Monday Morning Dummy Half: Mid-Season Aotearoa Kiwis Team
In late October the Rugby League World Cup will start and given the state of Planet Earth, we have no idea what kind of RLWC will be rolled out. This does provide intriguing context for all international rugby league and in our case - Aotearoa Kiwis business. Now that the first half of the NRL has been ironed out and we're deep in the State of Origin pocket which doubles as the Battle of Aotearoa pocket, here is my Aotearoa Kiwis team based on the first half of the season...
(Number of NRL games played this season in brackets)
Fullback: Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (14).
Wings: Bailey Simonsson (13), Ken Maumalo (12).
Centres: Joseph Manu (14), Morgan Harper (10).
Halves: Shaun Johnson (6), Dylan Brown (11).
Middles: Jesse Bromwich (14), Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (14), James Fisher-Harris (15).
Edges: Isaiah Papali'i (15), Tohu Harris (13).
Hooker: Brandon Smith (14).
Bench: Jahrome Hughes (14), Nelson Asofa-Solomona (13), Joseph Tapine (9), Isaac Liu (14).
I could do layers of depth and there is plenty of that floating around. The Battle of Aotearoa yarn helped breakdown the Aotearoa depth and more importantly the Kiwi-NRL depth as many Aotearoa juniors will go on to represent Samoa and Tonga at the RLWC. The team above takes into account the eligibility vibes that players have spread and I've tried to stick with the top-17 players; there's no squad or 18th man stuff here.
One of the most intriguing aspects of this team is Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and whether he will head straight to Auckland rugby after finishing the season with Aotearoa Warriors. The ITM/Mitre 10/Bunnings thing (NPC rugby is better) finishes on the weekend of October 23rd which is the same weekend that the RLWC starts. Tuivasa-Sheck may have already laid out what he wants to do to Auckland rugby and Kiwis coach Michael Maguire, yet Tuivasa-Sheck has also consistently represented Aotearoa when available.
In 2019 under coach Maguire, Tuivasa-Sheck played all four games for Aotearoa Kiwis with three wins and one loss (the loss was vs Australia). Tuivasa-Sheck was also part of the terrible 2017 RLWC and most if not all Kiwis players who played in the RLWC would probably want another crack at flipping that around. Much of this revolves around the mana of coach Maguire and his ability to get players onboard to first travel to England in these crazy times and perform how we'd hope a Kiwis team would perform.
Coach Maguire is up to his neck in a niggly Wests Tigers situation that could take away from his efforts to get around and chat with Kiwis players. Coach Maguire also seems like a bit of a footy nutter and everything I've scoped about Maguire suggests he would likely be putting in plenty of mahi to keep senior Kiwis in the loop. The most notable of whom is Tuivasa-Sheck.
Shaun Johnson is the only player in the backline who has played less than 10 games and while that marker kept Dallin Watene-Zelezniak out of the team, Johnson is a veteran Kiwis play-maker who I want steering the ship. The form of Bailey Simonsson also keeps Watene-Zelezniak out and if Watene-Zelezniak can finish this season strongly, he'll likely pop in for Simonsson.
Tohu Harris last played for Aotearoa in 2016 and the prospect of a Kiwis forward pack with Harris joined by Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Jesse Bromwich and James Fisher-Harris is lovely. I'm always going to lean into the veterans as long as they're operating at a high NRL level and while that's easy to do when Waerea-Hargreaves has hit a bonkers nek level with Roosters, it's less obvious for Jesse Bromwich. Bromwich has played all but one game for Storm this year and they're tied-1st with Panthers, which when packaged with Bromwich being a proven international is crucial to Kiwis success.
Isaiaih Papali'i's form has been undeniable, giving him the left edge spot ahead of Kenny Bromwich. I've gone with Papali'i's Eels comrade Dylan Brown to partner Johnson in the halves and this bumps Jahrome Hughes into the bench utility spot, backing up starting hooker Brandon Smith. This is the most halves depth we've had for Aotearoa Kiwis so the debate around selections is strange yet beautiful.
Joseph Tapine is the only other player selected with less than 10 games and I really need the young trio of Fisher-Harris, Tapine and Asofa-Solomona together in the same Kiwis team. To round this bench off, I've gone with Isaac Liu and he's also played every game for Roosters which provides plenty of oomph in the middle rotation without losing versatility to cover the edges mid-game.
Low key: the next few months will tell us a lot about Aotearoa Kiwis footy under coach Maguire.
There were plenty of positive signs prior to 2020 and as there was no international footy last year, now we get to gauge where the Kiwis are at and how much Aotearoa Kiwis footy matters to those involved. The 2017 RLWC in Aotearoa didn't give off a good vibe as in that sense as the Kiwis sucked in front of home crowds who had barely seen them play in Aotearoa, now it's up to this crop to show what this all means to them.
Hit an ad if you enjoyed the yarn. Peace and love.