At 24-years-old and with 83 NRL games experience, Hornby junior Jordan Riki is a Kiwi-NRL leader for Brisbane Broncos. A few years ago Broncos started to invest heavily in recruiting from Aotearoa and Riki was one of the first highly talented Kiwi-NRL juniors to enter the Broncos system while still in Aotearoa, showing how Broncos are flexible in how they develop kiwi youngsters.

Xavier Willison and Deine Mariner soon followed, although they were whisked over to Queensland for school. Broncos continue to move Kiwi-NRL juniors to Australia with youngsters like Kylem Vunipola (Kia Ora), Marley Igasan (Otumoetai), Tomu Cook (Otahuhu) and Tokoaitua Owen (Ngongotaha) part of an exciting wave of young Kiwi-NRL Broncos.

There is a thread of top-tier talent in the Broncos recruitment from Aotearoa and Riki started that as a decorated Kiwi-NRL junior in Aotearoa. Riki is now in his fifth NRL season and he is chasing his third consecutive season playing 20+ games, currently on 16 games this season. Stretch things out and Riki isn't far off four consecutive seasons playing 18+ games as he has settled on a consistent role at right edge forward for Broncos.

Each edge forward has a different style and nuance in their roles, despite playing the same position. Riki doesn't jack up big attacking stats and he doesn't need to as Broncos have attacking flair throughout their team, although there has been a steady increase in Riki's running output over the course of his career.

2021: 18 games, 3 tries, 4 linebreaks, 7 offloads, 72m/game, 93.7% tackling
2022: 22 games, 4 tries, 3 linebreaks, 4 offloads, 76m/game, 92.1% tackling
2023: 22 games, 7 tries, 4 linebreaks, 2 offloads, 80m/game, 91.7% tackling
2024: 16 games, 2 tries, 5 linebreaks, 5 offloads, 86m/game, 92.5% takling

Riki has increased his metres per game with each season (44m/game in his debut 2020 season) and there is an intriguing boost in his attacking mahi. Riki already has the most linebreaks of his career this season despite playing less games than his previous campaigns, plus he his on track for the most offloads of his career.

Three of his five offloads have come in the last four games and he had two offloads in round 10, so all five offloads have come in the second half of his season. None of these are major increases with the footy for Riki, but they showcase his development and confidence in a strong Broncos organisation.

Riki has undeniable mana and his effort without the footy has seen him command a consistent role. In 2021 as Riki worked through his first full season, he averaged 70.5 minutes per game and 33.3 tackles per game. That is what made Riki a regular figure in NZRL representative teams and a fabulous league/union player in Christchurch before he left for Brisbane.

This increased to 74.8mins/game in 2022 while his tackling dipped slightly to 32.6 tackles/game. Last year Riki went to 75.3mins/game and had another dip in tackling, down to 31.8 tackles per game which only set up his sneaky improvements for this season. So far in 2024 Riki is averaging 77.3 minutes and 34.1 tackles which are both career-highs.

Riki has enjoyed a small bump in his attacking mahi as well as his output for minutes and tackling. These aren't details that catch the eye of fans, nor does Riki churn out stats to make him a trendy youngster. For a Broncos team that oozes glamour, Riki leads the way for Broncos mana and this doesn't just include the gritty work to win NRL games, it factors in the leader Riki has become for the abundance of Kiwi-NRL juniors working through the Broncos system.

Enjoy our Rugby League coverage? Please consider supporting the Niche Cache through Patreon or with a paid Substack subscription. We drop Kiwi-NRL and NRLWahine notes each week in our Subscriber Podcast which is only available on Patreon and Substack.

Or you can make a donation through Buy Me A Coffee.

Our Monday/Friday newsletter always has Kiwi-NRL notes too.

Peace and love.