Naufahu Whyte

19 years - Bay Roskill/Waitemata Seagulls - Sydney Roosters - 192cm/106kg

Sydney Roosters don't play around with Kiwi-NRL youngsters and in Naufahu Whyte, the Chooks have one of the best lads in this crop. Whyte played three games off the bench last season, increasing his minutes and production with every game while tackling with 93.9 percent efficiency on 31 tackles. Whyte will again come off the bench adding powerful mobility and he has come through the Roosters system so the transition to more minutes should be seamless. Fabulous upside and Whyte is with the best Kiwi-NRL club so that's a perfect recipe.

Tukimihia Simpkins

20 years - Rotorua Boys High School - Wests Tigers - 192cm/105kg

Tough entry into NRL footy for Tukimihia Simpkins after leaving North Queensland Cowboys to link up with Aotearoa Kiwis coach Michael Maguire at the Tigers. Simpkins was part of the Tigers circus but worked his way into a bench role for five games later in the season and while his offloading ability was on display at NRL level, there were some defensive performances that Simpkins and coach Maguire would want to improve on. Simpkins isn't as powerful as some of the other middle forwards in this group, his work-rate and offloading ability add a funky wrinkle to his game that should add to the Tigers pack this season.

Griffin Neame

20 years - Suburbs Rugby League Greymouth - North Queensland Cowboys - 193cm/106kg

Three games into his NRL career with the Cowboys and Greymouth's Griffin Neame has a fantastic opportunitiy ahead of him to secure consitent game time in the Cowboys' middle. Neame played 30+ minutes in all three games and was able to roll through his quiver of powerful runs, nifty offoading and plenty of defensive mahi. The Cowboys will need Neame in their middle to compete for finals footy and this will start with a bench role, helping ease the workload for more senior forwards. The Cowboys may not be the funkiest team, however Neame's development is well worth catching him in action for the Cowboys.

The moment 20-year-old middle forward Griffin Neame found out he'll be making his NRL debut this weekend 🥰 pic.twitter.com/HSr64nMFvk
— NQ Cowboys (@nthqldcowboys) August 10, 2021

Jirah Momoisea

23 years - St Paul's College - Newcastle Knights - 193cm/109kg

Another large middle forward who managed to string together three games in a row late last season is Jirah Momoisea. Starting with back to back games of 16 minutes, Momoisea then churned out 36 minutes vs Broncos and more game time saw him jack up 151m, 2 offloads and a tackle bust. Momoisea has been on the fringe of NRL footy for a few years and could add something extra to the Knights forward pack with steady development, playing a secondary role to the veteran middle forwards.

Simi Sasagi

20 years - Ellerslie Eagles - Newcastle Knights - 185cm/94kg

The departure of Mitchell Pearce could throw a funky doosra into this equation as Simi Sasagi made his NRL debut at centre last season, but has plenty of halves experience to call upon as well. Starford To'a has already departed Knights to join Tigers as the Knights have capable depth at wing/centre, which could flow into Sasagi's prospects of getting game time at centre. Sasagi can cover both which will be handy depth to have and based on what Sasagi did at centre last season, he will be eager to command selection.

Xavier Willison

19 years - WaiCoa Bay Stallions - Brisbane Broncos

The beautiful thing about Kiwi-NRL mahi is that there are highly decorated juniors that every NRL club is chasing, as well as those like Xavier Willison who is the best sneaky prospect I've ever covered. Willison comes from Waikato and the Broncos signed him into their system around the time that Willison was dominating for WaiCoa Bay Under 15s in 2017. Willison then moved to Palm Beach Currumbin High School on the Gold Coast. From there, Willison has cruised through the levels and played between 15-20 minutes in his three NRL games. While his NRL profile doesn't list his height, Willison is massive and moves like a back. You probably don't know about Willison, but you definitely should.

Xavier Willison nabs his first #NRL try! #NRLKnightsBroncos #TelstraPremiership pic.twitter.com/TvMYLAonUf
— NRL (@NRL) August 5, 2021

Teui Robati

20 years - Porirua Vikings - Brisbane Broncos - 183cm/105kg

One of the bright sparks for Broncos last season was Wellington's Teui Robati. Robati rolled through various forward roles for the Broncos and while I'd love to see Robati on one edge and Jordan Riki (Christchurch) on the other edge, those Kiwi-NRL vibes will likely see Robati and Willison come off the bench together. Robati runs excessively hard and his 10 games featured 7 offloads as well as 222 tackles @ 94 percent. Expect Robati to set up shop in the Broncos top-17 from round tahi onwards.

Greg Marzhew

24 years - Mangere East Hawks - Gold Coast Titans - 177cm/104kg

It took Greg Marzhew a while to crack NRL footy after featuring in multiple Junior Kiwis teams, moving to Parramatta Eels and then back to Gold Coast Titans where he made his debut last season. In his first season, Marzhew played eight games and averaged 185m as his powerful stature ensures plenty of oomph carting the ball up as well as athletic try-scoring. Marzhew is similar to Brian To'o and while that isn't ideal for NRL wingers - perhaps why Marzhew took a longer route to NRL - there is a clear path to success for Marzhew as a powerful nugget winger.

Wiremu Greig

22 years - Northern Swords - Parramatta Eels - 192cm/124kg

Like Tukimihia Simpkins, Wiremu Greig left the Cowboys around this time last year and made a move to join his Northland homie Dylan Brown at the Eels. Greig only played two games early in the season but looked like a hefty middle forward unit and I'm curious about how Greig goes about cracking the Eels team early this season, after a full summer of training. Listed at 124kg, Greig is easily the biggest unit in this group of second year players and this is an asset that needs to be managed with the quick tempo of NRL footy.

Makahesi Makatoa

28 years - Marist Dragons (New Plymouth) - Parramatta Eels - 183cm/106kg

Makahesi Makatoa didn't make his NRL debut until round 22, but immediately made an impact and three games of 30-ish minutes then became a 60-minute haul against Panthers in round 25. Makatoa is the smallest and oldest of these forwards which could be viewed as a negative, although Makatoa was NRL-ready and the Eels needed a rugged forward like Makatoa adding oomph off the bench late in the season. This puts Makatoa in a strong position ahead of this season and he should feature in the early games.