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How Terrell May turned 30kg into $500,000
By Dan Walsh
March 21, 2024 — 3.50pm
Trent Robinson puts Terrell May’s rapid rise as one of the NRL’s form front-rowers – and most in-demand – down to 15 lost kilos.
Turns out Robinson only knows the half of it – literally.
May, who could secure a two-year extension from the Tricolours as early as next week amid interest from the Dragons and a watching brief held by Canterbury, has started the season as the Roosters’ best forward, four years after quitting the game during the first 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.
Then 20, May had walked away from a $1000-a-week Wests Tigers train-and-trial deal ready to give up on rugby league, “not because I didn’t like the Tigers, I just didn’t want to train, didn’t want to be there.”
May’s weight ballooned above 135 kilos as elder brother Tyrone featured in Penrith’s 2020 grand final and younger sibling Taylan rose through the Panthers ranks. Both questioned why Terrell was wasting his obvious talent.
By the time Tyrone and Taylan flew to Queensland as part of Penrith’s 2021 COVID-19 bubble, Terrell had slimmed back down and found his way back to the game with Manly’s feeder club, Blacktown Workers. Which is when he “went a bit loopy and was running 20 kilometres a day”.
“I was sitting at home. Tiny and Tyrone went up into the bubble… obviously I couldn’t work because of COVID, so I would just lie around at home, and I came across this YouTube video by (retired US Navy SEAL and ultramarathon runner) David Goggins,” May told the Bloke in a Bar podcast recently.
Which is how May and a few mates, including Izack Tago’s brother, Jake, ended up completing a version of Goggins’ 4x4x48 challenge, which sees participants running four miles every four hours across two days.
May’s COVID running crew trimmed their runs down to roughly 3.2 kilometres per session over the 48 hours, making for a gruelling 38 kilometres at all hours of the day.
“Say you start at 12, you finish your run and go back home and you’ve got to wake up at 4am, for two days” May said. “And I did that while I was fat … If I could do that, I could do anything.”
By the time May landed a NSW Cup contract with North Sydney in 2022, he was down to around 110 kilos and on both Melbourne and Robinson’s radar.
Another five-week trial with the Roosters became an NRL debut and breakout 2023 campaign.
A market value now north of $500,000 per year illustrates how far May has come, and how much potential he still has left ahead of Friday’s clash with South Sydney.
He and Taylan have spoken about wanting to play at the same club and deciding their futures accordingly. That may come in the next contract cycle though given both have extensions from the Roosters and Panthers respectively, elite NRL systems where they have both risen to career-best form.
“He showed talent young as a player and then had his own issues about playing and desire there,” Robinson says.
“And then he made a change in his life. North Sydney picked him up and he had five weeks with us and he nailed those.… Now he’s very fit and very strong, and you can see that in his game to the point where he started last weekend.
“We’ve been very clear over the last six months with Terrell about where we’re at with him and his manager. Nothing’s changed for us. We’re pretty clear that we’re in negotiations at the moment.”
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Looks like we will keep him which is great newsUnconfirmed yet -
Roosters swat away rivals to tie up young gun forward
Spurns interest from two rival Sydney clubs
www.nrl.com
I've got Terrell in my Fantasy League team and he started out well but has been scoring really low lately.
I have noticed his minutes are less every week. Maybe he is not as keen to put in the hard work he was doing earlier in the year. Pity, when he was in form he was great.
Why Walker has no interest succeeding Reynolds at Brisbane
By Christian Nicolussi
Updated April 26, 2024 — 11.31am
Sam Walker grew up with several Brisbane players and still has most of his mates living in the Queensland capital, yet has no interest in succeeding Adam Reynolds in the No. 7 jersey at the end of next year.
“I love the Roosters – I look forward to hopefully having a long campaign here,” Walker said.
The 21-year-old halfback played one of his best games ever for the Roosters in Thursday’s Anzac Day 60-18 annihilation of St George Illawarra.
He now heads home to Brisbane next Friday where he says he will be greeted by “a crew of about 1000 people”, and at a venue where he regularly attended NRL games growing up, and idolised so many of his idols.
With Reynolds likely to retire at the end of next year, and with Walker off contract at the same time at the Roosters, the 21-year-old appears the perfect fit at Red Hill.
Walker played junior representative football with Ezra Mam, who was his back-rower in the under-16s Metropolitan West school team, as well as Brendan Piakura, Selwyn Cobbo and Reece Walsh.
The Broncos have a young pack, and with the addition of Walker would remain in the premiership window the next decade.
“But I love the Roosters, and it’s home now,” Walker said.
“I look forward to playing there [in Brisbane] every couple of months, but this is home. There will always be speculation. I’m happy here.”
Walker is the future of the Roosters, especially with Luke Keary and James Tedesco off at the end of next year, and young stars Joseph Suaalii and Joey Manu exiting for rugby at the end of this year.
The Roosters have no interest in letting him go, and know rivals cannot talk to him until November 1.
The return bout with the Broncos will be one of the big storylines of next week following the Mam and Spencer Leniu racism scandal earlier in the season.
Leniu was suspended eight matches for the Las Vegas incident, and will return the week after the Broncos game.
