Man-mountain Kite flies into Vikings (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Man-mountain Kite flies into Vikings

9:45am Thursday 26th January 2012 in Vikings news

WIDNES Vikings have completed the signing of its 16th new recruit ahead of the 2012 season with Sione ‘John’ Kite joining the club from Melbourne Storm on a one-year contract, which is subject to receiving the necessary visa.

24 year-old Kite is a front-rower by trade and will bring both size and presence to the Vikings Super League squad, standing 6ft 5ins tall and weighing 18 stone.

As a youngster, John had a taste of the big time in the NRL with Canterbury Bulldogs in 2008 and 2009 before heading to Melbourne Storm where he has spent the past two seasons. Internationally, he was also a member of the Tonga 2008 World Cup squad.

Kite will wear squad number 18 in Denis Betts’ ‘class of 2012’ and the Vikings head coach is looking forward to having the giant enforcer on his playing roster; “John is a big man and a good athlete, and I’m confident he will do a great job for us.

“Moving to the other side of the world and to another competition isn’t an easy decision for a young man to make, but John is looking forward to the challenge and is backing himself to make an impression on Super League.

“He’s been training with Canterbury back home and will arrive in good shape and ready for action.”

With just over a week to go before their first Stobart Super League XVII game, Betts is delighted with the culture and togetherness within his first team set-up and has no doubt whatsoever that Kite will fit in immediately; “There’ll be a few familiar faces here to welcome him which is always a good thing. He was a team-mate of Hep Cahill and Willie Isa at Melbourne Storm and as a junior he came through the ranks at Canterbury Bulldogs with Frank Winterstein, so settling in should be quite an easy transition for him.

“From day one, our recruitment policy has been to bring in the people we think can make this place better and John definitely ticks that box. Everybody we have spoken to in the game has only good things to say about him as both a player and a person.”