The NSW Cup New Zealand Warriors Deserve Your Attention Once Again
For the second season in a row, New Zealand Warriors have a good NSW Cup team and they will be eager to make a deep finals run while the NRL team is kicking back. Despite the angst directed towards coach Andrew Webster because of the NRL team's performance this season, there are plenty of signs that Webster and Andrew McFadden are influencing matters throughout the Mt Smart pipeline.
Coach Webster isn't coaching the NSW Cup team and NZ Warriors didn't have a reserve grade team of their own in 2022 to provide a comparison of how the NSW Cup Warriors performed before the arrival of the two Andys. It's a bit too far back to really learn anything from, but NZ Warriors made NSW Cup finals in 2018 before missing that mark in 2019 and both these seasons featured losing records in Australia.
NZ Warriors in NSW Cup
2018: 7th (12 teams) | 5-6 in Aus
2019: 9th (12) | 2-7 in Aus
2023: 3rd (13) | 6-4 in Aus
2024: 4th (13) | 6-5 in Aus
The arrival of the two Andys ahead of the 2023 season has seen NZ Warriors maintain a top-four NSW Cup team with winning records in Australia across both seasons. There is a tricky trip to Sydney this weekend that could alter things as NZW will play Newtown Jets (aligned with Cronulla Sharks) who are one spot ahead of NZW on the ladder thanks to points difference.
At the time of writing, NZW have a winning record in Australia but there is a decent chance that NZW lose to finish the regular season with a 6-6 record in Australia, which could also see NZW finish fifth in NSW Cup if other results go against them. However this weekend's game goes, it's still an impressive wrinkle for the reserve grade outfit to have two strong seasons in NSW Cup during the first two years of the two Andys era.
The NSW Cup Warriors have had two different coaches in this phase as well. Slade Griffin was the NSW Cup coach last year before he moved up to help the NRL team and David Tangata-Toa took over as coach this year. This highlights the influence of coach Webster and the alignment of the NZW pipeline as the NSW Cup Warriors have had two good seasons with two different coaches, both of whom work well with coach Webster.
Griffin is now established in the Webster ways and while Tangata-Toa was a new arrival at Mt Smart this season, his connection with coach Webster stretches back to their time at Hull KR in 2006. Coach Webster isn't taking on more work to direct the NSW Cup team, but they operate in similar ways and all NSW Cup players are well versed in how the NRL team plays.
Both NSW Cup coaches have ensured minimal resistance between NSW Cup and NRL. One example of this is how both teams are first for decoy runners in their respective competitions. This isn't effective for the NRL team as all their decoy runners lead to nothing, although the 2024 NRL Warriors is an exception that could provide optimism about how NZW play footy.
Last season the NRL team finished second for decoy runs and the NSW Cup team was fourth, with both teams having strong campaigns. Add those two pockets with how both teams are first for decoys this year and NZW have winning footy in three of these four pockets. The NRL and NSW Cup Warriors are top-two for post contact metres this year as well...
(NRL | NSW Cup - 13 teams)
Decoys: 1st | 1st
Post Contact Metres: 1st | 2nd
Linebreaks: 13th | 4th
Offloads: 13th | 11th
Kick Metres: 5th | 13th
Kick Return Metres: 2nd | 8th
Offloads aren't a major part of NZW footy for either team during the two Andys era, while the difference in linebreaks reflects the difference in confidence between the two teams. The difference in kick metres and kick return metres may suggest that neither is crucial in winning footy games as the NSW Cup Warriors don't have a big booted kicker, nor do they eat up kick return metres like the NRL team but they have won more games.
Another example of the NZW system flowing down through the pipeline is the role of the small forward. Tohu Harris isn't small but his role as a lock featured lots of passing and his absence has been covered by Dylan Walker, who is similar in style and stature to Kalani Going (NSW Cup) as well as Etuate Fukofuka (Jersey Flegg). Going and Fukofuka joined NZW from rugby union where Going was playing midfield for Northland and Fukofuka was a 1st 15 halfback for St Peter's College; both offer crisp distribution as well as physical middle forward mahi.
Below are the busiest kickers for the NSW Cup Warriors this season with average kicking metres. This looks significantly different to the NRL team where Shaun Johnson dominates the kicking mahi and whoever the fullback is, does no kicking. Taine Tuaupiki has increased his kicking from 8.37 kicking metres per game to over 100 this season as fullback but don't expect him to be a kicker in his return to NRL vs Sharks.
