Throughout the 2019 NRL season, Aotearoa Warriors have struggled to extract enough x-factor out of their edge forwards and we now sit in a niggly spot where Adam Blair and Isaiah Papali'i reflect the lack of identity or playing style of the Warriors.
Prior to an impressive win over Manly Sea Eagles on Friday night, it had been written that the Aotearoa Warriors were stuck in a little roster building hole.
Kenny Bromwich vs Sam Burgess, Dylan Brown vs Mason Lino and an almighty battle up the guts for Raiders vs Roosters.
Regardless of what is happening at Mt Smart, there is a high quality #KiwiNRL presence at the top of the NRL ladder as well as a sneaky wave of young lads making waves around the NRL.
Unfortunately for Aotearoa Warriors, the Mt Smart graveyard isn't where other teams come to get their souls snatched by a rampant Warriors team and instead, it's where the Warriors wander around aimlessly.
Tonight, Aotearoa Warriors host Canberra Raiders at Mt Smart in a game that is likely to define the 2019 NRL campaign for the Warriors.
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad returns to Auckland as a new whole new creature, Jesse Bromwich jumped on a podcast with Sandor Earl and Jirah Momoisea is lurking for his Newcastle Knights debut.
Late in the NRL season, sniffing around the top-eight and leaving your Finals hopes in the hands of referees. Sound familiar?
Clubs are sussing their final squads for 2019 NRLW and we’ve got the updates on which #KiwiNRL Wahine have been signed.
The best thing about NRL footy at this stage of the season is that teams either back up their talk by winning and cracking finals footy, or they stumble.
Outside of what Aotearoa Warriors are doing on the field across all teams, there have been a few events or bits of news that have caught they eye recently.
Joseph Tapine will face off against James Fisher-Harris, Moeaki Fotuaika is showing up his Titans comrades and another Tongan forward is establishing himself in the NRL.
In terms of assessing a weekend's shenanigans in a bubble, this past weekend was a delight for Aotearoa Warriors.
Aotearoa Warriors are clinging on to their top-eight hopes and finally showed some clutchy clutch in their 19-18 win over Cronulla Sharks.
Rugby league super duper star Teuila Fotu-Moala was kind enough to answer some questions for El Niche Cache.
Aotearoa Warriors announced last week that Agnatius Paasi has re-signed for three more years, while the deja vu around Issac Luke's situation again offers plenty of intrigue.
Aotearoa Warriors have a habit of making big signings, the type of signings that bring with them oodles of hope and optimism, as well as pressure and expectation.
Under the grand radar of NRL shenanigans, there have been a couple notable #KiwiNRL signings with decorated juniors Kayleb Milne and Steven Marsters signing on with new clubs.
The NRL can dish up odd scheduling match ups and Aotearoa Warriors sliding over to Brisbane to face the Broncos, only a couple weeks after the Broncos came to Mt Smart to strangle the Warriors is super duper funky.
The third and final State of Origin game is upon us and that means, it's time to unleash Team Aotearoa.