New Zealand Warriors did the NSW Cup and State Championship double this year, which was their third consecutive year finishing in the NSW Cup top-four during the two Andys era. NZW have gathered a 49-20-3 record in NSW Cup over the last three years and this flows across two different coaches, as well as a wide range of players that is sharpening towards younger players on the rise as the development pipeline continues to improve.

NZ Warriors in NSW Cup during the two Andys era

2023: 3rd | 14-9-1
2024: 4th | 14-9-1
2025: 1st | 21-2-1

Playing the NSW Cup grand final and State Championship in back to back weekends was part of a window that put a brighter spotlight on the NSW Cup Warriors than usual. Aussie folks have a fetish for the Cleary whanau and so most of the spotlight revolved around Jett Cleary, but like most NZW things, that completely brushed aside more impressive wrinkles that tell the story of a thriving system at Mt Smart.

For the record, Cleary played six minutes in the NSW Cup final and three minutes in the State Championship. The beauty of NZW right now is that for all the Cleary hype, NZW have another young half from Panthers in Luke Hanson who has already played twice as many NSW Cup games as Cleary. Given the Cleary hype and recent headlines about Harry Inch, it's also worth highlighting that NZW recruited Jack Thompson from Knights. He played a key role in the first of two Harold Matthews Cup championships before skipping Under 19 SG Ball and starting a bunch of games for the U21 Jersey Flegg Cup team.

The finals buzz also featured lots of attention on players familiar to NRL fans. That is understandable because NZW stacked the NSW Cup team with fringe NRL talent and senior reserve grade lads to give them the best chance of victory. 12 of the 17 players in the State Championship win had NRL experience, which included Tanner Stowers-Smith and Eddie Ieremia-Toeava who were eligible for U21s to start the season.

Other lads in the U21 bracket who played in both finals were Hanson, Cleary and Jason Salalilo. The Dragons team who lost the NSW Cup final was flush with fringe NRL talent as well and Bears had far less NRL experience, so most people would expect the reserve grade team with the most NRL experience to win games at this level. That may also explain the combined scoreline of 80-32 in these finals.

All of which ignores the two top-four seasons before with lads like Stowers-Smith, Ieremia-Toeava, Ali Leiataua, Demitric Vaimauga, Jacob Laban and Leka Halasima heavily involved. NZW also had 21 wins in NSW Cup this year while Dragons and Eels had 15 wins during the regular season, with this dominant campaign featuring seven U21s who haven't played NRL rolling through at least 10 games of NSW Cup.

Add in Stowers-Smith and Ieremia-Toeava for nine U21s who played 10+ games of NSW Cup this season. Laban was technically U21 eligible this year as well but he missed the last quarter of the season due to injury. There were six other U21s who played NSW Cup this year and that takes us to 16 U21s who helped the NSW Cup team finish with six more wins than the next best team, as well as being the only team to score 700+ points and less than 400 points during the regular season.

NSWRL does not have NSW Cup profiles for some players such as Sio Kali and Makaia Tafua, so the figures used are a combination of NSWRL and RugbyLeagueProject stuff. Here's the basics for U21 involvement in NSW Cup this year with the total number of NSW Cup games for NZW in brackets...

U21s who played 10+ NSW Cup games this year

Kayliss Fatialofa: 27 (35)
Jason Salalilo: 22
Eddie Ieremia-Toeava: 17 (46)
Luke Hanson: 17 (35)
Makaia Tafua: 16 (33)
Jett Cleary: 13
Sio Kali: 12 (19)
Tanner Stowers-Smith: 11 (47)
Harry Durbin: 10 (21)

There are five players there who have now played 30+ NSW Cup games while being U21 eligible. Of that list, Salalilo and Cleary are the only blokes who played their first season of NSW Cup this year. Salalilo started the year in U21s but quickly progressed to the NSW Cup team where he stayed for the rest of the year and finished second only to Fatialofa for the most NSW Cup games for U21s this year.

