Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Chanel Harris-Tavita and Developing Youngsters
Depending on whether you're optimistic about Aotearoa Warriors sneaky NRL finals push or if you reckon the curse won't be vanquished this season, in Chanel Harris-Tavita and the Aotearoa juniors there are plenty of reasons to tap into Warriors mahi. The Warriors face Bulldogs, Broncos, Raiders and Titans in their last four games which isn't the most difficult draw and regardless of whether they do or don't crack the top-eight; the fact they are still pushing forwards given their circumstances is always going to be impressive.
A lot will need to go right for the Warriors to slide into the NRL finals. No Matt Lodge and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak for this week's encounter is niggly, all of which is part of things falling in or out of place. Jackson Frei is promoted to debut for this week's game and he's coming off a steady season with Redcliffe Dolphins in reserve grade where he's played 10 games, with over 45 minutes of game time in all but one game. At 195cm tall, Frei is a hefty lad and the most impressive stat from his work with Redcliffe is 95.8 percent tackling efficiency.
Another minor note is that the Warriors will hopefully be graced with Queensland Rugby League re-starting the Intrust Super Cup and Hasting-Deering Colts competitions. The big theme for my Warriors notes this season has been their excellent mahi in taking some of their Aotearoa juniors over to Redcliffe, while keeping some in Aotearoa. The Warriors had lads in Under 18s with Redcliffe, now they have a bunch in U21s as well as ISC and at the same time they have lads in Fox Memorial footy in Auckland as well as 1st 15 rugby.
The Warriors announced that the Future Warriors will play two games on Sunday against Samoa U15 and Tonga U17 at Mt Smart. Hopefully the Warriors release some more information about the Future Warriors squads so we can suss that out. This clearly showcases the Warriors development pipelines working across two countries and that's pretty damn impressive.
That pipeline has seen Rocco Berry, Edward Kosi, Taniela Otukolo and Viliami Vailea make their NRL debuts this year. Unlike NZ Breakers who rather sign young players from around the world, NZ Warriors have remained committed to bringing through their best Aotearoa products in these current conditions. This is where much of my focus will be in the remaining games when they do play (none are named this week) as I have a feeling the Warriors decision-makers are fairly chuffed with their junior talent.
Otukolo went straight from U21s to NRL and was all good. Vailea went from Aorere College 1st 15 last year to reserve grade and NRL this year. Kosi emerged as a fringe Jersey Flegg player a few years ago and developed into a depth outside back for the NRL team, while Berry was as slick as Vailea in reserve grade and with limited rugby league experience he has proven himself a fine NRL prospect.
Chuck the likes of Frei, Josh Curran and Adam Pompey as blokes who have been in the Warriors slow-cooker for another example of nice talent development. Not only do I think that the Warriors are happy with the players in their development pipeline (all the way down to some of the best 1st 15 players in Aotearoa), I believe they are confident in their systems that transition these players into the NRL.
Generally speaking, these lads seem far better equipped for NRL footy than Warriors juniors of the U20s days. They flipped Eliesa Katoa from a slept on 1st 15 trooper with Tamaki College into a hearty NRL forward for example and while this is evident in all of the youngsters, I'm most interested in that Berry, Kosi, Otukolo and Vailea group.
Chanel Harris-Tavita is also a key figure to keep tabs on.
Take all those youngsters mentioned above and consider they mayhem they have endured over the last two-three years. Same applies to Harris-Tavita who made his debut in 2019 when the Warriors went 8-11, followed by 2020 when the world poo'd its pants with Harris-Tavita shuffling through coaches and halves partners. Not only has there been mayhem around the Warriors that Harris-Tavita had nothing to do with and couldn't do anything to help, the young half has struggled to stack up consistent appearances.
Harris-Tavita played 13 games in each of his first two seasons and with eight games played this season, he will max out at 12 games this season. Three consecutive seasons of less than 15 games and that's not the recipe for cohesion, chemistry and combos. This season Harris-Tavita has struggled to string games together as he played the first two games, then missed games up until round nine before playing four games in a row and then missing games up until last weekend.
All of those games this season were alongside Kodi Nikorima, which is nice. Before that Harris-Tavita was trying to figure out playing alongside a completely different half in Blake Green and it looks as though Harris-Tavita won't lace up alongside Nikorima in the halves for the last four games as Sean O'Sullivan and Chad Townsend will likely cover the other halves spot.
Neither O'Sullivan nor Townsend is a realistic long-term halves partner for Harris-Tavita given that Shaun Johnson returns to the club next season. This makes assessing Harris-Tavita's work difficult and ideally the footy gods keep Harris-Tavita on the park for the last four games so he can continue his development, even better if he has the same halves partner for this run home.
The basics all look fairly solid. Harris-Tavita is tackling at 88.7 percent efficiency and that's in tune with Adam Reynolds, Jahrome Hughes and Nathan Cleary who are all between 89-92 percent. Harris-Tavita averages 66 running metres per game this season, which is up from 42m and 44m in his first two seasons. There is also a jump in his kicking metres with the lefty averaging 199.25m this season, up from 178m in 2019 and 170m in 2020.
The thing that stands out to me as slightly prickly about Harris-Tavita's craft is an inconsistent kicking game as some kicks are precise and others not so much. This feels like a lack of footy time though, like a batsman playing himself into his innings in cricket where more time in the middle means more shots out of the middle of the bat. Harris-Tavita doesn't need to go crazy with his kicks as Reece Walsh has a monster left booth and Johnson's arrival will see him play a more senior role, leaving Harris-Tavita to nail five or so kicks a game.
Like the minor miracle of producing local juniors when the borders between Aotearoa and Australia toggle between open and shut, I'm empathetic to Harris-Tavita's start to his career. His first three seasons have been crazy from all angles and steady footy in these last four games could be crucial in setting up next season.
Hit an ad to show some love.
Support the Niche Cache via Patreon for a karma boost.
Monday/Friday email goes hard.
Peace and love.