the club.

All these winds of change at Mt Smart have come since Kearney's arrival and while I know that Kearney isn't the guy sussing everything out right now, I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that all these changes have come because of Kearney's arrival. Since Kearney arrived, some of the best staff in the business have joined the Warriors and that's most likely because Kearney identified where he club needed drastic change and recruited the best staff to implement those changes.

This is all linked together when you consider that Peter O'Sullivan was brought in as recruitment guy to scout talent and Alex Corvo prepares that talent physically, thus mentally for NRL footy. Suddenly, the Warriors have the best scout who gets players in front of the best trainer. Brian Smith oversees it all in his GM of Football position and as I believe that Kearney had a far more hectic job than just being coach when he arrived and last year, Kearney now has the pieces in place to simplify his role as coach.

Todd Payten comes in as assistant coach, Nathan Cayless comes in as reserve grade coach. Now Kearney has assembled a staff that has enough experience and talent, that Kearney can whole-heartedly trust them, allowing Kearney to be the best coach he can be. Obviously, the arrival of Cameron George as big boss dawg last year fits into all of this as his ideas and plans sound pretty damn cool to me.

All of those staffing moves have gone down in the past 18-24 months. Immense change, rather crazy leveling up in a short time period. This relates back to my updated views on the Warriors recruitment and development because the Warriors didn't change how they go about their recruitment and development, they brought in the best people. Bring in the best people and they will automatically be the change.

That's the important nuance because what I see with the recruitment and development is more of a tinkering, or sharpening of how the Warriors operate. Everything at the Warriors that has led to positive vibes, optimistic vibes about where the club is going, can be linked back to the calibre of people now setting the tone in key recruitment and development roles.

One trend that immediately pops out is the connection between the Warriors and Rotorua Boys High School, a relationship that appears to have really come to fruition over the last two years. Coincidence? Nah bo. This started with Hayze Perham and Tom Ale linking up with the Warriors after making the 2017 National Secondary Schools Tournament Team and in August, the Warriors signed Selesitino Ravutaumada from RBHS.

Ravutaumada also made the 2017 NZSSTT and did so again this year. What's low key super duper funky here is that all three of these lads share rugby union and rugby league backgrounds at RBHS, all three have played both 1st 15 and 1st 13 at RBHS. That's a sign of the times and I've consistently highlighted how easy it is for young ballers in Aotearoa to switch between codes, hence we see it more and more at higher levels.

However, RBHS is somewhat unique as they place equal value in either code. Unlike the bigger rugby schools in Aotearoa that are only concerned with making money, RBHS is clearly eager to develop the best young men they can and only buzz about having happy athletes. This quote is from Perham when he signed with the Warriors last year...

"Looking at the other big rugby schools, they haven't supported league players in a rugby school as well as Rotorua Boys' have done. The rugby coaches and the principal Mr Grinter are really supportive of rugby players trying to make a career out of league - they don't cut down our options and I'm really grateful for them letting me choose my own path."

On top of those three, the Warriors recently announced that they had signed three youngsters from Rotorua club Pikiao. Guess what? All three are from RBHS; Cassius Cowley, Tome Poona and Ngakohu Walker. I don't have much background information on their ballin' abilities, however it's pretty damn obvious that the Warriors are enjoying the breeding ground of RBHS right now. That's six players who have been signed from RBHS in the last two years.

Obviously there is a lovely working relationship between the Warriors and RBHS and/or Bay of Plenty Rugby League. The three youngins, will finish their schooling in Rotorua which is a great idea from the Warriors and when they graduate, then they'll move up to Auckland to get among the Jersey Flegg team. With a supportive base at RBHS, combined with the Warriors understanding the welfare and personal development of the teenagers, this all comes together to form a smart recruitment strategy.

This points to another interesting wrinkle in the Warriors recruitment as they widen their net for talent around Aotearoa. Right now though, Auckland is still the main stomping ground for the Warriors (and the Aussie NRL clubs) and this most evident in the Warriors having 13 of the 18 players recently named in the New Zealand Residents U18 team, 11 of which are from Auckland.

There is still a great reliance on Auckland, however the Warriors are snapping up enough talent from outside of Auckland to keep things funky. Paul Turner is from Northland and he's been named in both the NZ Residents U18 squad, Junior Kiwis squad and also played those games for the ISP Warriors. The other non-Auckland Warrior in the Residents squad is Patrick Elia, from Christchurch who played rugby league and union for St Thomas' of Canterbury College before the Warriors snared his highly sought after signature.

Elia was in the Crusaders U18 team and this points to another little area of interest for the Warriors as Elia's comrade at St Thomas' Seth Taumati was also signed by the Warriors. Taumati was initially signed by Wests Tigers to join Keebra Park High School a few years back, but must have not gone through with that as he returned to St Thomas' and impressed at NSST.

Then we have Graeme Patu-Vaega'au who played Jersey Flegg footy with Elia this season - Taumati appeared to be out injured this year - and Patu Vaega'au also hails from Canterbury. The common factor here is a bloke by the name of Andrew Auimatagi who is the Warriors South Island talent scout and coaches St Thomas' and Linwood Keas; Elia and Taumati went to St Thomas' and Patu-Vaega'au was with Linwood.

As you can see, even though there is still a great reliance on talent from Auckland, the Warriors are branching out a wee bit more every year. There is an abundance of rugby league talent in Auckland and around Aotearoa, far more than the Warriors need so Australian clubs continue to scout and recruit from league and union around Aotearoa, which is only increasing; Junior Kiwis Jordan Riki (Canterbury - Broncos), Jackson Ferris (Palmerston North - Sharks), Morgan Harper (Ngaruawahia - Bulldogs) and Mawene Hiroti (New Plymouth - Rabbitohs) were all recruited by Australian clubs from outside of Auckland.

Let alone all those who didn't make Junior Kiwis; Rory Ferguson (Southland - Broncos) and Cruz Topai-Aveai (Canterbury - Sharks) both made the Junior Kiwis wider squad having been recruited by Australian clubs from outside of Auckland. This is a fact of the current NRL and anyone who sees a player from Aotearoa at an Australian NRL club and bemoans the Warriors not signing that player, doesn't understand the current landscape and just how much resource the Australian clubs put into recruiting talent from Aotearoa.

What I see is that the Warriors are now more efficient in their recruiting from outside of Auckland and in the examples given, the Warriors have established relationships with RBHS and their plug in Canterbury Auimatagi. They obviously recruit from outside those relationships when looking beyond Auckland, those are just a few trends that popped up in researching this idea.

A nice balance has been struck between Auckland and non-Auckland recruitment, most likely a product of the quality of staff involved. In exploring this topic each year, the Warriors have made swift progress in recruitment and development, stemming from sussing out Mt Smart and the people working at Mt Smart. Change always starts within and the Warriors had to first address their issues, make changes at the club and then let experts in their specific fields get busy in scoping out the best talent and getting the most out of them when they join the Warriors.

Hit an ad to support Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan.

Or jump on Patreon and support the Niche Cache directly, we drop bonus stuff for the Patrons and take care of the homies.

Peace and love 27.