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Six months ago, the writing may have been on the wall for James Tedesco to start “winding down” his career.
After leading the Kangaroos to a Pacific Championships thumping in the final by New Zealand 30-0, many were questioning whether his days, at least at representative level, were over – and even how many more NRL games he may have.
Even for the Roosters, it was a slow start for the club he captained in 2024, despite a strong win in Las Vegas to start the year, the Chooks sat eleventh after seven rounds of the season.
Teddy lost his spot in the New South Wales Origin team, only recalled to the team for the first game after Dylan Edwards had to withdraw through injury. He scored a try, but the Maroons went on to win comfortably against a 12-man Blues, and Edwards was recalled for the rest of the series.
However, since then it has been a strong recovery from the Roosters and Tedesco, as they slowly climbed up the ladder under his influence. He has stood up as skipper at the business end of the season to have the Tricolours well in the hunt for another premiership.
Statistically, he’s on fire and has scored five tries in the past three games, bringing his overall tally to 17 for the season.
In addition, he is top four in the whole competition for the season in try assists (24), top seven for line breaks (24) and has the most tackle breaks (161).
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Visually he has been exciting to watch, especially the way he stood up the ageing Clint Gutherson in the wet in Round 24 – it’s like he’s never aged – and all the talk surrounding the end of his career has died down.
It also has put him back in the mix to retain his Australian jumper. Albeit with a string of absentees in the national side. Valentine Holmes, Tom Trbojevic and Kalyn Ponga have all withdrawn, Dylan Edwards is likely to need post-season surgery and there are disciplinary issues hanging over Latrell Mitchell and Josh Addo-Carr.
Tedesco has even had an endorsement from Big Mal following the Manly semi-final win, although he stopped short of confirming his selection.
“He’s a super player and a great leader. It was his 250th game and to put in a performance like that and make the difference was an extraordinary performance,” Meninga said on Fox League.
With his club in the hunt for the premiership, and Tedesco on the verge of a national call-up, there is strangely talk of the fullback needing to take a pay cut to remain at the Roosters.
Ah, what would a season be without a discussion about the fairness of the Roosters salary cap?
Tedesco is reportedly on $1.1 million a season, until the end of 2025. It’s believed the Roosters will extend that to the end of 2026, but it’s suggested that he may need to take a slight pay cut. That will allow the 2019 premiers to re-sign star halfback Sam Walker as well as a keeping forward pack full of rep players.
While it is almost certain that the Roosters will be able to (fairly) juggle the books to allow him to see out his career on his terms, the optics just don’t look right if we want to see fairness and competition across the game.
The same way that it didn’t with Jack Wighton moving to Souths and David Fifita when the two clubs he floated happened to be two of the top four clubs in the competition for less money than what the Titans were offering.
James Tedesco. (Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)
Jarome Luai toyed with the idea of a contract downgrade to stay at Penrith, before eventually signing with the Wests Tigers – and just look at the value of the stars in the Melbourne side re-signing, especially since Wayne Bennett started his recruitment at the Dolphins.
It’s somewhat of a regularity that has existed pretty much since day 1, it’s nothing new. Many players have done it over the past two decades to stay at clubs because they feel they have a better premiership chance or want to stay with mates.
It’s important to note, we are not just talking about how much a player should pocket each year. But when they opt for a pay cut to squeeze into a salary cap that is meant to equalise talent across the competition, it’s morally unfair to the rest of the clubs.
It’s not to say the Roosters cannot or shouldn’t sign Tedesco, but a sudden drop in contract value just to be able to keep other players on the roster needs to be fixed by the NRL.
The Roosters skipper might be going up in age but he is still just 31 and the body has only had 250 NRL games. He hasn’t lost his ability to influence games, and last weekend was proof of that.
One of the great fullbacks Billy Slater was singing his praises, labelling him as “the best player on the field”.
Perhaps the NRL needs to come up with a way of coming up with better rewards for players who spend lengthy stints of continuous service at a club – the current exemptions for loyalty are chicken feed.
If Tedesco goes around again at the Roosters in 2026 it will be his ninth straight season at the club – the NRL should be rewarding players for staying at the same place.
Daly Cherry-Evans is coming up to his 15th straight season at Manly – his contract should only count for half on the salary cap.
There is no dispute that Tedesco has given a lot to the club and vice versa, and club loyalty and long service are not to be taken lightly.
But if he has to cop a pay cut of more than $200,000 so the Roosters can hang onto a star like Walker otherwise they will lose him, then that’s a business decision the club will have to make.
Under Tedesco’s current form, there is no current justification for a salary decrease – despite his age – and players themselves choosing to do so is something the NRL needs to stamp out and reverse this concerning trend.
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