Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Redcliffe Aihe In Finals Footy
For the sake of all our sanity, let's chalk Aotearoa Warriors NRL matters up to the curse. I'm quietly confident that the club is moving in the right direction and wasn't too bothered by how this season played out as it was just as niggly as the 2020 shambles. The club didn't have to move their operations mid-season from Aotearoa to Australia, yet the movement of players in and out of the Warriors this season was bonkers and no conducive to winning NRL games.
Instead of tripping all over Warriors footy matters, I'm more proud that this club flows on and is still operating a professional sports organisation across two countries. This leads me to a wrinkle of Warriors footy that is far more fun to yarn through than NRL business as the Warriors connection with Redcliffe Aihe continues. You've seen the headlines about this collaboration officially being continued, but I'm talking about Warriors prospects playing footy with Redcliffe.
Redcliffe Aihe Under 21s (Hastings-Deering Colts) and reserve grade (Intrust Super Cup) are both in the finals for their respective competitions. The HDC team finished 3rd and will play Townsville Blackhawks (2nd) on Saturday before the ISC game where Redcliffe (5th) face Sunshine Coast Falcons (8th). The Blackhawks are linked to North Queensland Cowboys and Falcons are linked with Melbourne Storm.
Earlier this year the Redcliffe (U18) Mal Meninga Cup team finished 13th out of 15 teams and didn't crack finals footy. That's not a fair reflection on Warriors prospects though as Eric Va'afusaga and Sebastyan Jack were the only players from Aotearoa who the Warriors shipped over to that U18 team. From there, outside back Va'afusuaga has graduated up to play four games for the U21s and Jack has been stashed away with Brighton Roosters U20s in the Brisbane Premier competition.
Jack has been playing in the halves for both teams and highlights another aspect of this logistics wizardry from the Warriors. Various players from Aotearoa have been playing in grassroots competitions in Australia when not required for Redcliffe; Brighton is a smidge south of Redcliffe, while a few players laced up for local teams when the Warriors were based in New South Wales.
The levels on offer showcase a development pathway that is easy to read. Va'afusuaga for example went from Redcliffe U18s to U21s in his first year out of school where he played 1st 15 for Kings College. We won't know which Warriors prospects will play for Redcliffe this weekend until the last minute regardless of the team named later this evening (Tuesday), but other Warriors juniors who have played Redcliffe U21s are: William Fakatoumafi (10 games), Taniela Otukolo (6), Peesi Kepu (9), Kina Kepu (10), Daeon Amituanai (8), Jryis Glamuzina (5), Temple Kalepo (1), Lleyton Finau (6), Viliami Vailea (2).
Both Kepu twins have moved up to ISC which is fantastic as they are two robust forwards who have obviously made a strong impression, as did Vailea who quickly moved up to ISC earlier in the season. Junior Ratuva played for Bay Roskill prior to moving to Redcliffe mid-season and Lleyton Finau appears to have made the opposite move, playing 6 games for Redcliffe U21s before returning to Marist Saints in Auckland's Fox Memorial (premier men).
The Vailea yarn is a bit crazy. Last year he played NZ Warriors SG Ball then 1st 15 for Aorere College, before the quick transition from Redcliffe U21s to ISC and then NRL. That's SG Ball to NRL in just over a year, which isn't as crazy as Otukolo who made has not played for Redcliffe ISC this season despite playing 3 NRL games. Correct: Otukolo has played 6 U21 games and 3 NRL games, no reserve grade.
Otukolo started at hooker for Redcliffe U21s last weekend which means he went back down to U21s after playing NRL. Other Warriors who played U21s in their 46-16 win over Souths Logan were Va'afusuaga, Amituanai and Kina Kepu.
There could be any number of reasons why Otukolo hasn't played ISC and while I'm sure folks can conjure up negative angles to this, I reckon it reflects pretty well on Warriors development. Otukolo played 3 NRL games, making 92 tackles @ 92.9 percent as a 19-year-old without any reserve grade footy. The quick progression through Redcliffe is also a positive reflection of the talent within the Warriors junior system.
Queensland Rugby League doesn't make it easy to suss out the Kepu twins as a variety of first names are used and they have multiple QRL profiles. Both have played ISC footy though and Peesi came off the bench last weekend with Kina named as 18th man. Tom Ale has played 4 games of ISC, while Vailea (9), Ratuva (3), Edward Kosi (6), David Fusitu'a (1) and Rocco Berry (3) have also featured.
The consistent presence of Preston Riki (14) is also notable. Riki has come through the Warriors system and was playing New South Wales Cup back in 2019. Now Riki is the only Warriors prospect from Aotearoa who has featured consistently in ISC and the nature of this Warriors/Redcliffe connection could help us understand the Warriors future plans.
Having been in deep in these Warriors and Kiwi-NRL mangroves, it's tricky to break down development plans. Every January and February, juniors around the NRL pop up with a different club for whatever reason and I prefer to wait until the reserve grade/NRL fringe to see which players are genuine NRL contenders. In this specific Warriors context, Under 20s and reserve grade teams that were based in Auckland didn't offer much clarity in who would then kick on to NRL footy.
The difference between those Auckland-based teams in previous years and this Redcliffe connection is investment. The Warriors are forced to fine-tune their development group as they have had to invest in moving these players to Redcliffe, ensuring they have accommodation and things to do outside of footy such as work. These aren't seasoned reserve graders who have careers on the side and play for match payments, all the Warriors from Aotearoa who are with Redcliffe have been shipped over to Australia for a reason.
For the U21s lads and someone like Riki, this is helpful in assessing how the Warriors view their talents. Keep in mind that the Warriors have a large pool of players in Aotearoa as well and early next year we will find out who the Warriors really like from their 1st 15/Future Warriors ranks as they will probably be shipped over to Redcliffe. All of which costs money and requires connections with the Redcliffe Dolphins community, which is where the real benefit of that Redcliffe collabo reside.
Running two development pipelines in two different countries requires money and lots of it. This is where I swing back around to celebrating the Warriors and how they are operating because all their ticket sales have dried up for almost two seasons, however this club is still finding a way to run their club and continue to improve those development pipelines.
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