Magpies 2022
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Article about Nick Grigg.
Former Petone midfielder Nick Grigg relishing Hawke’s Bay opportunity
A younger Nick Grigg diving over to score for Petone against Paremata-Plimmerton in 2015. Since then he has gone on to play several seasons in Scotland and made nine international appearances for t…
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@Stargazer said in Magpies 2022:
Article about Nick Grigg.
Former Petone midfielder Nick Grigg relishing Hawke’s Bay opportunity
A younger Nick Grigg diving over to score for Petone against Paremata-Plimmerton in 2015. Since then he has gone on to play several seasons in Scotland and made nine international appearances for t…
Interesting article, but it really appears a position we didn't need to go outside the province for as we have depth in midfield so we could have filled his spot with a young guy. I hope this isn't going to be a theme with Syms. Oszich brought in a few players he knew but they were players we were lacking depth at the time.
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@Nepia Yep, my thoughts exactly. Tiatia, Grigg, Sam Smith and Isaac Bracewell (dev squad) - maybe more, I don't remember - are all in the Bay because Syms knows them from his time in Wellington and Wairarapa. I have some reservations about Tiatia's signing, but Grigg's signing bothers me more. Looking at the midfielders in the development squad, why not give Jordan Thompson-Dun a go? Jayden Stok is still a bit young, but JTD? It's totally sending the wrong message to these young players.
JTD was maybe a bit young, last year, so when he didn't make the squad and the development team didn't get to play, he left for Portugal and played a season overthere. He returned in April/May, played club rugby, and misses out because someone from outside has been brought in. I wouldn't blame Thompson-Dunn if he went somewhere else again to try his luck, but I hope he stays.
@Higgins will know better, but is Sam Smith much better than Amos Roddick (HB Academy & Hurricanes U20)?
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@Stargazer I have my reservations about Smith. Obviously he is a good player but from what I have seen of him in club rugby against my guys this season he did not shine out as much as his hype. In the first game when his sides loose trio was D Flanders, C Flanders and S Smith they were comfortably beaten, in my eyes anyway by my guys more than useful trio of Isiah Martin, Xavier McCorkindale, and Amos Roddick.
The second round game saw his trio be T Lambourn, C Flanders and S Smith but that was skewed by the red carding of Lambourn and the sickening head knock taken by Nik Patumaka. He (Smith) stood out a bit more this time for obvious reasons and made a couple of semi breaks and supported attacks well and competed tigerishly a few times for turnovers in tackle situations, so yes he looked ok, but then again no more than should be expected of who is a semiprofessional player.
Roddick is a young guy still making his way in the game and will be even better than he is now given another season or so but think the selectors have got it right in this case (he says with teeth clenched). It should not affect HBs chances anyway as there is no realistic prospects of Smith making the matchday 23. My disappointment is that Roddick is a hometown boy (Gisborne are locals as far as rugby is concerned!) and is likely to stick around come what may rather than a player for hire like Smith thus should have more time and resource devoted to him. Roddick is a slightly taller A Savea build whereas Smith is more the S Cane type of build.
Regarding Isaac Bracewell, I declare that he is from my Wellington Football Club so obviously have sentimental connection there. He has always been a more than useful player and even went on the Hurricanes Development Trip to Japan a few years ago but seems to have fallen off the radar in terms of Darren Larsen etc are concerned. He has family connections to the Havelock Nth Club and was approached by them and along with his involvement with Mr Syms it was easy to cut his ties down south for the time being. I have an awful lot of time for him personally but again expect he will always be a Wellington/Wairarapa guy given his extremely strong close family there. When all is said and done I don't expect to see him ever being a starter in the No 9 jersey for HB in the NPC.
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Tyrone Thompson relishing time back home with Hawke's Bay
Tyrone Thompson (Ngāi Tāmanuhiri and Ngāti Rangiwewehi) is back home in Napier with a reputation enhanced following strong stints in Wellington with the Lions and the Chiefs in Hamilton.
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@Rugby3 We have ben raped and plundered of talent for many years, looking at you Otago and, to a lesser extent, Waikato and Wellington. Since the advent of more "professionalism" we have ben able to hold onto a far larger percentage of local guys than we did during the days when we had two teams playing NPC, HB in the Second Division playing in the traditional black and white hoops and HB B in the First Division playing in blue with gold trim.
We are not exactly squeaky clean ourselves these days with a number of players turning out for us that could not really crack it in places like Auckland and Canterbury (during the time of Mr. Phillpot). We even had a number from wellington like Cory Jane and a prop (a Tongan guy that sometimes called at my flat in Lyall Bay as I had another rugby player boarding with me that he knew) whose name escapes me now. And then there were others like Joe Apikatoa and Joel Hintz (via Otago after not making it in Wgtn), Kienan Higgins, and the likes of that hooker (from Hutt Old Boys - either Doug Power or James O'Reilly?) that came up and never made it a couple of years back. Don't get me started on Marvan Karawana either!