Average Kicking Metres per Game
Luke Hanson: 141.3
Taine Tuaupiki: 103.7
Paul Roache: 84.5
Ben Farr: 41.9
Keep in mind that Hanson has a 10-1-5 record this season with five tries, six forced droppies, four offloads, 66m/game and 90.3% tackling in his first 16 games of NSW Cup as a lad who is still eligible for Under 21 Jersey Flegg. Hanson has dipped out of the starting team recently with Paul Roache getting more footy in the halves and Roache has churned out 180+ kicking metres in his last two starts as a half, with a try assist in each game.
The NSW Cup Warriors have maintained their winning mahi with the regular team changes that every reserve grade team endures, but specifically a steady rotation of spine players. Ben Farr has plugged all holes in the backline for two seasons of NSW Cup since his arrival under the two Andys, Hanson is getting reps as a bench player now, while Roache has flipped between halves/hooker thanks to the cover offered by youngsters Makaia Tafua and Jacob Auloa at dummy half.
Here is another breakdown of some key details for the two NZW teams...
(NRL | NSW Cup)
Tries: 12th (84) | 7th (99)
Points Scored per Game: 20.9 | 24.08
Ponts Conceded per Game: 23.7 | 20.3
NSW Cup Warriors Stat Leaders
Tries
Moala Graham-Taufa: 6th
Try Assists
Taine Tuaupiki: 13th
Post Contact Metres
Kalani Going: 3rd
Edward Kosi: 6th
Tackle Breaks
Setu Tu: 6th
Offloads
Setu Tu: 11th
Kick Metres
Luke Hanson: 18th
Taine Tuaupiki: 32nd
Paul Roache: 33rd
Another interesting observation is how younger players were integrated into the NSW Cup last year, sprinkled among a hearty crew of experienced lads.NZW didn't have a Jersey Flegg team last season so the bridge from U19 SG Ball to NSW Cup was Fox Memorial instead of Jersey Flegg. This season the Jersey Flegg bridge has been established to help the U21 youngsters play a full season in the NZW system.
NZW were one win away from the NSW Cup Grand Final last season with veterans like James Gavet, Michael Sio, Brayden Wiliame and Paterika Vaivai offering value. There was a distinct shift this season with more youngsters rising through the NZW pipeline and reflecting on these two years of NSW Cup footy, it seems like there was a plan in place to slowly fill the NSW Cup team with the best NZW juniors during this phase.
That required solid reserve graders who could maintain performance levels throughout last season, so those older lads were instrumental in laying down foundations. NZW youngsters like Leka Halasima (was playing NSW Cup as a 17-year-old), Tanner Stowers-Smith, Eddie Ieremia-Toeava, Makaia Tafua and Jacob Auloa were eased into NSW Cup footy last season along with the likes of Ali Leiataua, Jacob Laban, Demitric Sifakula and Zyon Maiu'u who played all season.
The NSW Cup team who lost their finals game last year had Moala Graham-Taufa, Leiataua, Laban, Maiu'u and Stowers-Smith playing. Sifakula was injured for most of the past 12 months and now the likes of Halasima, Ieremia-Toeava, Tafua, Hanson, Auloa, Harry Durbin, Motu Pasikala and Sio Kali have had steady to consistent NSW Cup roles.
There is an impressive group of players who sit between the youngsters and the veterans who have played in both NSW Cup seasons. Tu, Kosi, Farr, Going, Roache, Bunty Afoa, Tom Ale and Maia Sands have stepped up as leaders this season with the departures of more experienced lads, steering the exciting youngsters in the right direction.
It's tricky to assess the NRL potential of players like Tu, Farr, Going and Roache. They are all working in the NZW system with ambitions of playing NRL footy so it would be rude to suggest that they are merely place-holders but they probably don't have the same upside as younger lads. NZW appear to have a clear plan in place to build out a playing style across the entire organisation and to best prepare lads for NRL footy, all of which requires reliable players who can do what the coaches want as well as providing leadership.
Such players shouldn't be viewed less favourably than the youngsters on the rise and this may suggest that NZW are doing far more mahi than it appears on the surface, to establish a comprehensive pipeline that caters to all. That brews culture, alignment and identity. None of which is truly evident in the NRL team right now but struggles of the NRL team aren't present in a NSW Cup team that is on track for finals footy once again.
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