As I worked through a possible Kiwis team to play in the fixture vs England, likely to go down in Denver very soon, many of my ideas and thoughts ultimately led me constantly question wtf David Kidwell was up to as coach. New Zealand Rugby League conducted their review and people have had the dignity of stepping aside, or in Kidwell's case not re-applying for the job; don't you love how such organisations have to pay for these extensive reviews, to dig into what went wrong and blah blah blah, when it was all fairly obvious?

The review questioned all sorts of aspects about how the NZRL handled the World Cup campaign and I respect their findings. Those sorts of reviews don't highlight how there was not one single player in the Kiwis World Cup squad who spent the majority of the 2017 NRL season, playing in an edge forward position.

That also reflects negatively on the selectors, the same group of selectors who publically questioned Simon Mannering's role in the Kiwis squad while the rest of Aotearoa had him as one of the first names written down.

The same selectors who didn't select Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, then they did, then they didn't, then they did and so on.

The same selectors who selected Thomas Leuluai as a hooker, despite Leuluai doing most of his Wigan work at halfback.

I respect the findings about the NZRL, but it was Kidwell who constantly tinkered with his halves combination throughout the tournament.

It was Kidwell and the selectors who went with inexperienced halves, for a World Cup. Of course they had to, because like Mannering, the selectors publically scoffed at the idea of selecting Benji Marshall. At the time, I was low key disgusted by that arrogance. Whether you think Benji would have helped or not, it doesn't matter, the mere arrogance to put out the vibe that the Kiwis were too good for Benji or Mannering was and still is yuck.

Shout outs to the review, but we literally had this narrative of how hearty Kidwell is as a Kiwi, how passionate he is etc, shoved down our throats and all I saw was two experienced players being so captivated by Kidwell's Kiwis culture that they were caught dabbling in cocaine after a loss to Australia.

That culture, that passion resulted in Tongan-kiwis feeling more passion to represent Tonga. Respect to those lads, just purely from a Kiwis perspective though; isn't it weird how all we heard was about Kidwell's passion and then a group of players felt more passion to play for another country?

Kidwell did nothing to plan for the World Cup, neither did his selectors. A mediocre Four Nations and consistent losses to Australia saw Kidwell and his selectors juggle different combinations, somehow resulting in a vastly inexperienced World Cup squad. You'd assume that with so many new combinations, new vibes, that Kidwell would want as much time as possible to work with his players and suss out those combinations. Instead, the Kiwis showed up a week after most of the other teams (including Australia) and didn't play a trial.

I put myself the frustration of regurgitating such lunacy, all because I was thinking about the best possible Kiwis squad right now, or for the Denver Test. Reflecting on the World Cup from this position, I'm left with a weird taste of knowing that Kiwis World Cup group was not the strongest Kiwis team/squad and they performed as such. All these peripheral review findings are lovely, but man-for-man, the Kiwis squad was not nearly as talented as Australia nor did they have the cohesive, team 'culture' to make up for a lack of talent.

This is weird because some of it is was due to circumstance, some of it was crazy selectors and some of it was Kidwell's antics, not even including the Tongan-kiwis.

Kieran Foran and Tohu Harris were unavailable due to injury-related stuff. They are two certain starters in my top-17 right now. Jesse Bromwich is another certain starter and along with Kevin Proctor, they did what they did. Harris is a certainty on an edge, while Proctor is definitely a contender for the other edge, that's two top-tier edge forwards unavailable which hurts.

However, the selectors inexplicably ignored Alex Glenn. Glenn's Broncos comrade Jordan Kahu was also unavailable through injury and we go back and forth between top-tier Kiwis talent that was unavailable, or ignored. While that could be viewed as an excuse for Kidwell, the fact that Bromwich and Proctor did what they did under his watch and the Tongan-kiwis flipped after spending time under Kidwell, is Kidwell's fault.

The Ki is Wi concept reflects Kidwell's tenure as it only came about for the World Cup and there was nothing built by Kidwell far earlier, to prepare for the World Cup. I ponder Kiwis selections now and I ponder the identity of the Kiwis; you only build an identity by having a group of players together, for multiple games, laying down foundations.

That's a more complicated way of saying consistency in selection. We are graced with a wonderful group of Kiwis veterans who should form the core of all Kiwis squads moving forward through the next few years, these guys should be respected and rewarded with consistent selection. Then you bring in young players as wider squad members and those younger/fringe Kiwis have to demand selection through emphatic NRL performances.

Build a Kiwis culture around; Bromwich, Harris, Mannering, Johnson, Foran, Kahu, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Dean Whare, Adam Blair, Issac Luke, Martin Taupau, Jason Nightingale, Benji Marshall and Russell Packer.

Those guys are the top-tier of Aotearoa rugby league and not only should they be treated as such, build a national team around them, build a style of play that reflects their skillsets and lay foundations for future success based on this group.

On top of those players, we have; Kevin Proctor, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Joseph Tapine, James Fisher-Harris, Kodi Nikorima, Isaac Liu, Te Maire Martin, Danny Levi, Brandon Smith, Kenny Bromwich, Alex Glenn, Peta Hiku, Jordan Rapana and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak.

I have just named 28 players.

28 players is more than enough to cover the various unavailabilities that are inevitable with international footy. There are obviously other players who come into the mix and we have an abundance of younger talent in the NRL now and coming in the future. For ease of use though, this is about rebuilding the Kiwis, learning from that World Cup shit-storm and genuinely building a sustainable Kiwis culture using a huge asset that is available to the Kiwis in a top-tier group that is stacked with talent and experience.

It almost feels as though everything happened for a reason. As a hugely passionate Kiwis coach, Kidwell tried his best to lay these foundations with 'the Ki is Wi' but with so much talent unavailable (thanks to Kidwell remember), Kidwell was not good enough to get a weaker group competing at a high level. Everything went wrong for Kidwell right from when he started and right now, I reckon that it all went wrong because Kidwell was not the bloke we needed to lead the Kiwis team into the future.

A future in which the #KiwiNRL takeover exists. We are moving into times of exceptional rugby league depth in Aotearoa and we need a coach who reflects the rise of kiwi rugby league, who is willing to lay foundations with experienced players who have tasted success in the black and white jersey.

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Peace and love 27.