Stacey Waaka in action for the Brisbane Broncos. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so grateful the Warriors have put their faith and trust in me to add what I can to the legacy this team has created,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was inspiring watching their season this year as they stamped their mark back on the NRLW so I\u2019m looking forward to joining an awesome bunch and just having loads of fun with everyone, including some former sevens players who I have previously played with, too.\u201d <\/p>\n
Warriors NRLW coach Ron Griffiths was excited to lure Waaka to the Warriors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are thrilled to have Stacey join us at the Warriors,\u201d Griffith said. \u201cHer strength of character will be a wonderful fit for our flourishing culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cStacey is an experienced world-class athlete and during her time in rugby league it was evident for all to see how easily she adapted to the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurthermore, we believe her inclusion will elevate our roster bringing a strong professional approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the NRLW launched in 2018, the Warriors were one of the four foundation clubs, taking part in the competition\u2019s first three seasons before the impact of the Covid pandemic forced them to withdraw.<\/p>\n
But after five years in the wilderness, they returned to compete in the 2025 campaign, where they finished eighth out of 12 teams. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stacey Waaka in action for the Brisbane Broncos. Photo \/ Photosport \u201cI\u2019m so grateful the Warriors have put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16745,7022,3468,10541,305,6371,1362,111,139,22766,69,90,6102,48613,213,1557,53477,2737,9343,165,1231,74248,3006],"class_list":["post-101636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adding","tag-black","tag-deal","tag-ferns","tag-have","tag-joins","tag-made","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nrlw","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-side","tag-signing","tag-sports","tag-squad","tag-stacey","tag-star","tag-statement","tag-their","tag-twoyear","tag-waaka","tag-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}