The June 30 NRL transfer deadline saw Aotearoa Warriors make a couple of moves in the transfer market, all of which were bidding players haere ra on their next rugby league adventures. A few weeks ago, Zac Santo was released by the club to head back to Townsville Blackhawks - the club he started at before linking up with Canberra Raiders - and also prior to the deadline, the Warriors let Manaia Cherrington slide back to Sydney.

Neither Santo nor Cherrington made much of an impact at the Warriors and obviously weren't going to feature in any mid-long term planning of the club. While everyone was pondering the Etene Nanai-Seturo drama, Hayze Perham has come straight out of high school to start at fullback ahead of Santo in reserve grade and that basically means that the Warriors have depth in all backline positions; experienced 'job-doing' depth and up and coming depth.

As Santo was replaced in reserve grade by a talented prospect, Cherrington couldn't get a look in ahead of Karl Lawton, Jazz Tevaga and Sam Cook. That's just in terms of trying to sneak on to the Warriors NRL bench, where Issac Luke tends to play 80 minutes, let alone reserve grade where Lawton and Cook are ahead of Cherrington in the hooking ranks, last week James Bell was named at hooker as well.

Neither Santo nor Cherrington were close to guaranteed reserve grade spots and the best thing for them is to be playing footy as they try get back into NRL mixers. This was unlikely to happen at the Warriors, so this is a win-win for all parties involved.

The main transfer deadline news though is the move of Albert Vete to Melbourne Storm, which was yet another piece of slick business from the Storm. This is all about the Warriors, but I want to highlight the Storm's transfer deadline moves because they all three of their new recruits have predominantly/only been playing reserve grade this year, but could contribute heavily to the Storm in the future.

Vete is joined by Tom Eisenhuth, who arrives from Penrith Panthers. They are both 25-year-olds, with Vete a middle forward an Eisenhuth an edge forward and while they may be a bit younger than your typical Craig Bellamy project type of player, they still fit that mould as they have plenty to offer, they just need the Bellamy touch. 

Melbourne also signed Marion Seve from Brisbane Broncos, who the Broncos snatched away from Wests Tigers and at the time, this was a big move from the Broncos. Seve now gives the Storm an up and coming strike centre and don't be surprised if Seve bursts out of no where in the next year or so with the Storm. 

Vete is moving into an intriguing situation where the Storm are a bit light on middle forwards right now with Jesse Bromwich's season heavily impacted by injury, Dale Finucane's and Sam Kasiano also out injured. Vete will still have to battle to get into Melbourne's top-17 though as Tui Kamikamica and Patrick Kaufusi got opportunities last week, but with Tim Glasby leaving at the end of the year, there could be more wiggle room for Vete if he can make a good impression this season.

Melbourne were sniffing around Tevita Satae as well, basically sniffing around the fringe middle forwards of the Warriors. There was noise about Satae having a clause in his contract about an upgraded deal if he played X number of games and what not, but from a Warriors perspective this was simply about whether they like Satae or Vete more. Satae has featured fairly consistently this season and offers a splash of size to the middle forward stocks, plus he's slowly progressing through a low key development pathway under coach Stephen Kearney; there's plenty of improvement in Satae.

Kearney never really gave Vete consistent game time since arriving at Mt Smart, which is the opposite to what Kearney has done with Satae. The Warriors also have enough depth to absorb the loss of Vete with Sam Lisone and Ligi Sao the next-up middle forwards, while Patrick Sipley could also come into the equation at some point. Keep in mind that Leeson Ah Mau has apparently been signed and he'll feature in the top-17, plus we can't forget Leivaha Pulu who has missed much of this season via injury but is a handy bench option in the NRL.

That basically means that the loss of Vete won't have any impact on the middle forward depth right now and beyond. It's a good move for Vete and it also points to a good working relationship between the Warriors and Storm, with Kearney being a respected figure in Melbourne. Also noteworthy is the connection between the Storm and Saint Kentigern College as Vete joins Suliasi Vunivalu and Kayleb Milne as former St Kents students currently at the Storm.

Vete will likely have to start up in Queensland, with either Sunshine Coast Falcons or Easts Tigers (Storm's two feeder clubs). He could get lucky with Origin though and sneak into the Storm team for this week, but a few weeks to prove himself in reserve grade is the likeliest scenario.

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Peace and love 27.