New Zealand Warriors have assembled an impressive group of elite talent for the 2026 NRLW season with a bunch of champions from Brisbane Broncos returning to Aotearoa and more players making the switch from rugby union to eat up the greater opportunities that NRLW provides. All of which is nice to generate headline buzz but NZWahine have been busy below the top-tier as they start to develop a women's pipeline that will soon emerge as the best in NRLW.

Seeds were planted last year as teenagers Ashlee Matapo and Ivana Lauitiiti went from local footy in Auckland to playing plenty of NRLW where they looked comfortable despite the leap in performance levels. Both had rugby league backgrounds but Matapo also played rugby union, although not to the level of Payton Takimoana or Tyra Wetere who also impressed in their debut NRLW seasons.

That's four young wahine who out-played expectations in their first NRLW seasons and were just as important for NZWahine as the headline recruits last year. The funky thing here is that NZWahine had no reserve grade last season so those who didn't play in each NRLW game weren't able to tick along at a lower level, which made the performances of emerging talent even more impressive.

NZWahine don't have their own women's teams below NRLW but they have combined with Rabbitohs who compete in the NSW Women's Premiership. Those who aren't playing NRLW will line up for Rabbitohs in the reserve grade competition and it also opens the door for players in the Rabbitohs system to chase NRLW opportunities with NZWahine.

Rabbitohs don't have an NRLW team and until NRLW expands again, they will work closely with NZ Warriors on the women's side. This also serves as an entry into understanding the growth of women's rugby league in Aotearoa because there are lots of NRLWahine juniors from New Zealand who have moved to Australia to play rugby league.

There are organisations like Bulldogs who started their NRLW journey by recruiting lots of women from Aotearoa into their system. This happened in their NRLW squad but also in their junior grades and the the majority of their U19 team this year were recruited from New Zealand, with strong ties to Mangere East as most of their NRLWahine juniors came from Mangere East.

This is also evident for other NRLW teams in New South Wales. Knights, Eels, Dragons and Roosters all have NRLWahine juniors who they recruited from Aotearoa in their systems from U17 to NSW Women's Premiership. The most intriguing thing though is how organisations like Panthers have recruited a bunch of NRLWahine juniors despite not having an NRLW team.

The Panthers U19 team this year featured Sapphire Harris (Taniwharau), Danica Talitonu (Manukura), Olive Connolly (Linwood), Malena Lavea (Richmond), Monica Ben (Otara), Jhaya Katyal (Taniwharau) and Tyali Raihe (Taniwharau). Panthers have at least seven players from Aotearoa in their system and don't have an NRLW team. That should offer an easy indication of how active Australian rugby league teams are in recruiting from New Zealand.

All of which is evident in three development players for NZWahine in 2026. Asha Taumoepeau-Williams (Bulldogs), Gezreyal Maiu'u (Dragons) and Patricia Heihei (Panthers) were announced as NRLW development players having all been juniors in Aotearoa and all three have previously been in Australian systems.

Taumoepeau-Williams is 17-years-old and she scored four tries for Bulldogs in the 2024 Lisa Fiaola Cup final which is an U17 competition as an outside back. That means that the Howick junior would have been around 15-years-old dominating U17 footy in Australia and it shouldn't surprise anyone that she has already played Farah Palmer Cup for Auckland before turning 18-years-old.

Maiu'u came through Mt Albert Grammar playing both codes and after a year in Australia playing U19 footy for Dragons, the edge forward returns to Auckland. Heihei has junior footy links with Wainuiomata in Wellington and in Northland having been part of a group of young Northland wahine who played for Hibiscus Coast in the Auckland competition, as well as spending time with Panthers in 2025.

Heihei has also played Farah Palmer Cup for Manawatu. This reflects how talented these young females are as they easily switch between codes and their rugby league mahi in Australia came as they were also excelling in both codes back in Aotearoa. Add in how Taumoepeau-Williams and Heihei have already played Farah Palmer Cup for a glimpse into the potential of these youngsters and the changing landscape of sporting pipelines in New Zealand.

NZWahine have also rolled out women's development camps around Aotearoa. This started in Nelson and continued with camps in Wellington, Hastings, Christchurch, Whangarei, Hamilton, Auckland and Dunedin. These camps give young wahine the opportunity to feel the NZWahine vibe and for many of them, it was their first taste of rugby league so they were able to see the pathways available to them.

Each camp brings in around 20 players and along with all the NRLWahine juniors who have moved to Australia to progress in rugby league, it's clear that there is an abundance of women's rugby league talent emerging in Aotearoa. NZWahine are at the forefront of that and given how their youngsters performed last season, along with the calibre of their development players recently announced, excitement about their women's pipeline is building.

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