Having started their NRLW squad building with some of Aotearoa's best rugby league players, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have gone deeper to scout more wahine from New Zealand and this includes a development pipeline that has already integrated young talent into their system. The first cluster of NRLWahine signings for Bulldogs featured Kiwi Ferns Ash Quinlan, Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa and Alexis Tauaneai, as well as Sarahcen Oliver.

The next cluster features Shannon Muru (Mt Albert), Paea Uilou (Katikati/Manurewa), Shaniece Monschau (Mt Albert), Shaquaylah Mahakitau-Monschau (St Peters Cambridge), Maatuleio Fotu-Moala (Otahuhu) and Moana Courtenay (North Shore RU).

This opens up one of the funkiest Aotearoa sporting trends at the moment as Tauaneai, Oliver, Muru, Uilou, Monschau and Mahakitau-Monschau have all played in the Bulldogs system before they even had an NRLW team. Bulldogs were already recruiting wahine from New Zealand to play in their junior ranks as well as NSW Women's Premiership and many of these ladies have stayed solid with Bulldogs to join their first NRLW squad.

Don't expect this to slow down as Bulldogs have invested in an 'all-girls home' for young women from Aotearoa. This yarn breaks lays out how seven young women from Auckland are living in Sydney with a 'house mum' and this signals the intentions of Bulldogs as they are building a sustainable pipeline from Aotearoa to Sydney.

Many NRL organisations do this on the men's side to ease the pressure on teenagers moving to Australia and given how much Bulldogs love Aotearoa, they probably have a similar set up for the young blokes. Interestingly, this house features young ladies from Auckland and along with the Wellington connection with Tauaneai/Oliver, as well as young men from around Aotearoa being recruited by Bulldogs, this shows that Bulldogs aren't just relying on the headline grabbing connection with Canterbury Rugby League.

The two players recruited that haven't played NSW Women's Premiership or below for Bulldogs are Fotu-Moala and Courtenay. Fotu-Moala made her NRLW debut for Dragons last year on the wing and comes from the famed Fotu-Moala whanau, while Courtenay is a recruitment deep cut.

Courtenay played rugby union for North Shore Rugby Football Club which led to appearances for North Harbour in the Farah Palmer Cup. Courtenay mainly played midfield for North Harbour and is likely to transition to the outside backs in NRLW, where Bulldogs also have Oliver cooking as a centre along with Fotu-Moala on the wing.

Here is a forecast of the NRLWahine roles for Bulldogs...

• Outside backs: Maatuleio Fotu-Moala, Sarahcen Oliver, Moana Courtenay

• Halves/hooker: Ash Quinlan, Shaquaylah Mahakitau-Monschau

• Forwards: Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa, Alexis Tauaneai, Shaniece Monschau, Shannon Muru, Paea Uilou

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.