{"id":148509,"date":"2025-09-16T23:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T23:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148509\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T23:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T23:50:08","slug":"warriors-confirm-five-players-to-depart-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148509\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors confirm five players to depart – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Zealand Warriors<\/a> have held their annual end-of-season awards night, with Roger Tuivasa-Sheck<\/a> taking out the club’s top honour.<\/p>\n

As part of the celebrations following a successful season that saw the Warriors reach the finals, the club also confirmed that five players will not be returning in 2026.<\/p>\n

Outside backs Moala Graham-Taufa<\/a> and Edward Kosi<\/a> had already been confirmed as departures, with both set to join the South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a> next season.<\/p>\n

Warriors fan favourite Bunty Afoa<\/a> will also move on after being named among the departing group.<\/p>\n

Afoa, a long-serving clubman and popular figure among supporters for his loyalty and tireless work ethic, managed just six NRL<\/a> appearances in 2025 before finishing the year in NSW Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Forward Tom Ale<\/a>, who played 16 NRL<\/a> games for the club in 2024, has also been released after failing to feature in first grade this season.<\/p>\n

Ale, a hard-running middle forward known for his impact off the bench, will now look to continue his career elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The final departure is Morgan Harper<\/a>. The 26-year-old outside back, who played for the Parramatta Eels<\/a> in 2024, was a late addition to the Warriors’ squad after signing in February this year.<\/p>\n

At the time of his arrival, coach Andrew Webster<\/a> said:<\/p>\n

“Morgan’s a great acquisition and we’re thrilled to have him on board with us. He’ll not only add to the competition in the centres but his knowledge over a number of years with different clubs will be invaluable.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Zealand Warriors have held their annual end-of-season awards night, with Roger Tuivasa-Sheck taking out the club’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-148509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}