Sydney's Daily Telegraph yesterday reported Warriors coach Andrew McFadden and general manager of football Dean Bell were delivering the Townsville-based 21-year-old an offer for a two-year contract worth $1 million a season.
McFadden was absent from yesterday's scheduled media session at Mt Smart Stadium and no explanation was given for his non-attendance at the time. On top of that, chief executive Jim Doyle would not comment on the Taumalolo bid, in keeping with the club's policy of not publicly discussing their recruitment plans.
Over the past six months the Warriors have repeatedly been linked with big-money offers to several NRL stars, including Manly's Steve Matai and Kieran Foran, and also NSW Origin and Dragons forward Trent Merrin, but so far have failed to sign any of them.
Snaring Foran would be a major coup and give the club the best halves pairing in the NRL, and both Matai and Merrin would make handy acquisitions but come with their limitations.
Securing a talent such as Taumalolo could prove to be the smartest move and the Kiwis test rookie is worth every cent of the $1 million a season two-year deal the Warriors are offering.
Whether they could afford Foran and Taumalolo is doubtful, and with the former having already described leaving Manly for the Warriors as "a bigger call" than signing with another Sydney club, one wonders if the Warriors have thrown all their eggs into the one basket.
The acquisition of NSW and Kangaroos second-rower Ryan Hoffman ensures the club will begin the 2015 season with a quality back-row, alongside captain Simon Mannering and fellow new recruit Bodene Thompson.
Beneath that trio, the likes of Ben Henry, Sione Lousi, Dominique Peyroux and Sebastine Ikahihifo head a long list of fringe and developing players who will all push hard for selection at some stage throughout the year.
However, missing from the skill-sets of all those players is the ability to consistently punch through the defence, both in the middle and on the fringes of the ruck, and the footwork, pace and ball skills to wreak havoc from broken play.
Taumalolo possesses those destructive qualities in spades and would provide the Warriors with a point of difference in their attacking arsenal, which relies so heavily on the creative genius of No7 Shaun Johnson.
He also offers an intimidation factor which the Warriors have lacked in recent years, with his 110kg granite-like frame and powerful tackling ability sure to dishearten even the most committed ball-carriers.
Throw him into the Warriors pack together with Mannering and Hoffman, and you have a mix of toughness, consistency and flair, similar to the make-up of the Kiwis' back-row formation during last year's successful Four Nations campaign.
And with so much development in his game still to be realised, Taumalolo's best football is likely to come in his mid-20s, making him a potential centre-piece for the Warriors' forward pack through to the end of the decade.
Let's hope they can get this signing over the line.
- By David Skipwith of the New Zealand Herald
