League: NRL will keep turning into Islands paradise

Benji Marshall played in the 2005 Australian Schools side. Photo / Getty Images

Give it 10 years, says Tony Kemp, and the NRL will be a Pacific Islands paradise. Kemp, the former Kiwi player and Warriors coach, these days works as a consultant to the NZRL. His task: to identify and woo New Zealand-born or qualified players to turn out for the Kiwis instead of the Kangaroos.

It's not easy. Australian rugby league does not lack for thinkers and the Aussies have embraced the Pacific Islands talent base as enthusiastically as New Zealand did years ago. The difference is - they are approaching matters much more strategically.

Kemp says that, for years now, the Australians have been cleverly playing on the Polynesian need for family. They have been identifying raw talent in New Zealand from as young as 14 and have then been arranging for the wholesale emigration of not just the potential player but the whole family.

"I'd say the 'browning' of the NRL is following the pattern of the USA, with baseball, basketball and the NFL," says Kemp. "It [the NRL] is already about 60 per cent Polynesian ... I'd be very surprised if, in 10 years' time, it was not up to at least 80 per cent."

The reason is simple - the Polynesian metabolism and physical development is ideal for the NRL. They have, says Kemp, body shape and musculature ideal for the rigours of the game; able to stand the pounding of a long, intense season and yet still beat defences with explosive power and attacking skills.

But, whether they are imported or home-grown from the new generations of Australian-born Polynesians, that spells a problem for New Zealand.

"It was all right in my day, with my generation," says Kemp. "Myself, Tawera Nikau, Kevin Iro - we all played over there but we always knew we were Kiwis.

"But it isn't always that way these days. I always like to tell the story of the 2005 Australian schoolboys team that came over here - with Benji Marshall, Bronson Harrison and Karmichael Hunt in it. When the New Zealand side did the haka, they all looked over and immediately thought they were in the wrong side.

"You win some and lose some. Benji and Bronson obviously 'came home' and played in the 20008 World Cup-winning team and Karmichael Hunt went the Origin route."

Kemp's biggest weapons are the heartstrings and the connection to the Kiwi/Maori/Polynesian cultures.

The Australians are working to replicate that with the appointment of people like Nigel Vagana as a development officer but Kemp says the pull of home and the pull of culture is still a significant weapon.

The key now, says Kemp, is that New Zealand rugby league people and authorities have accepted that the path to the Kiwis rugby league team is "Australasian" and not rooted in the concept of promoting only local players.

The way such a new recruitment "model" is implemented is shown by a Kemp-driven initiative to get junior teams - New Zealand vs Australia - playing against each other. No great intellectual effort there, you might think, but the act of playing New Zealand-born but Australian-based players against each other highlights to many of the players that they have a cultural background in one of those countries as well as an international alternative.

It was also boosted by the fact that the 2007 under-20 international between New Zealand and Australia - with teams almost exclusively derived from Australian-domiciled players - ended in a first-ever victory to the New Zealanders. It's the way to go.

No matter what he does, Kemp says New Zealand is hamstrung by lack of resources - money - in terms of getting out there and spreading the message.

The solution, he says, is simple: "Become the best team in the world. If we could win the World Cup again, for example, that would set a few pulses racing.

"What we have got against us is that the NRL and the Super League are the best professional competitions in the world; the State of Origin series is the best representative league there is; Australia is the best international side.

"Players want to play for the best; to be the best. So we just have to make sure we get there."

Well, it's not quite that easy and, as the latest, hottest young prospect in the NRL shows.

The Storm's Joseph Tomane, 19 , scored three tries and kicked goals aplenty for a total of 24 points in only his ninth NRL game in the Storm's 48-4 dismemberment of the Broncos on June 5.

He surprised much much of Australian rugby league with his defection to the Gold Coast Titans for reasons which were heavily family-based.

He turned himself into a big blip on the NRL radar with a display that exhibited speed, good distribution, strong running and capable goalkicking - which would interest any international coach.

Tomane is Wellington-born, although he went to Australia as a baby and it was his family ties in Queensland that saw him accept a Titans offer which prised him away from the Storm.

Tomane, for the time being, seems Kangaroo-bound. But don't count out Kemp and the Kiwi connection.