Napa Valley red: Vintage prop brings NRL flavour to nines
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Former Queensland Origin prop Dylan Napa is set to fulfil a long-held ambition to play in America when he lines up alongside his cousin for the Brooklyn Kings in the NRL’s Vegas 9s tournament.
Napa, who played seven Origins, represented Cook Islands at the 2013 and 2022 World Cups and won a premiership with Sydney Roosters in 2018, has been in discussions to play for the New York-based team for more than five years.
However, the demands of the NRL and Super League has made that impossible until now and Napa, who will this season play for Glebe Dirty Reds in the Ron Massey Cup, jumped at the opportunity to play for the Kings in Vegas.
“I have had a relationship with the Brooklyn Kings, and I was talking to them even before COVID,” Napa said.
I have always wanted to play the game that I know and love in America, I thought that would be cool.
“I have got a good mate from Sydney, Scott Ferris, who is involved with the Brooklyn Kings and he introduced me to the management.
“I am grateful that they invited me, and I am happy to help promote the game in America in any way I can.”
The NRL 9s is part of a festival of rugby league in Vegas, culminating with a quadruple header at Allegiant Stadium on March 1 featuring the Wigan-Warrington Super League clash, a women’s Test between Australia and England and two Round 1 NRL fixtures.
There is also an NRL talent combine, men’s and women’s Tests between USA and Greece, and the Vegas 9s featuring men’s, women’s and junior tournaments at Silverbowl Park on February 27-28.
“The NRL are doing an awesome job of putting the games in Vegas in Round 1,” Napa said. “It gives people an opportunity to travel, and it brings more hype to the game of rugby league too.
“I want to see the game grow in America. Americans love contact sport so you never know how big the game could get over there.
“It is good to see that there is a league over there and they are pushing to make the game bigger.”
Another former Maroons Origin player and NRL premiership winner, Chris McQueen, played for Brooklyn Kings in last year’s NRL 9s tournament and coach Matt Isherwood said the involvement of big name stars helped boost the club and the game.
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“The benefits are three-fold,” Isherwood said. “It helps the players, it is really exciting for the players to play with some of the that stature who is passing on their experiences; it is great for the club, it gives us good exposure, and just generally for the 9s tournament and for the game to have people with a name coming over gives us good exposure.
“It is really positive and gets some attention on the club and the game. Last year when we had Chris, we got so much interest.
We had more players wanting to come and play, and we got more followers on social media so that was really welcome.
Joining Napa on the Kings roster will be cousin, Maximillian Napa, who has also represented Cook Islands at international level in 2016 and played lower grades in Sydney.
“He is like a brother to me. We are pretty much the same age, and we were both huge fans of rugby league, the Roosters and players like Sonny Bill Williams, Boyd Cordner and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
“With my family being in Brisbane while I am in Sydney and his family being in New Zealand, we try to look after each and now we get to play a game of rugby league together in America.
“The whole experience of playing rugby league in Vegas is going to be pretty cool in itself but we have never really played together so that is exciting too.”
With more than 40 teams having entered this year’s NRL 9s and the NRL having secured an upgraded venue, Isherwood predicted the tournament would continue to grow each year.
“It is not just teams from the US, there are international teams this year, and I have also seen some of the names who are playing for the other teams, so I think it is going to get bigger and better every year, which is exciting,” he said.
