Aotearoa Warriors Diary: Leka Halasima Development & Sunday Sharkies
Fresh off a hearty win at Mt Smart against Bulldogs, NZ Warriors have an away trip to face Sharks on Sunday evening. This won't be a club-day activity as the SG Ball and NSW Cup teams face Western Suburbs Magpies on Sunday with the SG Ball team playing in Pukekohe and the reserves playing in Sydney.
NSW Cup Warriors grabbed a win over Bulldogs and the SG Ball lads had a loss, giving the Warriors their second club-day victory over a Sydney club. The only club-day loss was against Roosters and this is a lovely representation of Warriors footy right now across the whole club; better than Knights and Bulldogs, not quite on the Roosters level.
The SG Ball lads are losing at the moment but the development process is working well. Selumiela Halasima made his first appearance for the NSW Cup team after strong performances in SG Ball and that's pretty bonkers for a lad who is apparently 17-years-old. Last week's Aotearoa Warriors Diary offered some background about Halasima and his 19 minutes of NSW Cup footy last week featured 4 runs - 44m @ 11m/run with 2 tackle busts and 5 tackles @ 83%.
The two Andys will have their mits all over Halasima's promotion. Last week's AWD highlighted Halasima's mobility having started at centre in the NZRL Under 18 Schools vs Clubs game. Now Halasimia is emerging as a middle forward prospect with mobility and power, the same combination that is evident in Zyon Maiu'u's increasingly epic mahi...
vs Knights: 44min, 12 runs - 124m @ 10.33m/run, 3 tackle busts, 19 tackles
vs Roosters: 57mins, 13 runs - 129m @ 9.92m/run, 2 tackle busts, 20 tackles
vs Bears: 63mins, 1 try, 14 runs - 152m @ 10.85m/run, 6 tackle busts, 40 tackles
vs Bulldogs: 33mins, 1 try, 10 runs - 113m @ 11.3m/run, 2 linebreaks, 4 tb, 1 offload, 14 tackles
Makaia Tafua (Linwood) is starting at hooker in place of Etuate Fukofuka (St Peter's) and Presley Seumanu (Mt Albert/Bay Roskill) gets a starting opportunity at edge forward. Calum Pereira is also named on the extended bench and he is another youngster who Warriors recruited from Queensland who has been playing in the Bay Of Plenty Under 20s team.
Pereira played for Wynnum Under 18s last year as a halfback and his recent BOP U20 mahi has come at edge forward. Taimaka Whakatau is named on the bench as part of that Queensland/BOP U20 crew.
NSW Cup Warriors footy is led by the talented centre combo of Ali Leiataua and Rocco Berry, along with the young forwards. Maiu'u is joined by Isaiah Vagana, Demitric Sifakula and now Halasima as youngsters who are developing nicely. Moala Graham-Taufa and Sanele Aukusitino have potential to push for higher honours and Kalani Going continues to brew as a robust, hard-running edge forward.
With Te Maire Martin absent this week in the NRL, there is a funky thread through Warriors halves as Luke Metcalf is also out injured. Ronald Volkman's promotion to plug the Martin hole means that the NSW Cup team has Geronimo Doyle and Ben Farr named in the halves. Keen observers will note that Navajo Doyle was the 18th-man for NSW Cup last week and he's the younger brother of Geronimo, who adds dummy half depth behind Paul Roache.
G-Doyle and Farr were not part of the Warriors mixer last season, now they are the NSW Cup starting halves. There is local halves depth with Sefanaia Cowley-Lupo starting most SG Ball games and Phranklyn Mano-Le-Mamea settling into that combination recently. Salesi Piliu started the season in the halves and he has plugged a hole at fullback over the last few weeks, while the likes of Pereira and Julian Drinnan were halves in Queensland.
Volkman won't be as crisp as Martin has been with his shoulders in defence and quick decision-making. Volkman has been the leading kicker in NSW Cup and is 1st for kick metres in the whole competition, averaging 323 kicking metres per game. There probably won't be scope for that much kicking from Volkman in the NRL team with Martin only kicking when required, averaging 40 kicking metres per game.
Volkman is 5th for try assists in NSW Cup and his 52m/game is a career-best mark in reserve grade. Expect Volkman to sit on the left edge where he will have Jackson Ford running straight lines while also helping Volkman defensively. Chuck in the power and skill of Viliami Vailea at left centre, plus the presence of Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad for lots of dynamic runners around Volkman.
Nicoll-Klokstad has been immense at fullback in his return to Warriors. Averaging 159m/game is a big jump up from last year's 109m/game and this sits in the same zone as Nicoll-Klokstad's best mahi at Raiders. In his four seasons with Raiders, Nicoll-Klokstad was tackling below 90% efficiency and while this will change over the course of the season, Nicoll-Klokstad is tackling at 100% this season.
Last week's preview highlight a large disparity in tackling between Warriors and Bulldogs. After that game, Warriors still have no player in the top-50 for missed tackles and Bulldogs still have four players in the top-20. Sharks have four in the top-50.
Warriors are still 1st for completion rate and that makes it seem like Warriors aren't throwing the footy around. Warriors are consistently passing more than their opponents while still offloading as per their status-quo. Warriors are 8th for offloads, averaging 7 offloads per game. This is also evident in the NSW Cup team who are 1st for completion rate and 4th for offloads.
Celebrate the baldies...
Dylan Walker is averaging a career-best 123m per game. Jazz Tevaga is also in a career-best pocket with 143m/game. Both are tackling over 90%.
Walker had 17 passes last week along with Tohu Harris' 15 passes. No Bulldogs forward had more than 5 passes and this continues to be a key trend in Warriors footy.
Big ups Freddy Lussick for his mahi filling in for Wayde Egan who returns this weekend...
76mins, 3 runs - 23m @ 7.66m/run, 2 offloads, 36 tackles @ 90%.
Add the passing on top of our secret stash in Tom Ale for Warriors footy setting up the winning try...
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Peace and love.