Friday’s NRL clash between the Warriors and Sea Eagles has many storylines feeding into it already but one of the lesser-known tales belongs to Manly centre Morgan Harper.
Harper will be tasked with shutting down the red-hot Warriors at a sold-out Mt Smart Stadium which has been renamed to Daniel Anderson Stadium for the match to honour and support the former coach following a bodysurfing accident earlier this year that has left him a quadriplegic.
It’ll be a sellout match as well with the Warriors fans expected to make plenty of noise.
“They’re a very passionate bunch of supporters, as we’ve seen in the last couple of months,” Harper said.
If that wasn’t enough, it’ll be Harper’s first NRL match at Mt Smart despite growing up in Hamilton and playing junior grades for the Ngāruawāhia Panthers where he earned selections for the New Zealand under-16s, under-18s and Junior Kiwis representative sides.
But his rugby league career took him across the Tasman, having become a father to twins at 17, leading to an NRL debut with the Bulldogs in 2019.
Harper, of Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Tūwharetoa decent through his mother and father respectively, only made two appearances for the Bulldogs before he was released early in 2020 to join Manly.
It was a promising move for Harper, eventually leading to a selection for the Māori All Stars last year but since then he has struggled to recapture that form and the 24-year-old was dropped earlier this season to the NSW Cup squad.
“It's been disappointing not being able to play the last seven or eight weeks, but to be back now, it's pretty mean, especially back home too,” he said.
“I'm just happy to be doing a game back home, so I'll take it.”
That opportunity has come thanks to a concussion to Brad Parker last week against the Panthers but now that he has this chance, Harper wants to make the absolute most of it.
“A lot of [family] will be coming up from Ngāruawāhia and Hamilton and I think even Wellington – pretty much all of them have never seen me play NRL before or been to any of my games at all so it’ll be cool to see them and have their support.
“I was pretty tied to them growing up and it’s been years since I’ve been able to be around them… it means a lot.
“It'll mean a lot more to my grandparents, my nan and pop especially and a lot of my cousins – they were with me as a young kid growing up.”
His family will have a new nickname to get used to as well after years in Australia with Harper now known as Lionel after famous singer and fellow moustache enthusiast Lionel Richie.
“A few people just started calling me it and it just kind of stuck,” he said.
“I had people in the streets calling me that.”
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