Monday Morning Dummy Half: Canberra Raiders Love Aotearoa
Mention Canberra Raiders recruitment trends and most will refer back to the plethora of Englishmen who have linked up with the Raiders, while Aotearoa has provided just as many Raiders recruits as well as stacking the Raiders junior ranks younger prospects. Joseph Tapine, Jordan Rapana, Siliva Havili and Iosia Soliola have been in the Raiders mix for a while now, forming the foundations of the Ricky Stuart Raiders and from then on, the Raiders have pounced at various random opportunities.
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad joined the Raiders in 2019, not the back end of 2018 but the start of 2019 and he stormed his way into an NRL Grand Final. Having been stuck in reserve grade at the Warriors, Nicoll-Klokstad immediately commanded a starting fullback role and from that point onwards, the Raiders have been quick to pounce on #KiwiNRL talent of all levels.
Corey Harawira-Naera was recruited from Northland by Penrith Panthers, then took up an upgraded opportunity with Canterbury Bulldogs before he found himself in an off-field drama. That resulted in a mid-season move to Canberra last season which saw Harawira-Naera play 11 games after round 12, winning eight of those games and playing through the middle in most of those games off the bench. Harawira-Naera did start a couple games and has conveniently fell into a possible starting right edge role with John Bateman departing.
None of which would have been planned. Harawira-Naera's drama led to the move and Bateman's desire to roll back to England has opened up that right edge spot which is perfectly suited to Harawira-Naera's skillset. Harawira-Naera's move from Northland to Penrith was part of a Panthers/Northland recruitment drive that also saw James Fisher-Harris and Caleb Aekins move to Penrith. Fisher-Harris is one of the best middle forwards in the NRL and Aekins … is now with Canberra Raiders.
The Panthers enjoyed the services of Aekins at fullback when Dylan Edwards was unavailable and Aekins can also dabble in centre where the Panthers have no shortage of depth. Aekins then signed with the Raiders and the connection with Harawira-Naera would have been a factor, now Aekins will sit behind Nicoll-Klokstad in the fullback depth chart and I'll be intrigued to see how Aekins emerges from the summer training period to gauge where he ranks in the Raiders backline roles.
Even though the Raiders let Nick Cotric leave, there is still immense backline depth; Nicoll-Klokstad, Jarrod Croker, Jordan Rapana, Bailey Simonsson, Curtis Scott, Semi Valemei. Aekins is in the second tier, along with Albert Hopoate and Matthew Timoko who is a nuggety-powerful centre from Auckland and Timoko was part of the large cluster (13!!!) of #KiwiNRL debutants last year.
Timoko featured in different rugby league representative teams as younger lad, however he was a force in the Auckland Grammar 1st 15. This is where some deeper Raiders recruitment trends get more enticing as they are going hard at not only Aotearoa talent, also 1st 15 talent and I reckon that the Raiders are low key the best recruiters of 1st 15 Aotearoa talent. One twist on this is Bailey Simonsson who was raised in Sydney before moving to Aotearoa to play for All Blacks Sevens, then the Raiders snapped him up.
Timoko is the only lad in the Raiders top-30 who was specifically recruited from a 1st 15 system and that's because all the funk is in the younger age brackets. Manurewa Marlins junior Ata Mariota is listed as a Raiders 'Development Player' meaning that he's available for NRL selection in the second half of the season. Then Leo Thompson is part of the wider NRL summer training group and also in the Raiders' Jersey Flegg (Under 21s) squad. Leo is the twin brother of Tyrone Thompson who plays for Wellington rugby and will soon flow into Super Rugby.
After playing 1st 15 for Napier Boys High School, the twins moved to Wellington and then Leo was scouted by the Raiders. Now Leo is shaping up as a rugby league centre, where he's behind Timoko and given that Tyrone plays at hooker in rugby union, Leo probably has the body shape to forecast forward into any position. Also in the Raiders Jersey Flegg squad are Temple Beauchamp and Brigham Moeakiola, both of whom played 1st 15 rugby for St Paul's Collegiate in Hamilton.
That's three blokes from Aotearoa 1st 15 rugby who most have never heard of, which is merely to say that the pipeline of talent from Aotearoa (1st 15 and league) into Australian clubs is moving swiftly. The Raiders also made a move to snare Sione Moala away from the NZ Warriors in similar fashion as they did with Ata Hingano and after Moala played Under 20s Jersey Flegg in 2018, then Under 18s SG Ball in 2019, I was pondering what kind of halves prospect the Manurewa Marlins junior would be.
Whether it's a lack of a Warriors SG Ball/Flegg team this year, the Warriors not viewing Moala as highly as others or the Raiders going above and beyond the Warriors offer - I don't know. This adds another pure rugby league talent from Aotearoa in the Raiders ranks and Moala spent time with the Tongan national team which suggest they view him highly as well. While Hingano couldn't pounce on his chance like Havili did with the Raiders, this reinforces the Raiders recruitment push from Aotearoa as around the same time a few years back, Hingano, Erin Clark and Paul Roache all linked up with the Raiders from Auckland.
None of them worked out though. Hingano has moved north to be in the wider North Queensland Cowboys system, Clark returned to Auckland club footy with Manurewa Marlins before making the most of his 'train and trial' deal with Gold Coast Titans last summer to be a factor with the Titans. Paul Roache is the younger brother of Nathaniel and having been a star 1st 15 player for Mount Albert Grammar School in Auckland, Paul departed the Raiders after 2019 and played club rugby in Auckland.
Usually, I tend not to dwell on these type of stories as it's professional sport and the number of juniors who come at go gets fairly hectic. The above paragraph is the start of the trend though and the Raiders have slowly built up a nifty style of recruitment that has them pouncing on opportunities at the NRL level, recruiting high level rugby league prospects from Aotearoa as well as doing a fine job of recruiting 1st 15 players who can transition into rugby league.
At the NRL level, watching Nicoll-Klokstad develop is always a pleasure and Joseph Tapine somehow hit a nek level last season. Havili low key won five of six games after Josh Hodgson's injury bumped Havili into the starting hooker role and while he then shared the duties with Tom Starling, Havili flexed by playing 13 consecutive games after Hodgson's injury and the Raiders lost just three games in that stretch. How Harawira-Naera takes the opportunity in the starting right edge role will be fun to follow as well.
Below that, the progression of Timoko and Aekins will be interesting. Then we have the large crop of talent below them, which appears to be reasonably close to an NRL sniff with Mariota lurking and Thompson rising rapidly since taking up rugby league. The Raiders tick all the boxes of an upper echelon #KiwiNRL club and also provide a clear perspective on how NRL clubs go about the business of recruiting talent from Aotearoa.
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Peace and love.