The Roosters’ roster management has been called into question after they were thrashed in their season opener following a mass exodus of players.
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The Roosters were beaten by the Broncos 50-14 last Thursday night while playing with minus 1178 games of NRL experience from last season, with that figure including injured duo Brandon Smith and Sam Walker.
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Joey Manu, Luke Keary, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Joseph Suaalii, Terrell May and Sitili Tupouniua all departed at the end of last season.
The club only signed veteran halfback Chad Townsend and coach Trent Robinson admitted his men got “found out” against Brisbane.
NRL great James Graham has questioned the direction of the club after they allowed so much experience to leave at the same time.
“I’m scratching my head with the Roosters, because it almost doesn’t make sense when you think of the quality of players (that have left),” Graham said on Triple M’s Sunday Scrum.
“Jared and Keary, you can accept that. But usually teams plan so far ahead in advance, and with a team like the Roosters it is strange to see.”
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Journalist James Hooper believes Suaalii’s defection to rugby union rocked the Roosters and led to James Tedesco earning another contract instead of the club having a “tough conversation” with their skipper.
“He side-swiped them, that threw a lot of things and that was why Nick Politis was so furious… and still to this day I don’t think he is overly happy about it,” Hooper said.
“It’s a tough conversation to have, James Tedesco has been an ornament of the game for so many years now, he’s a NSW captain, an Australian captain.
“He’s still probably one of the stars of the game, but the Roosters probably needed to figure out a way that they could retain Manu and Suaalii and probably play one of them at fullback.
“Shift Teddy to somewhere else, to be able to accommodate everyone being happy in the next generation coming through.”
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Graham acknowledged the Roosters still boast a strong pack and he also pointed to Robinson’s rebuild in 2016, when the club finished second-last, before winning back-to-back titles in 2018-19.
“Strong forward pack, but I think Terrell May did enough last year… he played big minutes,” Graham said.
“The Roosters have been in that situation where they have finished near the bottom and then springboarded back up to the top almost a decade ago,”
“I just wonder if they’re preparing it like that from a business point of view, if you look at cap management and everyone goes all in, why get rid of May?
“It wouldn’t surprise you to say the Roosters have plenty of salary cap space when you compare who has left and who has come in.
“I wonder if they’re doing a similar approach, have this year to blood some young players… sign players, pay them more this year than the next two years.
“Then they have a war chest to go after players.”