Nothing we didn't already know but an interesting read none the less.
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JAMES Tedesco is officially a Rooster, leaving Wests Tigers in a massive move for the NRL player market.
A number of players are directly impacted by the superstar fullback’s move, while there will also be major implications for the two clubs.
We tackle the biggest issues of the switch in Five Burning Questions.
WHICH ROOSTERS DIRECTLY LOSE OUT IN THE TEDESCO DEAL?
Current fullback Michael Gordon is the obvious one. The 33-year-old, who is off-contract, is clearly on his way out the door despite playing well this season.
Gordon turns 34 in October and despite good form, may be just about done in the NRL. He has previously said he wouldn’t decide on his future until the end of the season.
The other two Roosters directly impacted are rising superstar Latrell Mitchell and Test winger Blake Ferguson.
Tedesco’s four-year signing ends any aspirations either player may have held to play fullback for the Tricolours — permanently for the 27-year-old Ferguson, long-term for Mitchell, 19.
While Ferguson (off-contract) will likely be content to play out his career in the outside backs, Mitchell’s preferred position is No.1. He was also backed as the club’s long-term fullback by Roosters icon Anthony Minichiello — the man partly credited with luring Tedesco to the club.
“Latrell is the future fullback of the club, there is no doubt,” Minichiello said after 2016.
Playing fullback is not just a matter of ambition — it’s also about cold, hard cash.
Should Mitchell be locked out of fullback, as he will be with Tedesco in the side, the teenage ace will also be barred from a shot at the top-end money afforded to key-position players. Centre, where he was playing before being dropped to reserve grade, is currently one of the least-valued NRL positions in terms of salary.
Mitchell, rated one of the game’s most exciting talents but clearly still raw, will be happy to bide his time for the short-term and is under contract with the Roosters until 2019. But if his star qualities are cemented during that time, he’s not happy in the centres and wants his shot at a marquee contract, something will have to give.
Ferguson also faces an uncertain future. He is yet to re-sign with the club for next season and reports emerged earlier in the year suggesting that his off-field conduct had lapsed somewhat, having damaged the early part of his career.
WHAT DOES THE DEAL MEAN FOR THE ROOSTERS OVERALL?
First and foremost, the Sydney powerhouse just added a critical piece to their blueprint for another premiership.
The Roosters spine for next season will read Tedesco, Luke Keary, Mitchell Pearce and Jake Friend — which, with enough support, is certainly good enough to win a title.
Tedesco is a red-hot favourite to be named NSW Origin fullback this season, having debuted in game three last year. At age 24, he is a long-term rep player and the Roosters should be getting him just as he enters his prime.
But no big-name player can be landed without upheaval elsewhere on the roster.
Incumbent No.1 Gordon looks set to go, as mentioned above, while boom prop Kane Evans has already signed with the Parramatta Eels for three years from next season.
New Zealand Test back Shaun Kenny-Dowall (29) has already been linked with a move to the Newcastle Knights, having been with the Roosters for 200-plus games since 2007. His fellow outside back, Blues Origin winger Daniel Tupou, also remains off-contract.
Queensland Origin forward Aidan Guerra is also off-contract and has hardly been demanding a new deal with his form, while Ferguson is the other big-name without a 2018 deal.
Also on the Roosters’ off-contract list are Paul Carter, Mitch Cornish, Brenden Santi, Chris Smith, Zane Tetevano and Johnny Tuivasa-Sheck.
WHY DID TEDESCO DECIDE ON THE CHOOKS?
For once, in Sydney’s plush eastern suburbs, this move wasn’t about the folding stuff.
If it was, Tedesco would be staying at the Tigers, who tabled the biggest deal of the three put to the Camden junior — the Roosters also winning a battle with Canterbury.
Tedesco went on the record a month ago declaring the “stability at other clubs is tempting” after years of being caught up in the Tigers’ perpetual soap opera.
There’s no Sydney outfit on more solid ground than the Chook and the Dogs, who are premiership contenders more often than not and pack heavy-hitters from the front office through to the coaching staff and playing ranks.
Here’s where the Roosters had the edge over Canterbury, with Tedesco still said to have been suitably impressed by Des Hasler’s pitch during meetings with the eccentric mentor.
Despite public denials, club legend and close mate Minichiello was in Tedesco’s ear as he was making the biggest call of his career.
Under Trent Robinson and with Minichiello’s own personal tutelage, Tedesco could rise to become the best fullback in the game. This was the Chooks’ key selling point.
Minichiello also acted as a key conduit between all-powerful Roosters chairman Nick Politis and Tedesco’s manager Isaac Moses.
Politis had initially refused to deal with Moses after a falling-out between the pair last season.
That the Roosters could get a deal done despite the inevitable politics of rugby league, while the Tigers were busy lining up their fourth coach in Tedesco’s five years of first grade, says it all.
WHAT DOES THE DEAL MEAN FOR WESTS TIGERS?
For starters, it will be interesting to see what kind of reception Tigers fans give Tedesco in his first game as an official defector. Given captain Aaron Woods was booed for his Bulldogs move, Tedesco — who, unlike his skipper,
took a crack at the Tigers during the contract saga — can likely expect more of the same.
Beyond that, it’s head down and plough forward for the embattled joint venture, which has already made some positive moves for the future.
Luke Brooks and former NSW Origin five-eighth Josh Reynolds are already signed as the halves pairing for next season.
Fox Sports’ Nathan Ryan revealed an intriguing mid-season play on Wednesday, which centred on a deal for boom Warriors prospect Tui Lolohea.
That deal would be a two-and-a-half year contract, in which Lolohea (22) would join the Tigers to play at No.6 this season — with Mitchell Moses sent early to the Parramatta Eels — before inheriting Tedesco’s No.1 jersey next year.
If that is the case, the Tigers would be unlikely to thrown big money at Dragons Test star Josh Dugan, who had been touted as a potential fullback option.
With the Tigers confident that Jacob Liddle (20) can cement himself as their long-term hooker, next year’s spine reads Lolohea, Reynolds, Brooks and Liddle. It’s not quite the same as Tedesco, Moses, Brooks and Liddle, a quartet that Tigers fans had waited years to see fire them towards premiership contention, but it may at least prove competitive.
The Tigers have already added some starch in the pack, signing Warriors and New Zealand Test prop Ben Matulino to replace Woods. Dragons enforcer Russell Packer, one of Matulino’s close friends, will reportedly be pursued as another major signing.
Wests Tigers will certainly have a far different side next season but at least Cleary will get the chance to fashion something from a clean slate — with his first task to fix one of the NRL’s worst defences.
