The Southern Zone Rugby League general manager will step down from his role in July.
He has landed a dream job with the New Zealand Warriors as a recruitment and partnership strategy manager.
The 25-year-old will essentially be doing the same work but with a much bigger organisation and he will have to relocate to Auckland.
He starts in the new role in late July.
"I’m really excited about the move," he said.
"It’s a bit of a dream come true to go into, you know, a professional sports team.
"And in particular, the Warriors. It is a pretty amazing opportunity for me to make the next step in my career.
"The Warriors and Auckland Rugby League signed a new partnership, MOU, so I’ll be responsible for managing that.
"But, basically, in a broad sense, it’s kind of setting up, building relationships with the grassroots to set up systems and structures where the Warriors can kind of recruit and develop the best talent.
"So basically, what we’ve done within Southern Zone, just looking to do that across the whole country."
Part of the reason the Warriors have employed him is because of the tremendous job he has done with rugby league in the South Island.
He tirelessly promotes the sport. He is an excellent communicator and has nursed some productive partnerships with the districts, funders and the wider league community.
And during his stint with the Southern Zone, the sport in the region has experienced some incredible growth.
"So, yeah, in the South Island, in three years, we’ve gone from three-and-a-half [thousand] to 7000 playing numbers.
"So we’ve doubled it. "
In Dunedin, the playing numbers have tripled from 400 to about 1200.
Turner put the growth down to a range of factors.
The popularity of the Australian National Rugby League competition and the way the Warriors engage with the community was influential.
"That’s been a massive part of it."
But Southern Zone also decided to stop competing with rugby and think more strategically about their competitions.
"Coming from a union background, I wanted kids to play both.
"We understand that probably the majority of our new players are already playing rugby because of the stronghold that it’s had for so long.
"So, for us, we just wanted to give kids and people a different opportunity."
Another one of his standout achievements was forging a strategic partnership with the Warriors, which led to the launch of the Southern Zone Academy.
There are hubs in Invercargill, Dunedin, Timaru and Greymouth.
It opened up pathways for players in the region to develop their skills.