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@Higgins said in Magpies 2022:
@Rugby3 We have ben raped and plundered of talent for many years, looking at you Otago and, to a lesser extent, Waikato and Wellington. Since the advent of more "professionalism" we have ben able to hold onto a far larger percentage of local guys than we did during the days when we had two teams playing NPC, HB in the Second Division playing in the traditional black and white hoops and HB B in the First Division playing in blue with gold trim.
We are not exactly squeaky clean ourselves these days with a number of players turning out for us that could not really crack it in places like Auckland and Canterbury (during the time of Mr. Phillpot). We even had a number from wellington like Cory Jane and a prop (a Tongan guy that sometimes called at my flat in Lyall Bay as I had another rugby player boarding with me that he knew) whose name escapes me now. And then there were others like Joe Apikatoa and Joel Hintz (via Otago after not making it in Wgtn), Kienan Higgins, and the likes of that hooker (from Hutt Old Boys - either Doug Power or James O'Reilly?) that came up and never made it a couple of years back. Don't get me started on Marvan Karawana either!
The difference is that other provinces have taken HB players who would/could have cracked the Magpies and get game time. We didn't plunder other provinces to sign most of the players you mention. Most of them were discards; or from Wairarapa, not Wellington. They couldn't crack the squad of their home/first NPC province or did get very little game time (that also applies to recent additions Grigg way back, and Sam Smith). Tiatia is a clear exception. Cory Jane may be an exception, I don't remember how he ended up in the Magpies squad, but at least he attended Te Aute.
Another question is whether we really need those discards. I also don't know why we signed Tiatia, other than that the coach knows him from way back (just like Sam Smith and Nick Grigg). I hope it's only for this year. Kienan Higgins is just squad filler; I'm sure we have good locals for that role, esp in the current academy crop.
The Tongan prop, do you mean Tolu Fahamokioa, who now plays for Wai-Bush? Hintz came to us via Canterbury. And the hooker was Ben Power.
Anyway, current examples of players lost to other provinces (there are more) are obviously the Sullivan brothers and Dominic Bird (Wellington can keep him), but also young school leavers like Julian Goerke (Manawatū), Lattrell Smiler-Ah Kiong (Waikato) and the very promising halfback Treya Kingi-Taukamo, who left Napier Boys for King's College, went back to the Bay and then got poached by Wellington. He got injured and missed out on the Hurricanes U20s in 2021, and hasn't been heard of since. Didn't play club rugby in Wellington or the Bay, so no idea what he's up to.
There was also Ethyn Martin, who somehow ended up in the Queensland Reds academy and is still there. Not even mentioning losing Leo Thompson to league, which I still think is one of the greatest losses from the Bay in recent years. The most recent example is Afa Moleli (Auckland).
Goerke - and I think also Moleli - are attending Uni, which obviously they can't do in the Bay, although Gimblett and Fabish found a way to both attend Uni, play local club rugby, and still stay in the HB academy.
I'm sure I missed several more recent names.
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@Stargazer said in Magpies 2022:
The Tongan prop, do you mean Tolu Fahamokioa, who now plays for Wai-Bush?
No not him, although he was another that periodically visited my flat, this time in Hataitai, as he was friends with another rugby player I had boarding with me. How do you think he ended up at Napier Tech?!!!! The name I am looking for will come to me unexpectedly but think he might have been a Norths player from memory.
Re Cory Jane, I have a very vague recollection that his father may have played some club rugby up here in the Bay at one stage.I also think that some other provinces also suffer from local talent leaving for various reasons so it is not just HB. I(t just so happens that our losses tend to have bigger profiles. Admittedly some of the Auckland departures are not exactly local Aucklanders anyway, Baylin Sullivan being case in point.
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@Stargazer Got him - Anthony Perenise - but a bit wrong, fancy confusing a Samoan for a Tongan, utterly unforgiveable.....................................
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What really bugs me is that Folau Fakatava has not been released more to the Magpies, while other players unused by the ABs have played for their province. It would have been great if Fakatava had played for us in our last Shield defence. Instead, he was sitting in the stands. He wasn't even in Australia, last Saturday.
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@Stargazer said in Magpies 2022:
Cory Jane may be an exception, I don't remember how he ended up in the Magpies squad, but at least he attended Te Aute.
Missed this discussion earlier - I don't think Jane went to TA. He was a loan player to the Magpies as he was struggling to crack Welly at the time (we were 2nd division). Essentially his entire AB career can be traced back to the Magpies reinvigorating his XVs career.
@Higgins His old man is from Wairoa.
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@Toddy said in Magpies 2022:
Jane went to Heretaunga College. Lead them to win the Div 2 cup in his final year.
I don't recall any talk of him being captain at HC. But yes, lead them in so far as being their best player.
Even then the story was that it was hard to get noticed or selected from outside of the big schools but there was more chance then than there is now.
I think CJ was selected for a Wellington XV or development side but the interest shown wasn't enough to keep him from going to HB to get a chance.Going back about 10 years now but I was involved with the game at HC and experienced first hand the so called selection days for higher teams. There were kids from the big schools selected on size and running over those from lower division schools with quality skills. Some of the former didn't even have catch/pass skills.
