‘Buy out his contract’: Shock Roosters solutions floated as ‘terrible’ season predicted after belting

The Roosters’ roster management has been called into question after a Round 1 belting following a mass exodus of players — and a shock move to turn their fortunes around has been floated.

The Roosters were beaten by the Broncos 50-14 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.

Joey Manu, Luke Keary, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Joseph Suaalii, Terrell May and Sitili Tupouniua all departed at the end of last season.

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The club only signed veteran halfback Chad Townsend and coach Trent Robinson admitted his men got “found out” against Brisbane.

NRL great James Graham 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.”

Speaking on The Big Sports Breakfast on Monday morning, veteran rugby league reporter Phil ‘Buzz” Rothfield was also critical of the Roosters’ recruitment, but he offered a left-field solution.

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“They are in all sorts, they face the champions Penrith this weekend... the spotlight and the blowtorch is well and truly on, not just Trent Robinson, but the club’s recruitment,” he said.

“The only good news for Roosters fans is they had about half-a-million set aside to sign Joey Manu, he’s going from Japan to France so will not be back this year.

“So there’s (cap space) there. How they spend it? They shouldn’t have let (Terrell) May go, seriously.

“You know what I’ve suggested, I reckon they should bring Jared Waerea-Hargreaves back, they should buy out his contract at Hull. He’s going enormous over there.

“That footy team, that young side lack any sort of authority on the football field and that’s even with a Kangaroos prop in Lindsay Collins there.

“They’ve got to do something drastic to quickly fix that.”

Rothfield also pointed out both Terrell May and Sitili Tupouniua performed strongly in their respective Tigers and Bulldogs debuts, with the latter scoring an impressive double.

Waerea-Hargreaves, meanwhile, also was allowed to walk and eventually signed a one-year deal with Hull KR for the 2025 season.

“What I’m saying about Hargreaves is, he’s a culture player... I spoke to a couple of Roosters people over the weekend and they didn’t totally rule it out,” Rothfield said.

However, league legend Laurie Daley pointed out the move would be a starc backflip after the veteran wasn’t offered a new deal to remain in the NRL.

“You can’t go, ‘oh we think he’s past it, we are going to offer him a contract’. Then one game into a season go ‘we got this wrong’,” Daley said.

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Rothfield then explained a trip to see Barcelona’s football academy inspired the Roosters to set up their own junior pathways program.

The Tricolours have put their faith in a host of young guns who have come through that system, with Robert Toia, Salesi Foketi and Taylor Losalu making their debuts.

“I can see them not having just a bad year, but a terrible year,” Rothfield surmised.

Meanwhile, Fox League’s 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 sideswiped 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.”

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.”

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