Walker?
Walker too? Ah shit... how firm is that news?
I know we've got promising youngsters coming through but I'd be very wary putting all our eggs into that basket.
Guys like Leka and Ali look really good for sure and I'm excited to see what they can become. But Katoa was similarly promising in '20-'21 before falling away and we could probably build a whole squad of players who showed massive potential but never kicked on for various reasons.
I remember seeing an NYC team-of-the-decade named when the comp was axed and being stoked to see 5 Warriors boys made it - SJ, Konnie, Carlos Tuimavave, Sam Louisi and Siua Likiliki. That period was the absolute apex of our pathway systems and those 5 were the tip of the spear... but only 2 of them kicked on.
Hopefully a big chunk of our juniors make the step up but lets be realistic too... history shows that most of them actually wont. And then we'll need to fill those spots some other way.
I'd say 4 of those kicked on albeit not all for the Warriors.
SJ and Konnie both carved out decent league careers.
Lousi had a decent Rugby career too playing in the Super Rugby comp, and internationally for Tonga.
Carlos has racked up close to 200 games over in SL including a couple of Challenge cup wins, and winning their POTS.
Likiliki seems to be the odd man out there.
Regards Jazz, he sure is a battler but I won't miss the needless penalties. Always felt if he could get that side of his game under control, then he'd be a real weapon. Be a shame to lose Walker too. Thought last year those two worked especially well together, they were almost our version of Penriths 'Hair Bears' (Puletua/Guluvao) but were rather lack of hair bears,