{"id":60335,"date":"2025-10-05T01:03:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T01:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/60335\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T01:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T01:03:07","slug":"warriors-nsw-cup-success-highlights-growth-in-pathways-ahead-of-state-championship-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/60335\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors\u2019 NSW Cup success highlights growth in pathways ahead of State Championship final"},"content":{"rendered":"

With normality returning for the most part, the Warriors have been able to establish teams in the Harold Matthews Cup (under-17s), SG Ball (under-19s) and Jersey Flegg (under-21s), and many of the players have worked their way through the ranks to the reserves.<\/p>\n

\"CameronCameron George (left), David Tangata-To and Andrew Webster with the NSW Cup. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Players to have emerged through the grades include Demitric Vaimauga, Jacob Laban and Leka Halasima<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The under-17s have won back-to-back titles and with the success of the NSW Cup side, Tangata-Toa feels things are building nicely for the Warriors\u2019 future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a credit to [Warriors owner] Robbo [Mark Robinson] for investing in into the pathways,\u201d Tangata-Toa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not cheap to have a Matts, SG ball, a Flegg and a New South Wales Cup, plus an NRL and an NRLW. That\u2019s a lot of teams and it\u2019s a massive investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we\u2019re starting to see the rewards of that. With obviously Harold Matts winning two comps, us winning the New South Wales Cup and into this final, it can only sort of help the NRL in future years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warriors hooker Sam Healey is a player determined to make a statement, having lost in the State Championship final last year with the Newtown Jets.<\/p>\n

Healey, in his first season with the club, echoed Tangata-Toa\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just says a lot about what they\u2019re doing by filtering down the system,\u201d Healey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the system that Webby and the coaching staff have built, and everyone buys in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like a pretty good, something good for the future, like we see the bench guys go out there and, feels like the club\u2019s on the way up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SamSam Healey in action during his time with the Newtown Jets. Photo \/ Mario Facchini \/ Mafphotography<\/p>\n

The Warriors will be banking on experience in the decider, with 13 of the 17 named to play having played at least one NRL game, while only five Bears players have that experience.<\/p>\n

Those Warriors players include Tanah Boyd and Taine Tuaupiki, who featured heavily in the NRL side this season, along with departing veteran Bunty Afoa.<\/p>\n

This is the Warriors\u2019 first trip to the State Championship \u2013 a concept introduced in 2014 \u2013 but the third for the Bears, who were on the losing end in the sides\u2019 two previous meetings, in 2016 and 2019.<\/p>\n

Tuaupiki played for the Bears in 2022, winning the Petero Civoniceva Medal as the Queensland Cup\u2019s best and fairest and also named the Rookie of the Year, before being poached by the Warriors.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old said he has plenty of fond memories from his time at the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get along with those boys well, and some of them are my closest bros,\u201d Tuaupiki said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s time for me to lock in. I still want to go after them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be sitting on the ground and them picking me up after the game. I\u2019d rather the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kick-off is at 3.20pm.<\/p>\n

Ben Francis<\/a> is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With normality returning for the most part, the Warriors have been able to establish teams in the Harold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3017,29385,49628,18239,46326,1320,10542,6284,5904,3273,3499,8788,78,111,139,3655,69,1118,12425,41723,6102,213,13672,3502,17178,49627,3006,6436,1533],"class_list":{"0":"post-60335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ahead","9":"tag-believes","10":"tag-bode","11":"tag-championship","12":"tag-clubs","13":"tag-coach","14":"tag-cup","15":"tag-david","16":"tag-final","17":"tag-future","18":"tag-growth","19":"tag-highlights","20":"tag-in","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nsw","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-of","26":"tag-pathways","27":"tag-reservegrade","28":"tag-side","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-state","31":"tag-success","32":"tag-systems","33":"tag-tangatatoa","34":"tag-warriors","35":"tag-well","36":"tag-will"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60335","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=60335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}