NRLW Recruitment & Retention Thread

www.smh.com.au

‘They drive past 20 schools’: Where the next top athletes go to class

James Badolato and Maronay Smuts are among a growing number of students who travel several hours a day to attend one of the state’s seven sports high schools.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au

This article talks about Maronay Smuts spending 5 hours a day travelling to attend Hunter Sports High. She plays League for the Knights, Union for the wildfires, local League for Lakes senior side and touch at a high level.
There are plenty of articles about her being a future NRLW halfback.
This year she was 17/18 and played halfback in Tarsha Gale.
Next year she will be 18/19 and will be young enough for Tarsha Gale again.
If she's out of school and keeps putting in all that effort, she could improve a lot. She already has a very good kicking game and is a very good goal kicker.
 
Aylah McCulloch is an interesting one.
Last year she player in the Tarsha Gale and HVN grandfinals as a winger and scored plenty of tries over both seasons.
This year she played Tarsha Gale as a 5/8 and developed a great long pass and a decent short kicking game, but she threw a lot of long passes that were intercepted.
She played all the HVN trial games and went OK, and was named in the HVN squad for 2025, but never played a game.
I suspect she picked up a season ending injury.
She is a tall girl and a very strong defender in HVN last year, so able to hold her own in seniors.
She is 19/20 next year.
She has played fullback, wing, centre and 5/8 and is big enough and a strong enough defender to play lock or second row.
 
Personally I'd be steering clear of Kirra Dibb, like mentioned before skilled player but gives off Jackson Hastings sort of vibes. I'd be chasing Caitlin Moran on a 2 year deal, she's done a job here in the past as both a half and a 14 and seems to be in a good place (better than ever before by the sounds) and with her experience its only going to help our young up and coming halves improve.
I'd be quite disappointed if we didn't at least offer her something
 
I watched the end of the Samoa game again and concentrated on the role of Ella-Jaye Harrison-Leaunoa - the 19 year old recruit.
She went on when Huefunga scored the try to put NZ in front with 7 minutes to go and she was hooker for about 2 sets and then she stayed in the middle and did some hit ups. At one stage she did 3 strong tackles in a row.
He club profile for Ipswich says 11 games with Interchange, wing, fullback centre and 5/8 listed as positions played, so it looks like she can play anywhere.
She is a good size and was strong in contact in both attack and defence.
 
Billy said:
I watched the end of the Samoa game again and concentrated on the role of Ella-Jaye Harrison-Leaunoa - the 19 year old recruit.
She went on when Huefunga scored the try to put NZ in front with 7 minutes to go and she was hooker for about 2 sets and then she stayed in the middle and did some hit ups. At one stage she did 3 strong tackles in a row.
He club profile for Ipswich says 11 games with Interchange, wing, fullback centre and 5/8 listed as positions played, so it looks like she can play anywhere.
She is a good size and was strong in contact in both attack and defence.
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Yeah I was surprised with her size and how aggressive she was is defence.

At this stage, I think she’s only listed as a Development Player for next year but I think they should be fast-tracking her to Top 24.

Guess it will depend if we sign Dibb but as to who played where but she looks like she could handle herself at 13. She’s a bit like Lofipo, who started as a half but is now playing lock.

Do you think, Fane could handle playing in the middle? She’s so strong and physical seems like she’d be fine. We just seem stacked for back rowers and outside backs but our middle is the big weakness.
 
Newygirl said:
Do you think, Fane could handle playing in the middle? She’s so strong and physical seems like she’d be fine. We just seem stacked for back rowers and outside backs but our middle is the big weakness.
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She has Simima Taufa vibes about her.
I think she was the youngest player we used this year and It's hard to know if she trained fulltime as a development player, so she might have a heap of improvement next year, as part of the fulltime squad and turning 20.
She has also been a prolific try scorer at centre. Her and Leah Ollerton both scored a try a game in HVN last year to be equal top try scorers. She is hard to stop when matched up against outside backs or halves. If she makes a break, even if someone catches her, they get palmed off or run over.

In short, centre or second row has been good for her - she is fast enough, and too strong for 1 defender to stop.

With Sheridan going, and how well Parker went on the wing for NZ, Fane and Shanice would make a strong right side for us.
 
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Billy said:
She has Simima Taufa vibes about her.
I think she was the youngest player we used this year and It's hard to know if she trained fulltime as a development player, so she might have a heap of improvement next year, as part of the fulltime squad and turning 20.
She has also been a prolific try scorer at centre. Her and Leah Ollerton both scored a try a game in HVN last year to be equal top try scorers. She is hard to stop when matched up against outside backs or halves. If she makes a break, even if someone catches her, they get palmed off or run over.

