Greymouth's Griffin Neame continues to develop nicely with North Queensland Cowboys and his first appearance of the 2022 NRL season saw him build on solid foundations established last year. My Kiwi-NRL goggles ensure that my Cowboys focus is trained on Neame and this presents an interesting point of difference to Aussie media who love whipping up a fuss about the South Auckland Rhino Jason Taumalolo.

Cowboys also have other young forwards who receive plenty of attention but my Kiwi-NRL bias has me celebrating the low key mahi of Suburbs Rugby League junior Neame. Neame played 28 minutes off the bench in Cowboys win over Canberra Raiders, churning out 19 runs - 119m @ 13.22m/run through the middle. Neame was however one of five Cowboys defenders who couldn't stop Corey Harawira-Naera (Otaua Valley) scoring the only Raiders try...

Neame missed 3 tackles vs Raiders and had the same number of missed tackles in three games of footy last season. In two games last season, Neame made 20+ tackles with a single miss and also had a 17 tackles/1 miss game. In all three games last season Neame played 30+ minutes and while he didn't crack the 10m/run mark in every game, he has already shown a robust running game in the NRL.

I reckon Neame is the best young Cowboys forward and this leads to curiosity about Neame's season. After playing in the trial against Rabbitohs, coach Todd Payten said this about Neame...

"I thought Griff was head and shoulders above all of our forwards. I challenged him before the game, I was only going to give him a 30 minute stint, I wanted him to be aggressive. He forced a turnover shooting out of the line there. I wanted him to play fast and at the back end of his stint his leg speed was still there. I'm really pleased for him".

All the chat about Taumalolo is lazy. Aussie media wants drama and doesn't want to dive into Cowboys forward pack stuff, where they would find a nicely balanced pack emerging around Taumalolo. Neame feels crucial to this as he is a monster running the footy and rips into defensive mahi, which could make Neame a certain selection on the bench this season.

Neame is part of a enticing Kiwi-NRL group at Cowboys. Taumalolo (Papakura/Otahuhu) and Peta Hiku (Manurewa) sit in the experienced bracket, then there is hefty crop of younger lads led by Neame. Winger Murray Taulagi is an Otahuhu rugby union junior who has only represented Queensland/Australia so far and apparently Taulagi played in the same Auckland rugby pocket as Connelly Lemuelu who is a Papatoetoe rugby junior. Daejarn Asi offers halves depth and is a Aranui junior from Christchurch, plus the likes of Nick Lui-Toso (Glenora) and Kayleb Milne (St Kents) have moved north in the Cowboys system recently.

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Peace and love.