Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Keano Kini's Debut For Titans
After the Kiwi-NRL debut of Valynce Te Whare in his regular position of centre, Northcote junior Keano Kini made his debut in the Titans win over Eels, coming off the bench to play hooker. Kini played the last 13 minutes and his offload sparked a try-scoring movement to give Titans the lead, while also making tackles in the middle as Eels chased the game.
The former Rosmini College student flashed his speed a few times, although the defensive role offered an intriguing entry to the NRL for Kini. Playing fullback in six games of Queensland Cup footy with Burleigh, his first six games of reserve grade, Kini made 13 tackles to start this season and didn't make more than three tackles in a game. In his NRL debut, Kini made eight tackles with one miss.
Shifting from fullback to dummy half highlights the class of Kini, who seems like the perfect youngster for Titans coach Justin Holbrook to deploy. With AJ Brimson playing fullback, coach Holbrook has consistently selected Jayden Campbell on the bench. With Campbell starting at fullback, Kruise Leeming had been covering hooker on the bench and selecting Kini meant that the young fullback was selected to provide dummy half cover ahead of a dummy half.
All of which is thanks to Kini commanding selection. Since leaving Aotearoa, Kini was among many Kiwi-NRL juniors who impact winning in Australia and Kini was a fabulous addition to Palm Beach Currumbin High School (who already had Xavier Willison and Deine Mariner). Kini was annointed as the best schoolboy player in Queensland last year alongside Wellington's Karl Oloapu and Kini snapped up his opportunity to train with the NRL squad over the summer.
In his first campaign against grown blokes, Kini stacked up impressive performances. Despite only scoring one try in six games, Kini has six try assists and four linebreaks. Kini isn't a big lad and his athletic prowess helps him shine as a runner, stacking up 200+ metres in three games of Q Cup and averaging 181m/game. Like Te Whare, Kini has a background in athletics and this should serve as a reminder to let youngsters enjoy all of Aotearoa's sporting abundance.
Kini also had eight offloads in Q Cup, offering two offloads in three consecutive games. While he didn't do anything bonkers in his NRL debut, Kini did scamper inside Mitchell Moses and the speed of his offload to Tannah Boyd was instrumental in Brian Kelly's try. Combine his running ability, footy instincts and the embrace of dummy half defence for a fabulous youngster who is likely to spend this season doing all he can to help his team.
Join the Niche Cache Patreon whanau to support our kiwi sports content straight up, get a karma boost and find extra podcasts.
Every Monday and Friday we fire off an email newsletter with bonus content. Sign up here!
Peace and love.