In short, centre or second row has been good for her - she is fast enough, and too strong for 1 defender to stop.

With Sheridan going, and how well Parker went on the wing for NZ, Fane and Shanice would make a strong right side for us.
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Yeah I didn’t really consider that as an option that could work. Although, the right side isn’t really an issue defensively, it’s the left that’s the problem and while Willison is good in attack her and Roche are a big target in defence.

To be honest though, I thought the Kiwis would’ve been better off with Roach on the wing. Shanice defends better at centre, and does a better job of drawing in the winger than Roach in that side at least.

They really could’ve used Roach’s pace on the outside to make the most of the space they created.

Only suggest this because I think our middles are our biggest issue. The edges and backs should still work themselves out fine. Until they get some more power through the middle, we’re not going to be able to compete with the top.

This year they were fairly fortunate that there weren’t many injuries. We’d have been screwed if Predebon or Davis, or worse both went down.

Looking at those two packs, it’s crazy really that Samoa has improved so much in 12 months Karpani can’t get a start and she was quite good this year. Good for the game but we have no real Rep middles anymore.
 
Fane named at 3 for Tonga
Mercedez named at 5 for Samoa
Yasmin named at second row for Australia.
 
www.newcastleherald.com.au

Knights back NRLW program after Jesse leaves to 'learn' at Broncos

'I've got full confidence in our coaching staff, all the way down through our pathways.'
www.newcastleherald.com.au www.newcastleherald.com.au

Article where Chris James is quoted saying he has full confidence in Jefferies and Alicia-Kate Hawke to develop our young players.

I've not heard of Alicia-Kate Hawke before, but James says she is an assistant coach to NSW and Jillaroos and an assistant to Jefferies and has just been made Tarsha Gale coach for the next 2 years. (I think she replaces Bec Young).

Article mentions all our players on rep duties except for Fane Finau playing for Tonga for some reason.
 
Lilly White - 20
Ava Glassie - 19
Fane Finau - 19
Mariah Brown - 19
Mercedez Taulelei-Siala - 19
Keighley Simpson - 20
Evie Jones - 20
Emily McArthur - 17
Charlie Lahmert - 17
Grace Giampino - 21
Evah McEwen - 19
Stella Lewis - 17
Sienna Yeo - 20

All played HVN or firstgrade this year except for Stella Lewis, who was still in school this year in Port Macquarie.
 
Ella-Jaye Harrison-Leaunoa has been the pick of our young players in the Pacific cup.
54 minutes v Australia - about half of it at hooker.
Commentator kept banging on about her not having an NRL contract and saying she was one of Samoa's best. He didn't mention we have her on a development deal. She looks top 30 ready though.
Mercedez had a bad day at the office against Isabelle Kelly and Julia Robinson, but we can probably give her a pass for that.
Fane had a mixed game for Tonga, she saved a few tries by rushing up in defence, and cost them a few tries by rushing up in defence. She would have looked a lot better if her mates were rushing up with her, but they all held back.
 
1. Bo Vette-Welsh
2. Mercedez Taulelei-Siala
3. Shanice Parker
4. Fane Finau
5. Tenika Willison
6. Georgia Roche
7. Kira Dibb
8. Tayla Predebon
9. Olivia Higgins
10. Tiana Davison
11. Evah McEwen
12. Yasmin Clydsdale
13. Kayla Romaniuk

14. Evie Jones
15. Simone Karpani
16. Sienna Yeo
17. Jules Kirkpatrick

18. Joeli Morris
19. Stella Lewis
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.

Lilly-Ann White, Grace Giampino, Tess Staines & Keighley Simpson unconfirmed but not included in the departing players announcement

Development: Mariah Brown, Ella-Jaye Harrison-Leaunoa, Emily McArthur, Lucy Spain
 
She’s not Jesse but she’s probably the replacement we’re going to get I suppose.

I think they need to upgrade Ella-Jaye to Top 24 contract. She looks like she can handle herself fine in the NRLW already

At least we have plenty of depth in the halves and hooker between, Dibb, Roche, Jones, Higgins, Kirkpatrick, Ella-Jaye and Morris. Probably a lot better than most teams I’d say.

Yeah we really need a top line middle forward. We were pretty lucky last year there weren’t too many injuries with the forwards. If Predebon or Davison went down long term we’d be really in big trouble.
 
Chris James said they had some Irons in the fire and hoped to announced a few signing's in the coming weeks, so maybe looking to announce a few signings back to back.

It's all speculation but I see CJ has been in Newcastle for some time now and doing big training sessions with most of the Knights girls... I'm just saying, maybe she'd rather be home close to family with new born and some of her best mates.......... just..... sayin.
 
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