How ‘thankful’ Kodi Nikorima found home at South Sydney following difficult years at the Warriors

The 28-year-old utility and his fiancee, Bree, originally planned to get married in 2020, before Covid forced them to push it back until mid-October this year.

And, if he’s really honest with himself, he can’t have had too much hope of the Warriors making a prelim final this season.

“If you told me at the start of the year that I’d be playing another prelim, I’d have probably laughed,” Nikorima tells CODE Sports.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been back in the finals footy arena and it feels good. I’ve missed it.”

For the past three Septembers, the Warriors were well into the off-season by now, with various Covid-related off-field instabilities causing ongoing headaches for the whole squad.

So it’s a thankful and reflective Nikorima who is preparing for South Sydney’s prelim clash with the Panthers this Saturday.

“It’s crazy how the last five or six months have turned out,” he says.

“Being told – last year – we’re moving back to NZ, then that we were staying, then ended up being based out of Redcliffe.

“Then a couple of months down the track, finding myself at Redfern and Souths.

“To be honest it’s probably the happiest I’ve been in a couple of years.”

His was one off a raft of mid-season departures from the struggling Warriors this season, but sometimes, he says, you’ve just gotta bite the bullet and do what’s right for you.

He hasn’t looked back.

“It’s just such a good club, there’s a great culture from the top down,” he says.

“As soon as I got here they made me feel welcome, and treated my family like their own.

“That’s where it starts. If you get all the off field stuff right, it translates to what you do on the field.

“From the top, with (football manager) Mark (Ellison), (Chief operating officer) Brock (Schaefer), there’s a lady, (Michelle Arnold) who helps out with welfare and looks after families. They were incredible,” he says.

“I can’t thank them or speak highly enough of them. That starts at the top and filters its way down.

“Having a coach like JD (Jason Demetriou) – I spent time with him at the Broncos – so we had that connection as well.”

So, a few differences to the Warriors, then.

“It goes to the stability as opposed to the unknowns,” he says. “That’s probably what it was.”

The chance to play alongside and learn from players like Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker and Cam Murray was also a big selling point.

“When I signed here mid-year, one of the things at the forefront was playing with such high-quality players and getting to learn from them,” he says.

“I’ve played a lot of games, but you can never get comfy. There’s always things you can learn from other players.

“Having the opportunity to play finals footy again was another big one too.”

After going all the way to the 2015 decider in his debut season with the Broncos, Nikorima played finals footy again in 2017 and 2018, but has been absent from the pointy end of the season for four years.

His main memory of that heartbreaking 2015 grand final defeat? Pain.

“Everyone says it’s the best grand final they’ve ever seen,” he says. “I only played 15 minutes and it was the fastest 15 minutes of footy I’ve ever played in my life.

“It went so fast.

“(Seeing Kyle Feldt score) was just painful. Painful. Just being so down, watching Thurston miss the kick, then Benny Hunt dropping the kick off. He copped a lot of flak, but we probably don’t make it that far without him and how instrumental he was. Not just the finals, but all season.

“All in all, it was a great experience, and just goes to show that there’s big moments in games that can make or break you, and unfortunately it broke us in the end.”

In addition to coach Jason Demetriou, Nikorima’s move to the Bunnies saw him reunited with former Broncos teammate Jai Arrow.

The pair were Brisbane teammates for two seasons before Arrow’s move to the Titans in 2018, and they now share a house alongside fellow Rabbitohs forward Liam Knight.

“I have to give it to him, he shouts a lot, he’s a big-noter,” Nikorima says of Arrow.

“He’s on pretty big coin here and he lets you know about it.

“We barely see Knighty – he’s always with his missus now.

“But it’s good. We hang out a lot, go to the beach. We live near Cam Murray and meet up once a week. It’s been good.”

With Nikorima’s fiance Bree still in Brisbane with their two kids Zavi and Eli, her family and the last of the wedding preparations, Nikorima’s living arrangements have allowed him to focus all his attention on the pointy end of the season.

“We’re getting married two weeks after the GF, but we had it planned for 2020, but Covid happened,” he says.

“I’m still pretty involved, but we had it all planned and just moved the date. It’s actually been pretty easy.

“My main focus is right here at Souths. Once we get knocked out – or hopefully after the grand final – I can start thinking about it, but everything’s pretty much done. It’s just getting ready to rock up now.”