Obviously there is an NRL hub in South East Queensland right now, working around a Kiwi-NRL hub that was already brewing in SEQ for a year or so. In covering Kiwi-NRL matters at the top end of NRL business and also the junior pipelines offered by every NRL club, a strong trend of SEQ emerging as a pivotal round-a-bout of Kiwi-NRL prospects quickly perked my antenna.

While everyone has questioned Brisbane Broncos recruitment and development, they are currently the hottest recruiters of Kiwi-NRL talent from Aoteraoa. Jordan Riki made his debut last year and is a highly decorated NZRL junior, having been recruited from Christchurch by the Broncs. This year we have seen Wellington's TC Robati and Hamilton's Xavier Willison make their debuts, both of whom finished their schooling in SEQ; Riki finished school at St Thomas of Canterbury and then moved over.

I'm not precisely sure whether Robati was recruited by the Broncs and then placed in Marsden State High School, or if he moved on his own accord and commanded further attention. Willison was recruited by the Broncos and placed in Palm Beach Currumbin where he played last year and then made his debut this year. From here, things get a bit tricky as there isn't a whole lot of open information about Allan Langer Trophy footy but there are some deep cut insights to outlined the hearty Aotearoa pipelines in SEQ.

Everyone knows about Keebra Park High School and their presence as a development pipeline to the NRL, Keebra also has a proud history of recruiting players from Aotearoa into their pipeline (Isaac Liu, Ben Murdoch-Masila, Agnatius Paasi etc). Now the trend is that the likes of Marsden State, Palm Beach and Wavell State High School are being established as stomping grounds for Kiwi-NRL prospects recruited from Aotearoa. All these schools are between Redcliffe (north Brisbane) and the southern Gold Coast border.

The Broncs have Christchurch's Fa'atili brothers in their system and while Caius is in the Hastings-Deering Colts (U21s) competition, younger brother Felix is currently playing for Wavell State. Wavell is down the road and around a few corners from Norths Devils where Felix played Mal Meninga Cup (U18) to start this year, while Caius is playing for Wynnum Manly-Seagulls where Robati rose up the ranks.

The Broncos also have Marist Saints junior Deine Mariner in their system, recruiting him from Auckland and putting him in Palm Beach Currumbin. Mariner played for Tweed Heads Seagulls where he helped them win the Mal Meninga Cup earlier this year and things get funky here as Tweed Heads and Palm Beach are right in the heart of Gold Coast territory yet they are aligned with the Broncos. Ponder this...

Mariner and Willison played for Palm Beach in the Allan Langer Trophy final last year. They played against Keebra Park who had Manurewa Marlins junior Isaac Matalavea-Booth starting at prop and he seems to be similar to Willison in size and stature. Matalavea-Booth was at Pakuranga College in 2019, before being snapped up by Gold Coast Titans and the Titans have been extremely busy recruiting from Aotearoa via NZRL junior coach and Titans Recruitment Manager Ezra Howe.

Matalavea-Booth has been tucked away in Hastings-Deering Colts for Burleigh Bears, playing in the same team as Manurewa Marlins/St Paul's College junior Vaka Sikahele, Northcote Tigers/Birkenhead College junior Sam McIntyre and Te Atatu Roosters junior TJ Devery. That's four lads from Auckland in the Burleigh U21s team, plus the Titans have Marist Saints junior Keano Kini placed with Tweed Heads/Palm Beach Currumbin where he has played wing at the U18 level and in the halves at schoolboy level.

Kini and Mariner played in the same Tweed Heads U18 team and are playing in the same Palm Beach team. Kini is with Titans, Mariner is with Broncos.

Sikahele and Devery played in the NZ Warriors SG Ball (U18) team last year, which could be niggly for Warriors fans as there were a number of Warriors SG Ball players who departed the club this year as the club shut down their SG Ball team.

In the current climate, running an SG Ball team from Aotearoa would have been nearly impossible and as you'll know from the Kiwi-NRL coverage; there is an abundance of talent for everyone. The Warriors have their own presence outside the NRL in SEQ via their Redcliffe Dolphins connection and as I've covered in various Aotearoa Warriors Diary entries they have Eric Va'afusuaga, Daeon Amituanai, Sebastyan Jack, William Fakatoumafi, Kina and Peesi Kepu, Jryus Glamuzina, Preston Riki as well as their debutants this year in Viliami Vailea, Taniela Otukolo and Rocco Berry. Even with NZ Warriors there is a heavy focus on SEQ right now outside of the NRL hub.

Melbourne Storm has stashed away Northland outside back Te-Rani Woodman-Tuhoro in SEQ as well after he featured in some Future Warriors fixtures back in 2019. Woodman-Tuhoro then popped up with Marsden State last year and recently signed on with the Storm, leading to Woodman-Tuhoro playing for Brisbane Tigers Mal Meninga Cup.

There are some more curious cases where I can't quite nail down the NRL alignments, but they reinforce the idea of SEQ being a Kiwi-NRL hub. All signs suggest there is a connection between Wynnum and Marsden State as that combo produced Robati, now Rotorua's Cassius Cowley and Ellerslie Eagles junior Nathaniel Tangimataiti are doing that double after starting this year with Wynnum U18s and currently playing with Marsden State.

Marist Saints junior Sefa Roache-Faimalo was with Marsden State last year before graduating to U21s this year, where he is playing alongside Emmanuel Tuimavave-Gerrard (Mt Albert) and Fa'atili.

The nature of keeping up with all these junior Kiwi-NRL wrinkles means that I've definitely missed someone or got some wrong as things move quickly and there are literally so many juniors from Aotearoa in SEQ that it is hard to keep up. The key thing is that most, if not all these youngsters were recruited directly from Aotearoa and the different methods of doing so show how hungry NRL and SEQ schools are for Kiwi-NRL talent.

Most, if not all of these lads have featured in various NZRL tournaments and NZRL development camps. NZRL doesn't get any credit when these dudes progress through to NRL footy as people just see kiwis popping up in the NRL without knowledge of how they got there. I could go through representative teams and list all the funky connections that these lads have, but I've already whipped my brain into a Kiwi-NRL frenzy. Just know that these Kiwi-NRL prospects were scouted somewhere in Aotearoa, primarily via NZRL initiatives such as last year's U18 Schools vs Clubs fixture.

South East Queensland is where the NRL currently resides and it's where the Broncos have already assembled an extremely exciting crop of Kiwi-NRL forwards. Dig deeper and you'll find that SEQ is the hub for all things Kiwi-NRL and if you want to get the jump on who the hottest Kiwi-NRL prospects are, I suggest you tap into Mal Meninga Cup, Hasting-Deering Colts and Allan Langer Trophy footy.

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