Walker was grateful there were so many senior Roosters who had dealt with their share of explosive storylines ahead of big games, and added he had not reached out to Mam since the round-zero drama.
“We’re not in constant contact, and he went through a little bit there [in Vegas],” Walker said. “I’m sure he’ll be up for the game.
“Me and Ezra played a lot of footy together. We’re both from Ipswich, and he was my back-rower at Met West in the under-16s – I was 15, and he was a year younger. I loved playing with ‘Ezzy’. He’s a legend.
“Brendan Piakura was my back-rower most of the time in most of the rep teams I played in. ‘Sel’ [Cobbo] was thereabouts as well. And me and Reece played heaps of footy together. It will be like Met West against South Coast again.
“I’m sure there will be some build-up next week, but we just need to clear in our heads and know what we need to do to.
“If we play like we did [against the Dragons], I’m really confident we’ll come away with the win.”
Walker missed a couple of weeks through concussion, but was dynamite at Allianz Stadium, scoring a try and setting up a further three. He was also on fire with the boot, finishing with a personal haul of 24 points.
This time last year he was playing reserve grade at Wentworth Park, but Walker said he tried not to overthink things, and “the bigger the moment, the more chaotic I get”.
Walker shines as rugby-bound Rooster makes Origin case in thrashing of Dragons
Sam Walker was brilliant in his comeback game from a concussion as Joseph Suaalii gave Michael Maguire a decent NSW Origin headache.
The Roosters were at the top of their game as they thumped St George Illawarra 60-18 at Allianz Stadium on Thursday. It was the biggest-ever Anzac Day victory in matches between these clubs.
Walker finished with a personal haul of 24 points and had a hand in everything. And to think it was on the corresponding weekend last year he was playing NSW Cup at Wentworth Park.
Walker had missed the past fortnight as he overcame a head knock but made an immediate impact under brilliant blue skies on a day where rugby league happily took a back seat.
The way Luke Keary hobbled around in the final minutes could mean Walker’s role becomes even more vital in coming weeks.
His short-kicking game was all class. He finished with a penalty try, and a kick to the face courtesy of a stray boot from Tyrell Sloan.
Walker also put through an early kick for Joey Manu’s first try and set up Nat Butcher, who moved just like Manu when finishing with his own double.
His proud father Ben was in the stands and would have lapped up every moment. Walker senior has always wanted his son to play what he sees. He did that against the Red V.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson said of Walker: “Sam does that to us every day when we train. If a fullback comes into the line, he’ll pull you apart.
“It was great to see him do that. Plus also the goal-kicking, it’s such a key part of that as well. He sees the game slightly differently. Sam is out of the box when it comes to seeing where defensive lines are, and numbers, and fullbacks ... when players are moving for you, and he can see them he can really tear them apart.”
The Roosters have more injury concerns than just Keary, who left the ground in a moonboot. Michael Jennings failed to finish the game because of a tricep injury. Daniel Tupou (knee) and Victor Radley (hamstring) were already late scratchings.
The Roosters looked so much better with Walker. The premiership debate will only start if they can get the job done against the Broncos in Brisbane next Friday.
Suaalii is in the final year of NRL before he takes up a lucrative three-year deal with Rugby Australia, but is doing everything to make sure he exits the game an Origin player.
It was fitting Suaalii scored the final try of the afternoon, his first since round 26 last season, and with Zac Lomax the last line of defence. The contest between Suaalii, 20, and 24-year-old Lomax was tense throughout. Lomax tried to rag doll Suaalii, while Suaalii refused to shy away from the physicality.
A growing debate in the countdown to the first Origin game in June will be whether new Blues coach Maguire should even consider Suaalii because of his code switch.
Maguire wants to win, and you get the impression he will pick the best 17 available at the time.
Lomax set up the Dragons’ first try, the best four-pointer of the afternoon, when he took on Keary, then snuck a pass to Sloan on his wing. It looked effortless. Then Lomax threw a pass that was never on, which led to the Roosters scoring through Angus Crichton. It was a lead they never relinquished.
Lomax came into the game the form outside back in the competition, but there were a few cracks on the big stage and in front of a cracking 40,727-strong crowd.
To be fair to the Red V, they lost Moses Suli in the first play of the game when flattened by Jared Waerea-Hargreaves. There was nothing wrong with Waerea-Hargreaves’ hit-up.
Kyle Flanagan was forced to move and defend in the centres, and the Roosters sent a mountain of traffic his way. The Dragons were out of gas well before half-time.
“I couldn’t wait until it finished to be honest; we came back to earth with a thud,” coach Shane Flanagan said after the game.
At least Flanagan knows his players have a 10-day turnaround to freshen up for the derby against Cronulla. Flanagan led the Sharks to their only premiership in 2016, and said of the showdown: “It’s been marked in the calendar for a while. It won’t be an emotional week. I won a comp there. I don’t think they’ve won one since.
“My job is to get these boys back up ... I need to get them back to where they were the past couple of weeks.”
first published April 25, 2024 — 7.30pm
www.foxsports.com.au
It will be sad to lose him but I'm also ok with it and it corrects what IMO was a rare misstep in our retention policy.
Roosters champion Luke Keary to announce retirement from NRL
Details revealed as Roosters champ makes shock retirement call after change of heart
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