Chiefs 2026
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With only three NDC contracts available now, it will be interesting to see who they are. Jack Wiseman would have to be one. Some other possibilities are Bradley Tocker, David Lewai, Taniela Maisiri, or some of the NZS reps (e.g., Ollie Guerin, Jamie Viljoen, Hunter Weaver).
I would think that a player like Micah Fale, who had a 2025 NDC contract, will be with the wider squad.
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@Bovidae said in Chiefs 2026:
The SR teams should provide this basic information.
This was the kind of stuff I thought the new independent boss of Super was going to implement when the role was announced with fanfare a couple of years back. It seems no better centralised than back when the countries were doing their own thing.
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@frugby said in Chiefs 2026:
@Nepia As a general rule teams have gotten better at announcing contract lengths, and I think fan engagement is in a much better spot than it was five years ago, but there is still a long way to go.
I've got a friend who does social media marketing, they could hire her part time and she'd cover that long way to go in a very short time - she would nag the fuck out of people until they provided her the info.
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All teams have a list of their squads with player bios on their websites. Including the contract length should be mandatory along with age, PU etc. Using the Chiefs as an example, some players have had contracts renewed in recent years but there has been no media release.
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The Chiefs went through I heard 4 media managers last season (Feb-Jun) alone. Take from that what you will but I assume it means they aren’t paid well, the workload is immense and the built in knowledge of this is how we do things doesn’t exist
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@zedsdeadbaby said in Chiefs 2026:
The Chiefs went through I heard 4 media managers last season
That doesn't sound right. Pretty sure Kyra Alexander does the media and she's been there a while.
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Sorry - I didn’t mean Kyra, I mean their media managers dealing with the media. Apologies.
My understanding is Kyra does a (very good) job with their digital media but their media/communications (ie releases and news on their website), is led by Alyse - but she was the fourth person who did the role last year IIRC. -
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New Zealand Rugby has taken the first step to protect the Chiefs brand after NRL expansion team Papua New Guinea announced they had chosen the same name.
Eyebrows were raised in New Zealand, and particularly at the Chiefs in Hamilton, when the moniker for the new NRL team was chosen, especially as the black, red and yellow colours associated with PNG are already in use at the Super Rugby club.
While the PNG Chiefs logo and colours have not yet been released, New Zealand Rugby has sent a polite “please explain” to its rugby league counterpart across the ditch in search of more information.
“New Zealand Rugby is aware that there are examples of the Chiefs name used by teams in different sporting contexts internationally,” NZ Rugby said in a statement provided to The Post.
“Our focus is on protecting the Chiefs trademark in Australasia, where our rights date back to the team’s inception, when Super Rugby began in 1996.
“We can confirm we have corresponded with the Australia Rugby League Commission about their decision to name a new team the Chiefs and are working in good faith toward an outcome that works for all parties.”
