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Departing second-rower Kayliss Fatialofa has been named the Warriors’ NSW Cup Player of the Year for 2026, while brilliant young fullback Joseph Ratcliffe took out the corresponding award for the club’s Jersey Flegg Cup team.
Fatialofa played 19 games for the fifth-placed defending NSW Cup champs, scoring seven tries, producing 10 line-breaks and five try assists, and averaging 137 metres and 25 tackles per game.
The dynamic 21-year-old also racked up a whopping 62 tackle-breaks.
Fatialofa signed a two-year extension with the Warriors in August 2025. But he will join Manly on a three-year deal in the off-season after a contract clause — stipulating he was free to seek out other opportunities if he didn’t make his NRL debut by Round 15 this year — was activated.
The tyro was named on Andrew Webster’s interchange for the Round 15 clash with Cronulla, but a likely appearance was scuttled by Alofiana Khan-Pereira’s first-half injury. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad was consequently used as one of the four replacements instead.
Stuck in a queue between young stars Jacob Laban, Leka Halasima and Eddie Ieremia-Toeva, along with re-signed veteran Kurt Capewell, and with the likes of boom teenager Bishop Neal emerging, Fatialofa opted to take up a lucrative opportunity with the Sea Eagles. The Manurewa Marlins and Ōtara Scorpions junior leaves the Warriors with 54 NSW Cup appearances to his name, scoring 23 tries.
Fatialofa grabbed a double in his last appearance in a Warriors jersey, the NSW Cup elimination final loss to Newtown.
Ratcliffe, though, is set to figure in the Warriors’ top-grade plans for years to come.
Part of the Warriors’ inaugural Harold Matthews Cup team that won the 2024 title, the Palmerston North Boys’ High product debuted in SG Ball in 2025 and graduated to Jersey Flegg later that season.
Still young enough to qualify for SG Ball (under-19s) this year, he won the team’s Player of the Year award for 2026 and has coupled that with the Warriors’ Jersey Flegg gong after a series of blazing performances in the No.1 jersey that netted nine tries in 14 games.
Ratcliffe was called up to make six appearances in NSW Cup — three at fullback, three off the bench — during the second half of the season. In a victory over ladder-leading Penrith last month, he showed his enormous potential with a try, a line-break, seven tackle-breaks and 222 run metres.
Meanwhile, Canterbury-bred hooker Makaia Tafua won the NSW Cup Players’ Player award and Jaydee Auloa was named Team Man of the Year.
Tyson Hansen took out the Jersey Flegg side’s Emerging Player of the Year gong and Maui Winitana-Patelesio received the Team Man of the Year accolade.