As the trees release their leaves and winter sweeps across Aotearoa, we have a lovely sample size to take stock of the best emerging talent for New Zealand Warriors. This zones in on players who have not played NRL and skews towards younger players on the rise through the NZW pipeline. The rankings mainly draw upon how teams have been selected in the first half of the season and with game time being the most important thing, as well as some previous mahi sprinkled in.

Not all players have a profile page as part of the NRL and NSW Cup squads, while others have little to no information on their profiles at this stage. This means that some of the ages could be wrong and as some players do not have NSW Cup profiles where a bunch of stats are offered, the blurbs below steer away from statistic in NSW Cup.

Eddie Ieremia-Toeava: 20yrs | edge | Otahuhu
Kayliss Fatialofa: 20yrs | edge | Otara
Daeon Amituanai: 22yrs | wing | Te Aroha
Toby Crosby: 21yrs | middle | Greytown
Jason Salalilo: 20yrs | middle | Papanui
Luke Hanson: 21yrs | half | Asquith - Sydney
Sio Kali: 20yrs | centre | Pt Chevalier
Makaia Tafua: 21yrs | hooker | Linwood
Jacob Auloa: 20yrs | hooker | Pt Chevalier
Jett Cleary: 20yrs | half | Penrith Brothers - Sydney

Eddie Ieremia-Toeava has already been 18th-lad for the NRL team in four games this season and he is next in line to make his debut, possibly this year. In his third season of NSW Cup, he has primarily played edge forward but still has plenty of versatility to offer. This makes him an ideal bench option with a potential style forecast of Kurt Capewell in his ability to plug holes on the edge, while also doing a job through the middle if required.

Ieremia-Toeava and Kayliss Fatialofa follow the path of Demitric Vaimauga as products of De La Salle College. Fatialofa has settled into a consistent role at edge forward in NSW Cup this season and is doing similar 80-minute mahi as Ieremia-Toeava. He has scope to develop into a small forward role similar to Erin Clark and Kalani Going, although Fatialofa hasn't had those reps in NSW Cup and seems to be focused on edge forward, possible covering centre as well.

Daeon Amituanai returned to Mt Smart after a stint with Panthers and is on track to play 10+ games of reserve grade in four consecutive seasons. That's notable because he was also playing Jersey Flegg Cup in the first two years of that period and while he isn't always a first choice winger for NZW in NSW Cup, he has the most potential of the outside backs playing reserve grade most weeks.

There was a brief crossover period when Amituanai left Redcliffe-Warriors to join Panthers and coach Andrew Webster was still working in the Panthers system. Before that, Amituanai had already spent a few years in the NZW system so here is a funky blend of Mt Smart and coach Webster comfort. Amituanai is tall and aggressive, so he is well suited to the metre-eating mahi required for NZW with splashes of x-factor, which probably won't lead to an NRL debut this year but will set him up for a crack next season.

Toby Crosby has been the main winner from the departure of Zyon Maiu'u and has found a regular bench role for the NSW Cup team this season. Coach Webster wants middle forwards who are relatively fast and Crosby has shown his freakish ability in many highlights, while his background in rugby union provides a strong passing skillset which is another important wrinkle for middle forwards at NZW.

Not many youngsters at Mt Smart have backgrounds in wrestling or grappling and this gives Crosby another boost. The importance of grappling is evident in the close relationship with City Kickboxing led by Kai Kara-France, as well as the impact of James Fisher-Harris as a ruck-controller. Crosby already has most of those basics sorted and his powerful carries have seen him consistently average 10m/run in his stints off the bench in NSW Cup - the exact role he is likely to play in the NRL.

Jason Salalilo has joined Crosby in the middle forward rotation this season, usually playing more minutes than Crosby and offering similar of classy mahi as Ieremia-Toeava. He played SG Ball Cup and Jersey Flegg Cup last year, then Salalilo started this season in the U21 grade but was quickly shuffled up to NSW Cup where he has already rolled through eight games.

Coming out of Christchurch as a Papanui junior, Salalilo is next behind Tanner Stowers-Smith in the long line of Canterbury rugby league players representing NZW. Salalilo is the leader of the St Thomas of Canterbury College wave though and was a co-captain in the first of their back to back National Secondary Schools Tournament championships in 2023.

