{"id":409515,"date":"2026-01-13T04:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T04:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/409515\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T04:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T04:44:08","slug":"storm-expecting-big-leap-from-new-recruit-in-2026-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/409515\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm expecting big leap from new recruit in 2026 &#8211; NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/melbourne-storm\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Melbourne Storm<\/a> are confident new signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/manaia-waitere\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manaia Waitere<\/a> will play a role at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> level in 2026 following his off-season move from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/canberra-raiders\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canberra Raiders<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The 24-year-old was released by Canberra in December to make way for the arrival of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/coby-black\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Coby Black<\/a>, with Melbourne moving quickly to secure the versatile outside back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">While Waitere is unlikely to feature in Craig Bellamy&#8217;s Round 1 side, the Storm view him as genuine depth capable of stepping in across the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Waitere made his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> debut in Round 27 last year, his lone top-grade appearance, but arrives with a strong <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nswrl-competitions\/nsw-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NSW Cup<\/a> resume, scoring 19 tries in 54 games, including nine last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">He has experience at fullback, centre and five-eighth, adding to his value within Melbourne&#8217;s system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Storm endured a fair few injuries to their main backline in 2025, and those factors are expected to open the door for fringe players, with Waitere competing alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/marion-seve\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marion Seve<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/moses-leo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Moses Leo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/nick-meaney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nick Meaney<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/tyran-wishart\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tyran Wishart<\/a> set to join the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/perth-bears\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Perth Bears<\/a> in 2027, 2026 shapes as a critical audition year for Storm backs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Storm endorsed the signing when announcing Waitere alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/jack-hetherington\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jack Hetherington<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/trent-toelau\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trent Toelau<\/a>, with football director Frank Ponissi backing the trio to thrive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cJack, Trent and Manaia each bring their own strengths to our group, and we&#8217;re excited for what they can offer both in the short-term and into next season,\u201d Ponissi said, according to Yahoo Sports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cJack provides proven <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> experience, while Trent and Manaia are young players with impressive talent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWe believe all three will thrive in our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">For Waitere, the move presents a fresh opportunity in a system renowned for rewarding form and versatility, and with depth likely to be tested, his pathway to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> minutes in 2026 is clear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Melbourne Storm are confident new signing Manaia Waitere will play a role at NRL level in 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-409515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409515","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=409515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}