Salalilo started one game at edge forward but didn't start any games as a middle forward this season. One of the quirkiest nuggets about the NSW Cup Warriors is how Durbin and Rodney Tuipulotu-Vea started most of their NSW Cup games this season despite clearly being behind Salalilo in the depth chart.

Durbin started eight of his 10 games at prop/lock and Tuipulotu-Vea started six of his seven games at prop/lock. They both had 30+ minutes in the majority of their NSW Cup games as well and have both played in two seasons of reserve grade even though they spent most of 2025 with the U21s team.

Jacob Auloa, Patrick Moimoi and Etuate Fukofuka have also featured in two NSW Cup seasons while being U21s. Then there are three players who played NSW Cup before 2025 and didn't feature this year. This includes Motu Pasikala who appeared to take a step backwards this year but with plenty of outside back depth at the NSW Cup level, allowing Pasikala to settle in a regular U21s role should be viewed as an intriguing development decision.

Other U21s who played NSW Cup this year

Rodney Tuipulotu-Vea: 7 (10)
Jacob Auloa: 5 (10)
Patrick Moimoi: 2 (7)
Etuate Fukofuka: 2 (4)
Caelys Putoko: 1
Alvin Chong Nee: 1

U21s who played NSW Cup before 2025

Motu Pasikala: 13
Nganatatafu Vake: 2
Presley Seumanu-Tigafua: 1

Other notables in early 20s who played NSW Cup this year

Toby Crosby: 23 (24)
Daeon Amituanai: 10
Ali Leiataua: 8 (32)
Caleb Laiman: 8 (15)
Jacob Laban: 4 (36)
Wiliam Fakatoumafi: 2

A splash of caution should be observed at this time of year because there isn't much clarity about player movement below the NRL level. There has been lots of noise about Crosby moving to Panthers and he is one of four NZW forwards who have been linked to Panthers this year with Fatialofa, Ale and Going all having noise about Panthers interest in them.

This points to a fabulous checkpoint for the NSW Cup Warriors as they farewell most of the older players who have led the reserve grade team with tremendous mana. NZW have had hearty leaders in each of their top-four NSW Cup seasons with guys like James Gavet, Paterika Vaivai, Paul Roache and Ben Farr examples before the 2025 season.

NZW have steadily integrated their own youngsters into the NSW Cup team each year and this is likely to increase over the summer. Assuming they are staying with NZW, there are 16 U21s who have already played NSW Cup without stepping up to NRL and that's almost enough for a rugby league team.

Some of those players are still U21s next year though and could start at that level. New recruits like Morgan Gannon, Jye Linnane and Haizyn Mellars will probably start next season in NSW Cup and any player who signs with NZW without proven NRL mahi, does so knowing that they will need to earn their way, starting in NSW Cup.

There is also a group of U21s who are likely to be promoted to NSW Cup, either because they are too old or because they are too good. Players to watch out for in this pocket include Aussie outside back Brandon Norris, small forwards Paea Sikuvea and Lennox Tuiloma, big boppers Emosi Ravosai, Mikaele Ilaiu and Tepatasi Laumalili, as well as the Aussie half Thompson.

Bishop Neal hasn't even been listed in this yarn yet and while could start next year in U19s, then spend most of the year in U21s, Neal has potential to play NSW Cup next season. If Neal or any other top-notch juniors are being slow-brewed, then folks should expect the same for Inch who, based on all the evidence from NZW, won't be rushed into the NSW Cup team and will probably start next season in U21s.

Some mentioned here will already have departed Mt Smart and NZW will have other signings tucked away in the shadows that have not been announced. None of that impacts what is likely to be an enticing phase of transition for the NSW Cup Warriors as a wave of young lads settle into regular NSW Cup game time and there is already evidence of how exciting this can be in the Leiataua/Vaimauga/Laban/Halasima/Stowers-Smith/Ieremia-Toeava tier.

The only downside is that the top-four streak may be in danger as the NSW Cup team skews younger. That is why selections for the finals run featured more senior players with a few notable youngsters as that is the recipe for winning big games. The NZW development system has already proven to be highly effective and efficient in producing young talent though, so there is reason to believe that a younger NSW Cup group can maintain their top-four run next year.

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