Warriors academy initiative to extend to Southland
Warriors academy initiative to extend to Southland
“We are really excited and confident around having a really good structure setup in Southland for kids to be selected."
The Warriors NRL club and Southern Zone Rugby League have announced a new academy in Dunedin, and work is well underway to have a hub based in Southland.
Southern Zone Rugby League will launch the academy in April which will operate in association with the Warriors.
It will be the fourth satellite academy the NRL club has in place around the country.
Warriors development and pathways manager Andrew McFadden, assistant coach Stacey Jones, and CEO Cameron George were in Dunedin this week to announce the new academy in the south.
Southern Zone Rugby League general manager Liam Turner confirmed to The Southland Tribune that work was underway to incorporate Southland into the academy.
“In terms of the Southland setup, it is still a work in progress. We have spoken to particular people and stakeholders and it’s probably too early to be announcing those conversations,” Turner said.
“We are really excited and confident around having a really good structure setup in Southland for kids to be selected.
“Basically, we’ll be looking to have someone based in Southland to oversee and facilitate it and be that in-person for these kids.
“Nathan Jones, who has been appointed as our Dunedin trainer, will share content and feed that down.”
The plan is to also have academy hubs in Timaru and Greymouth as well.
“We are starting small, and we will build and take baby steps.”
The academy’s head trainer Nathan Jones comes with plenty of experience.
“He was with the Melbourne Storm and brought up Brandon Smith and Brodie Croft, so he knows what he is doing. We are just very, very fortunate to have someone of his calibre leading this academy.”
Turner said there was talent in Southland.
“Southland has been really competitive at our South Island tournaments for a couple of years and has had a really good strong crop in our [South Island] Scorpions setup and they’ve played a big part.
“Without a doubt there’s some real talent. So, we are really excited by what’s down in Southland and we are really confident there are some good people down there doing some good work in the rugby league space.
“The way the junior comp is going, Kelly Lafoga, our development officer, is doing an outstanding job. The talent is only going to keep on increasing through our junior ranks.”
He hoped to see some of those players progress to the big stage.
“The opportunities in league are pretty awesome, we’ve got kids with some pretty amazing stories really.”
Turner pointed to Balclutha’s Kairus Booth as one of those stories.
He played league for the first time last year, was identified by the Warriors, and is now starting on the wing for the Warriors under-17 team.
“The cool thing about the [academy] is it will provide that inspired pathway from their back door. We’ve had a really good relationship with the Warriors for a couple of years now and they have been really supportive of what we are doing in the community game.
“It’s cool to put an official partnership.”
The Warriors already have an established academy in Canterbury. Turner said long-term the Otago-based academy, along with the other hubs like Southland, could play fixtures against the Warriors’ Canterbury academy group. That could help the Warriors further with its talent identification.
While now based in Dunedin, Turner hails from Mossburn and was a talented athletics competitor in his youth.
He took over the Southern Zone Rugby League general manager job from Steve Martin and said he was enjoying the role.
“I’m from a sheep and beef farm in Mossburn and I played a lot of sport growing up, but league was never an opportunity out our way.
“We are looking - with Kelly [Lafoga] to give opportunities to give some school delivery up through our country regions.”