New Zealand Warriors centre Adam Pompey has been granted an early release from the final year of his contract and will continue his NRL career in Australia, ending an eight-season stay at the Auckland club.
The Warriors announced the release on Wednesday. The NZ Herald reported that the club did not name his new team, but reports in Australia have the 28-year-old heading to the Melbourne Storm. RNZ said Fox Sports had reported Pompey was expected to sign with Melbourne.
Pompey leaves with 136 games for the Warriors since his debut in 2019. He scored 39 tries and kicked 66 goals for 288 points, making him one of the more reliable figures in a squad that has been through several coaches and rebuilds in that time.
Andrew McFadden, the Warriors’ general manager of recruitment, pathways and development, thanked him for his service. “Adam has performed consistently for us since his arrival in 2019,” McFadden said. “We appreciate the contribution he has made in his time here and wish him and his family the very best for what lies ahead for them in Australia.”
The move has been coming for some weeks. On 3 September the Herald reported that the Warriors had given Pompey permission to seek a release at the end of the season, and that he had fielded offers from one Australian club and one Super League club. His contract ran until the end of 2027, and under NRL rules he could not have negotiated with rival clubs until 1 November.
The reasons are easy to read in the Warriors’ plans for next year. The club has signed centre Grant Anderson from the Brisbane Broncos, and coach Andrew Webster has leaned towards Ali Leiataua and Leka Halasima as his preferred centre pairing. That left Pompey facing a fight for a starting spot in 2027 with limited prospects of winning it.
He was still a regular this year. Pompey made 17 appearances in 2026, scoring five tries and kicking 15 goals, and ran for 1896 metres, according to the Herald. He has played both centre and wing for the club.
He also drew online criticism, and Webster made his feelings about that plain. Defending his centre, the coach was quoted by the Herald saying “if there is criticism, they’re idiots. Like, absolute idiots.”
Pompey came to the Warriors after playing under-20s football in Sydney and made his first-grade debut in 2019. He stayed through lean seasons, the COVID years when the club lived and played in Australia, and the revival under Webster that has turned the Warriors into one of the NRL’s stronger sides.
That revival peaked this year. The Warriors won 18 of their 24 regular-season games, the most in the club’s history, and finished second on the ladder, level on points with minor premiers Penrith. But the finals went badly. They lost their home qualifying final 26-16 to the Dolphins and were then knocked out 12-10 by the Newcastle Knights in a sudden-death semi-final at a sold-out Eden Park. The NRL later admitted the Warriors should have been awarded a late penalty that would have given them a kick to level the scores.
Pompey is part of a wider changing of the guard. RNZ listed several other departures this off-season, including Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to English club Wakefield Trinity, halfback Luke Metcalf to the St George Illawarra Dragons, and forward Mitch Barnett to the Broncos in the deal that brings Anderson across the Tasman. The Herald reported that Pompey’s exit leaves the Warriors with two roster spots open heading into 2027.
For the Storm, a perennial title contender, the reported signing would add an experienced player who can cover centre and wing and kick goals.
For the Warriors, the exit frees a roster spot at a time when the club is trying to turn a record regular season into a first premiership. With Anderson arriving and Leiataua and Halasima already in place, the club has clearly decided it has the centres to do that without him.
Warriors fans will remember him as a steady presence through a long period when the club offered them little else. Eight seasons is a long time in the NRL, where players often move every two or three years, and few of the current squad have been at the club as long.
Is letting Pompey go the right call for the Warriors, or will they miss his experience and goal-kicking in 2027? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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