Kiwi-NRL Spotlight: Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs Low Key Love Aotearoa
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs defeated Cronulla Sharks last night with no Kiwi-NRL players in their team and the Bulldogs resurgence has featured little Aotearoa flavour this season. This lack of Kiwi-NRL mana in the Bulldogs' NRL team is what makes them an intriguing Kiwi-NRL Spotlight organisation as they are building a pipeline that is full of Kiwi-NRL juniors.
Poasa Fa'amausili (Glenora) has played a bit of NRL footy for Bulldogs this season as a high energy prop who has split his four games in half with two starts and two games coming off the bench. After being a notable Kiwi-NRL junior at Roosters and one of many youngsters who Roosters invested in, Fa'amausili played 24 games in three years at Roosters before stints with NZ Warriors, Dragons and Dolphins.
In a forward pack that lacks traditional prop types, Fa'amausili has speed and oomph that could see him gather more NRL footy with Bulldogs. This Bulldogs crew is winning though and Fa'amausili has played less than 23 minutes in all four of his appearances this season, so it's unlikely that he finds a consistent role. At least Fa'amausili is getting sporadic opportunities because Hayze Perham (Pikiao) has been shunned to NSW Cup.
Perham played a career-high 19 games last year after specifically being recruited by coach Cameron Ciraldo and big donnie Phil Gould. They had a connection with Perham stretching back to when Panthers recruited him from Rotorua and that saw Perham get plenty of game time last year. Now Perham has played every NSW Cup game and hasn't even been graced with extended bench selection for the NRL team.
Shunning Perham to NSW Cup has seen Bulldogs gather impressive wins and at the same time, Perham has churned out decent mahi in a NSW Cup team that is currently third with a 9-5 record (ahead of round 17). Not only has Perham copped this demotion without much fuss, he has played wing, centre and fullback; Perham's doing whatever Bulldogs need him to do.
Perham has 12 try assists in his 14 games and he's jacked up seven of those try assists in his last two games, playing fullback in two big wins. This is Perham's third season averaging over 120m/game in NSW Cup and he ate up 162m/game for a losing Bulldogs NRL team last year. Aside from almost averaging an error per game in the NRL last season, Perham's biggest statistical issue was probably his 74.5% tackling efficiency last year and that followed 76.4% tackling in 2022 with Eels.
How has Perham responded? Now he is tackling at 91.9% efficiency in NSW Cup which is the highest of his six years in NSW Cup. Coach Ciraldo seems unlikely to give Perham any more opportunities which is a bummer, however the way Perham has battled through this phase is a strong example of his mana.
Perham is named at centre for this weekend's NSW Cup game and Fa'amausili is named at prop. They are the only Kiwi-NRL lads named across NRL and NSW Cup for Bulldogs this weekend, but that's just this weekend. Jirah Moimoisea (St Paul's College) has played a few games in NSW Cup after leaving Eels. Alekolasimi Jones (St Paul's College/Mt Albert), Callum Donaldson (West Coast/Halswell) and Cassius Tia (Marist) have all stepped up to NSW Cup this season from Under 21 Jersey Flegg.
Fahmy Toilalo (Otahuhu) has also been a consistent presence in Jersey Flegg for Bulldogs. The Under 19 Bulldogs team who played in the SG Ball final had Roy Tatupu (Mt Albert Grammar), Shaye Faa'aoga (Pt Chevalier), Sosaia Alatini (Hornby) and Sione Siulua (Manurewa).
Cheldon Hayward (Linwood) and Bronson Reuben (Kaiapoi) also played SG Ball this year. This highlights how far the Bulldogs Kiwi-NRL recruitment stretches as they have a hearty crew of South Island juniors, as well as a lovely combination of league and union juniors from Auckland. Things get really funky with the Bulldogs Kiwi-NRL flavour when checking in with Ron Massey Cup which is a tier below NSW Cup for men's footy in Sydney.
These estuaries are murky but Bulldogs appear to be promoting youngsters to Ron Massey Cup where they can gain experience against men. For example, Reuben and Siulua are named in the halves for the Bulldogs RMC team this weekend along Momoisea. One sneaky bloke to watch out for is Isaac Matalavea-Booth (Manurewa) who Bulldogs recruited from Titans a couple years ago but he has been battling injuries, restricting him to RMC footy with Bulldogs.
The estuary waters are far too murky below U19 to cover in depth, yet Bulldogs are one of the most active NRL organisations in recruiting from Aotearoa. They have various Kiwi-NRL juniors who played U17s earlier this year and they will be recruiting more at all levels, plus Bulldogs have also been more active in recruiting young wahine from Aotearoa than many NRLW teams.
Until Bulldogs get their NRLWahine team, all the wahine they recruit from Aotearoa have to play for other NRLW teams. This little wrinkle of NRLWahine recruitment reflects the investment Bulldogs are making in Aotearoa. Bulldogs don't have any lads from Aotearoa in their NRL team and they don't even have an NRLW team, but they have more Kiwi-NRL/NRLWahine juniors than most systems in Australia.
Enjoy our Kiwi-NRL coverage? Please consider supporting the Niche Cache through Patreon or with a paid Substack subscription. We drop Kiwi-NRL notes each week in our Subscriber Podcast which is only available on Patreon and Substack.
Or you can make a donation through Buy Me A Coffee.
Our Monday/Friday newsletter always has Kiwi-NRL notes too.
Peace and love.