Sandow to have his best game of the season and the Eels to spring an upset? Let’s hope Hayne’s fortune on Wednesday carries through to this weekend.
By the way, the Eels signed Manly’s bench prop forward for three years under their siblings recruitment policy.
Figure Kearney should be shopping Test jerseys to the Warriors under 20s as the next phase in our recruitment policy.
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Not too sure about shopping test jumpers to the Warriors 20's but there is no doubt that NRL clubs have redirected their talent ID focus to the country NZ in preference to NSW and QLD country areas as was done in the past.
THE first thing Wayne Bennett put on his “to-do” list when he signed with the Newcastle Knights was to appoint a
full-time recruitment officer in New Zealand. At the time he said, “There’s great talent over there but the Warriors can’t keep them all. They’ve got a salary cap like everyone else. It’s become the strongest breeding ground in the game.”
But if you look at the Warriors 20's I think around half their squad is from rugby union. Conrad Hurrell was plucked from the Auckland Blues Academy by the Warriors and he has gone on to bigger things. Joey Johns said he can't believe the Blues let him go. So if you look at the recruitment strategy of the Warriors it is clear they are targetting some of rugby's best talent. Kearney has obviously caught on to the rugby strategy because he signed Semi Radradra from Fiji's rugby 7's team. I have no doubt that Semi will one day play for our NRL team.
Roosters recruitment officer Peter O'Sullivan this year signed a kid from NZ's school rugby union team named Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. He is a really good player and one of the best fullbacks in the Toyota Cup. Watch for him to be in the Roosters fulltime squad next season.
Before he became the current Warriors 20's coach, John Ackland, was a talent scout for the Bulldogs. In that time he sent over $BW and Roy Asotasi. Not a bad effort in a short period of time. Not long after that the Warriors appointed him to their full time staff to avoid anymore defections.
I'm not sure whether the Eels have someone fulltime over in NZ but they would probably have their contacts over there to tip them off about new talent. Perhaps Nolan and his assistant Craig Wilson are making plenty of trips over there that we don't know about. Either way there is no doubt that NRL clubs see NZ as the honey pot for future talent.
Im looking forward to the Hopatate brothers. And the divine intervention that will bring.
There is so much talent in that under 20s and they have dominated the last two seasons I cant see them not dominating again this season, so raid away SK. I agree they have to go all out attack, they wont grind out a win against souths. In saying so a big game up front from timmy mannah and fuifui will set a nice platform for hayne to work from!