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If there’s one NRL club that has been rocked in the past 12 months, if not the past month alone, during this off-season, it’s the Sydney Roosters.
The Chooks’ off-season from hell continued this week when State of Origin forward Boyd Cordner suffered a pectoral injury during training, just a day after re-signing with the club for a further two years.
The setback is expected to cost him up to three months on the sidelines.
This comes on top of Michael Jennings defecting to the Parramatta Eels and former co-captain Mitchell Pearce being suspended indefinitely for his role in the now-infamous Australia Day video.
In addition, premiership stars Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and James Maloney have also left the club, departing for the New Zealand Warriors and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks respectively.
It followed on from another successful season for the Roosters whereby they finished as minor premiers for the third year running, only to be defeated by eventual runners-up the Brisbane Broncos in the preliminary final.
The departures of the aforementioned players, as well as the indefinite suspension to Pearce, means the Roosters will face its most challenging season yet under coach Trent Robinson.
The club has achieved a lot of success under the 38-year-old, capturing three consecutive minor premierships despite all the adversities, but could only win the 2013 premiership and 2014 World Club Challenge to show for their dominance.
But now, given what has happened since then, it’s possible that the club could field up to just seven players from the 2013 premiership team when they take on the South Sydney Rabbitohs in Round 1.
The Chooks will field arguably their weakest halves pairing for a while in Jayden Nikorima and Jackson Hastings.
Nikorima and fellow ex-Bronco Dale Copley are also in the firing line for their roles in the Australia Day video scandal, and are still awaiting punishment from the Roosters.
Hastings impressed late last year when he filled in for Pearce at halfback, helping to keep the Roosters’ second-half season resurgence alive after Pearce suffered that hamstring injury in Round 24. Hastings also filled in at halfback when Pearce was away on Origin duty, and can also play hooker.
Now, he and Nikorima will get the chance to prove that they are the long-term halves solution for the Chooks for at least the first six weeks of the new season (the expected length of Pearce’s absence).
Nikorima arrives from the Broncos in search of more opportunities in the halves, having been stuck behind their first-choice pairing of Anthony Milford and Ben Hunt, who were both instrumental in their run to the grand final last year.
Latrell Mitchell, who last year was named in the Holden Cup’s team of the year, looms as the possible replacement to Tuivasa-Sheck at fullback. In the Under-20s competition, Mitchell showed signs of the player he could potentially become when he eventually makes his debut for the Roosters sometime this year.
And so, while the Sydney Roosters may face its most challenging season ahead under Robinson, the future might not look that bad for the club.
Or will it?
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