Sick of all the silly Australian State of Origin stuff? Never fear, the second annual #KiwiNRL Battle of Aotearoa is here to offer the ruthless territorial rugby league fix that kiwis are frothing for.
Leeson Ah Mau's return to Mt Smart and Aotearoa Warriors is now official, a three-year deal that will see Ah Mau leave St George Illawara Dragons after this season.
Unfortunately this week's notes start off the field, with Manly Sea Eagles hooker Manase Fainu finding himself in a spot of legal bother. At the other end of the spectrum, Fainu's 2017 Junior Kiwis captain Jarome Luai was on fire for Penrith Panthers in their win over Aotearoa Warriors.
Remember when Aotearoa Warriors won their first five games of the season? It was a long time ago and I don't bring that up as an example of how the Warriors have dramatically fallen away.
In one swoop, Brisbane Broncos snapped up five more #KiwiNRL wahine and filled their marquee signing quota for the Women's NRL .
Right now, this round, this weekend is probably the best time to play Penrith Panthers of any round of the NRL season.
Kodi Nikorima was a passenger to the Antony Milford show last week, Silivia Havili is now a middle forward for Canberra Raiders and Penrith Panthers Northland crew is back together.
Round 16 in the NRL saw a gang of different stars align to provide us with an incredibly funky weekend of #KiwiNRL footy.
The June 30 NRL transfer deadline saw Aotearoa Warriors make a couple of moves in the transfer market, all of which were bidding players haere ra on their next rugby league adventures.
Had Aotearoa Warriors won that game vs Cronulla Sharks, most likely by a single point, we could have chucked it in the gritty 'find a way to win' bucket.
One of the narratives that I've continuously rolled out in my Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan this season has been how greater depth has allowed the Warriors to absorb the ins and outs, mandatory ins and outs of an NRL season.
Will the Aotearoa Kiwis be in action this week? Penrith Panthers re-signed Nick Lui-Toso, Marata Niukore continues to be a positive for Parramatta Eels, we might finally see Manase Fainu get a crack for Manly Sea Eagles and Ofahiki Ogden is set to make his NRL debut for the Doggies.
Tonga waltzed into battle against Samoa as the favourites and more interestingly, the darlings of international rugby league.
Forget all the fluff around the Denver Test between Aotearoa and England, focus all your energies on what this game actually was and you'll a find a starting point.
Having delayed naming his first Aotearoa Kiwis team for 24 hours, Michael Maguire has now settled on his team of 17 to face England in Denver on Sunday morning.
Teuila Fotu-Moala has been signed by Brisbane Broncos and there are more #KiwiNRL Wahine signings that have been announced, plus there is a kiwi presence in Women’s State of Origin this weekend.
Everyone knows about the Samoa vs Tonga rivalry, I'm from South Auckland so you could say that I feel the rivalry in my loins.
After seven weeks of win-loss footy, Aotearoa Warriors have strung back to back wins together.
Aotearoa Kiwis coach Michael Maguire's served up a funky Kiwis squad to face England over in that place, in that country and Maguire can rest assured that things will get easier.
We still don’t know how the best Aotearoa Warriors forward pack looks, but there are plenty of different options and coach Stephen Kearney is well equipped to deal with any situation.