Crosby and Salalilo are primed to take over from Bunty Afoa, Tom Ale and Kalani Going over the next year or so. They will build their way through the week to week grind of NSW Cup footy and play more minutes, which will probably be aided by summer training. For now they are playing sneaky impressive roles for the best NSW Cup team as bench forwards.

Luke Hanson has already churned through 27 games of NSW Cup despite being eligible for U21s in these two seasons, having also played Jersey Flegg Cup in his last year at Panthers after finishing the SG Ball Cup season. In each his two years at NZW, Hanson has played at least five games of NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg Cup as he gains experience as the lead play-maker in the younger team and playing his role alongside a dominant half in reserve grade.

NZW have an abundance of halves right now at Mt Smart and Hanson sits behind the Te Maire Martin/Tanah Boyd combo which impacts his ranking. Hanson still got a few bench appearances when Martin and Boyd were together though and since Martin has slid up to the NRL squad, Hanson has joined Boyd in the halves where he operates as running half with impressive distribution instincts.

Chances of an NRL debut in the next year are slim for Hanson as long as Martin and Boyd are at Mt Smart. For the NRL team to keep winning, they need reliable halves with NRL experience and Hanson will benefit greatly from slow moving through NSW Cup. For now that means playing second fiddle to the halfback and this will probably morph into Hanson being the lead play-maker.

Sio Kali's ranking reflects both his potential and his availability. There is at least one freakish rugby league talent at every level of the NZW system and Kali may have the most pure footy ability of all these players, yet he is often injured and struggles to string together multiple games for either the NSW Cup or Jersey Flegg Cup teams.

After starting 2024 in U19s, Kali played a bunch of NSW Cup games and has featured in both U21s and NSW Cup this year. There is little need to rush Kali through any injury concerns as the NSW Cup team is thriving once again and the depth at centre saw Kali play on the wing in his most recent outing a few weeks ago. The slow brew is enticing here because Kali is the best contender to take Moala Graham-Taufa's centre role next season after news came through that Graham-Taufa will move to Rabbitohs.

Makaia Tafua is joined in this bracket by Jacob Auloa because they are both hookers who love the physicality of middle forward mahi. Tafua churned out 17 games of NSW Cup last year so he played more reserve grade footy than U21s and after sharing the dummy half/small forward duties with Auloa in Jersey Flegg Cup to start this season, Tafua moved up to NSW Cup where he had a few weeks on the bench.

Tafua has missed games over the past month so he is probably injured and with Samuel Healey moving up to play NRL, Auloa was promoted from the U21 team to make his first appearance in NSW Cup of the year. Auloa has already tasted reserve grade footy though as he played his first game in 2023 and after he started 2024 in U19s, Auloa went on to split his time between U21s and NSW Cup.

The arrival of Healey bumped Tafua and Auloa down a notch this year which was evident in them playing together in U21s. NZW probably signed Healey because he offers funky attacking skills that are similar (but funkier) than Wayde Egan and this is what the NRL team needed most, which then allows Tafua and Auloa to continue their development.

Tafua and Auloa have no issues with their physicality though, whether that's ruthless runs or their whack in defence. This is why they have been able to play NSW Cup as youngsters who defend in the middle and they are now building out their attacking craft. Depending on Healey's involvement in the NRL mix, Tafua and Auloa are building towards sharing the dummy half duties in NSW Cup but their ability to play small forward will be a crucial wrinkle to track over the next year.

Jett Cleary has already flashed his ability in the U21 team and he slotted straight into the successful NSW Cup team for his first game of that level a few weeks ago. The Cleary package is all energy as his aggressive running style flows into his defence where he loves to tackle and his natural footy ability has already seen him unleash a few highlights.

Despite the buzz, selections at Mt Smart tell us that Cleary is a behind Hanson and that NZW are slowly developing Cleary through their system. This is probably the reason why the Cleary whanau decided that NZW was the best spot for Jett and while the hype suggests that he is the next best NZW youngster, nothing about Jett's move to Auckland or how NZW are handling his development suggests that he will be rushed into the NRL equation.

Cleary will play more NSW Cup games this year when an opening appears and then have a summer training block as part of the NRL squad. Aside from his impressive running/tackling instincts, the funkiest thing about Cleary's time in the halves for the Jersey Flegg Cup team is that he has spent the last few weeks playing alongside Jack Thompson - another young half from Australia who missed the U19 season earlier this year but went straight into the U21 team.

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Peace and love.