The 2021 NRL season gets underway for Aotearoa Warriors on Saturday evening against Gold Coast Titans and if anyone wanted an early test for the hyped up Warriors forward pack, well this is it.
The 2021 Maori All Stars team provided a fabulous insight into the budding crop of #KiwiNRL youngsters coming through the North Queensland Cowboys system.
Parramatta Eels will be an undercover #KiwiNRL team to keep tabs on this season as two of Aotearoa's best young players will be building in Dylan Brown and Marata Niukore.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck will bid ka kite to New Zealand Warriors after this season and given what hearty Warriors fans steadily endure, there ain't no shame in feeling a bid down about all of that.
Two Aotearoa Kiwis legends, two different decisions made as Benji Marshall joins South Sydney Rabbitohs and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck heads off to rugby union after this season.
There is no shortage of young lads from Aotearoa moving and grooving in the NRL, fresh off a 2020 campaign that saw 13 #KiwiNRL debutants.
Mention Canberra Raiders recruitment trends and most will refer back to the plethora of Englishmen who have linked up with the Raiders, while Aotearoa has provided just as many Raiders recruits as well as stacking the Raiders junior ranks younger prospects.
Having flushed the 2020 Aotearoa Warriors dunny, we enter 2021 with fresh Warriors vibes and a new hope.
Kicking of 2021 Monday Morning Dummy Half mahi with Melbourne Storm signing Reimis Smith and bringing Judda Turahui into the mix, plus Wests Tigers signing Tukimihia Simpkins from North Queensland Cowboys.
In a year of no international rugby league, the fact that the 2020 NRL season finished with ‘Champ Cheese’ Brandon Smith as the funkiest yarn of the year is exactly what Aotearoa rugby league required.
Regardless of where your NRL fandom sits, coming from Aotearoa there is only one way to view the Melbourne Storm club and that is as the best sports franchise in Australia/Aotearoa of our lifetimes.
Kiwi Fern Amber Hall has been utterly dominant for Brisbane Broncos wahine and their in the NRLW Grand Final vs Sydney Roosters, meanwhile the NRL Grand Final has the typically amazing Kiwi-NRL Melbourne Storm crew up against Northland’s finest James Fisher-Harris.
Jaxson Paulo (Northcote Tigers) is ready to take on Northland’s James Fisher-Harris in Rabbitohs vs Panthers, while Storm vs Raiders will feature three Manurewa Marlins and Wellington’s two young monsters.
Canberra Raiders are blasting their way through the NRL Finals and after highlighting a wee bit of Joseph Tapine (among the three Aotearoa Kiwis monsters), Tapine repeated the dose along with the Raiders' kiwis, usos and tokos in knocking the Roosters out of Finals race.
Dylan Brown is one of busiest runners and tacklers for NRL halves, not bad for a 20-year-old lad from Northland. The Roosters have plenty of star-power, don’t overlook the work of Isaac Liu and Joseph Manu who will be key figures vs Canberra Raiders.
Aotearoa's rugby league depth has been a brewing topic throughout the 2020 season and while much of this is because of waves of young talent flowing into the NRL, there is a bit of a graduation process going down higher up the depth chart.
How clutch can CNK be in the Finals for Canberra Raiders? Plus, Siliva Havili’s bench role, Broncos women almost having as many Kiwi-NRL wahine as NZ Warriors and Nelson Asofa-Solomona is simmering for Melbourne Storm.
All in. Late last year, Aotearoa Warriors broke into the modern ways as one of the few NRL clubs to offer basic Youtube content. The slogan for the Warriors outlined in the video content back in late 2019 now feels rather divine.
Jordan Riki and Corey Harawira-Naera are looking at starting edge forward gigs for 2021, Sonny Bill Williams the passing big man and all the other Kiwi-NRL funk from the final round of NRL footy.
In 2015, Melbourne Storm announced that they would establish a Queensland base on the Sunshine Coast where they would have an academy and churn out teams to compete in Queensland competitions.