Parramatta Eels will be an undercover #KiwiNRL team to keep tabs on this season as two of Aotearoa's best young players will be building in Dylan Brown and Marata Niukore. There is also a fresh twist of Eels intrigue as they have snared Aotearoa Warriors juniors Isaiah Papali'i and Nathaniel Roache, both of whom are at a minor crossroads in their careers.

Having already made the move from Warriors to Eels, Niukore would have been nicely poised to welcome his former comrades to Parramatta. Niukore, Papali'i and Roache played Under 20s footy together for the Warriors and this resulted in all three playing in the 2016 Junior Kiwis with Niukore playing in his second Junior Kiwis team after cracking the 2015 team. Niukore started both those Junior Kiwis games as an edge forward, although that wasn't good enough for the Warriors to invest in Niukore's future.

The Mangere East junior moved to Parramatta where he has quietly established himself as one of my favourite Kiwis forward prospects. Niukore can play edge or middle and has rolled through 14 games in 2018, 25 games in 2019 and 17 games last season. Averaging 111m/game last season, Niukore enjoyed his most impactful season running the footy and wasn't too shabby without the footy; Niukore didn't miss more than 2 tackles in any game last season and tackled @ 94 percent efficiency.

Of those 17 games, Niukore started 11 off the bench and enjoyed four games starting in the middle, two games starting as an edge forward. Niukore played less than 30 minutes in just two of those 17 games and despite Papali'i cruising into the Aotearoa Kiwis set up early in his career, I've got Niukore as being ahead of Papali'i in the Kiwis pecking order ahead of this season. All of which is fascinating considering they are similar players in playing edge and middle, plus it seemed as though the Warriors rolled with Papali'i ahead of Niukore a few years ago.

Now they are both at the Eels and while I look at Niukore's versatility as a strength, Papali'i's versatility has seen him struggle to command selection in middle or edge forward positions. How Eels coach Brad Arthur uses Papali'i and how Papali'i goes about impacting games will be a fun #KiwiNRL plot to follow. Papali'i is under-sized and isn't overly quick, although he does have a work ethic and rugged style of play that could align with how the Eels play their footy.

Roache is also rather interesting as he tries to show that he can stay healthy. Roache has played 26 games since the start of 2016 and his stunted development has nothing to do with him as a player, or where he fits into a team. Now Roache joins the Eels where Reed Mahoney is the starting hooker and the Eels also have Joey Lussick who was starting for Salford Red Devils in the Super League last year. With Mahoney and Lussick on deck, plus Roache's injury history, the Eels signed Roache on a development contract which puts him outside their top-30 squad but still with a clear path to playing games this season.

An interesting twist for Roache is that there is also a clear path to Aotearoa Kiwis dummy half action. Brandon Smith is the Kiwis starting hooker and will be for a long time, although beneath Smith there isn't too much depth and Bulldogs hooker Jeremy Marshall-King is the only lad starting in the NRL. Danny Levi has signed with Norths Devils in Queensland's Intrust Super Cup which aligns him with Brisbane Broncos, who don't appear to have Issac Luke on their roster for 2021.

Between Marshall-King trying to impress new Bulldogs coach Trent Barrett, Levi playing reserve grade and Roache on a development deal at the Eels; the Aotearoa Kiwis hooking depth is in a weird ol' spot. For Roache, he has a chance to get NRL minutes and given what we know about Roache as a livewire dummy half, with consistent game time he could be a breakout performer this season.

The Eels also have outside back Haze Dunster on their roster and he made his debut on the wing in the Eels Finals loss to Rabbitohs last season. Born in Rotorua, Dunster played for New South Wales Combined High Schools alongside Dylan Brown against the NZRL Secondary Schools team in 2016 and then turned out for Australian School Boys in 2017 against an Aotearoa Under 18 team featuring Hayze Perham, Mawene Hiroti, Matthew Timoko, Jaxson Paulo, Paul Turner, Jordan Riki, Peter Hola and Steven Marsters.

All of Dunster's rep footy has been in Australia, so I'm not sure where his representative future will sit. He is part of the Eels outside back depth and is behind Blake Ferguson and Maika Sivo coming into this season. Dunster has played a lot of footy alongside Dylan Brown in the Eels junior system and they were in the same Eels SG Ball team that won that competition in 2017; Brown never lost a Harold Mathew (Under 16) or SG Ball (Under 18) game with the Eels.

I've yarned a lot about Brown and view the Whangarei product as the best Aotearoa Kiwis player yet to play for Aotearoa Kiwis. Consider Brown's improvement from 2019 to 2020...

2019

15 games, 58.83 kicking metres (per game), 40.66 touches, 79 run metres, 2.46 missed tackles.

2020

18 games, 109.91 kicking metres, 48.55 touches, 116 run metres, 1.44 missed tackles.

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Peace and love.