{"id":215003,"date":"2026-01-03T15:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T15:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/215003\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T15:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T15:25:11","slug":"contract-plays-warriors-make-key-2026-moves-but-will-consistency-be-the-result-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/215003\/","title":{"rendered":"Contract plays: Warriors make key 2026 moves, but will consistency be the result? – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Consistency is a word that has followed the plight of the New Zealand Warriors<\/a> for effectively as long as they have been a club in the NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s hardly a surprise.<\/p>\n

There aren’t too many professional sports teams around the world that have to jump on a plane and travel to another country every second week.<\/p>\n

You could argue NBA teams have worse travel schedules than the Warriors, or maybe major European football clubs around their continental competitions, but they also have a fair chunk more money to pull off the travel compared to NRL<\/a> clubs.<\/p>\n

The Warriors regularly spend 100 or more hours on aircraft during the season, and that doesn’t include time at airports, getting through customs or the number of extra nights in hotels compared to the rest of the competition.<\/p>\n

So consistency being hard to find is the expectation, but it’s also correct to say they have been better in recent years under the coaching of Andrew Webster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2023, his first year in charge, saw the Warriors go to a preliminary final, while 2024 brought an injury crisis with it, and a miss of the finals.<\/p>\n

The most recent season saw the Warriors flying, before Luke Metcalf’s injury ended the outside chance of them pushing for a spot in the grand final, or making a play for the premiership.<\/p>\n

Metcalf is undoubtedly the key again for the Warriors, but they have looked to fill out other areas of their squad with some very pointed recruitment plays for the campaign ahead.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

All up, the Warriors have four new recruits for the year ahead. While there’s young half Jye Linnane<\/a> from the Newcastle Knights<\/a> and outside back Haizyn Mellars<\/a>, who has joined from the South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>, it’s the other half of the recruits who will likely bring the most value to the Auckland-based outfit.<\/p>\n

English forward Morgan Gannon<\/a>, who has joined from the Leeds Rhinos<\/a>, and winger Alofiana Khan-Pereira<\/a>, who was released by the Gold Coast Titans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Warriors had question marks in both their forward pack and outside backs throughout 2025, and the two signings will move to address some of those issues.<\/p>\n

Khan-Pereira had what can only be described as a disappointing season on the Gold Coast in 2025.<\/p>\n

It wound up leading to his release from the club, so it goes without saying, but he was dropped at times, and across his ten first-grade games, struggled to live up to the standards set in defence by Des Hasler<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If coach Andrew Webster<\/a> has made one thing clear during his time at the Warriors, it’s that defence is valued, so the winger will need to find improvement there, but his try-scoring strike rate for an often well-beaten team is scarily good.<\/p>\n

Despite playing in 36 losses from his 54 NRL<\/a> games, he has 53 tries to his name – almost one per game.<\/p>\n

He has the ability to provide the Warriors with an X-Factor that they have somewhat been lacking, and, adding his 137 metres per game racked up in 2025 will only improve the start of sets for the Warriors, which are already strong given the enormous output of fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad<\/a> and winger Roger Tuivasa-Sheck<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whether those guys remain in those spots heading into 2026 remains to be seen, but both will be in the backline somewhere, and with the experienced duo joined by Khan-Pereira, it’s hard to argue the Auckland-based side will take a step backwards from the move.<\/p>\n

In the forwards, the Warriors have plenty of strength, led by former Penrith enforcer James Fisher-Harris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

It was probably also felt though that the departure of Dylan Walker<\/a> left them a player short in the middle despite the excellent season put together by Erin Clark<\/a>, who took out the Dally M lock of the year award.<\/p>\n

Gannon’s role at the Warriors is still likely being decided, although he seems far more suited to a role in the second-row.<\/p>\n

Given Kurt Capewell<\/a> is heading towards the end of his career, and had to be used in the backs on plenty of occasions throughout 2025, there could be a gap there.<\/p>\n

At the very least, Gannon’s signature adds depth and strength to the forwards across the board, while adding competition for a spot against the likes of Marata Niukore<\/a> and young riser Jacob Laban<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What is clear is that Leka Halasima<\/a> should have one of the second-row spots under lock and key for the season.<\/p>\n

Gannon hits the NRL<\/a> at the right time, though, with 73 games under his belt. The 22-year-old has played all of those for the Leeds Rhinos<\/a>, and was in the England<\/a> Knights squad for a game back in 2021.<\/p>\n

Between Khan-Pereira and Gannon, it’s hard to argue the Warriors have taken a step back, but whether they are needle movers is up for dispute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Consistency is a word that has followed the plight of the New Zealand Warriors for effectively as long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-215003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215003","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=215003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}