Monday night against the Bulldogs we were lucky to witness one of the finest performances by an individual in recent rugby league memory.
James Tedesco was absolutely phenomenal. It seemed each time he touched the ball, the Bulldogs were in disarray.
James Tedesco scored three tries, had a hand in a few more and busted just about every tackle that was attempted on him. He is in rare form. Each year there are mentions for Tommy Trbojevic as a challenger for the New South Wales fullback jersey, and each year I have to shake my head. While Trbojevic is also a rare talent, he simply isn’t as good as Tedesco.
I am sure there are still a few people who watch rugby league that will stand in Trbojevic’s corner so I am going to outline the five things that make the Tiger-come-Rooster the best rugby league player in the world today.
He never avoids the contact
Watch rugby league at any level and you will see moments when players take actions to avoid a heavy collision. It is human nature to take actions in self preservation when the brain can predict likelihood of injury. It is a rare player who does not have this inbuilt intuition.
While most of us mere humans will avoid pain where we can, Tedesco appears to be immune to fear. Even in the NRL, where every player is extremely tough, this trait is far from common.
(Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
His positional play is first class
I spent about ten minutes of last night’s game just watching Tedesco in defence. The way he elegantly moves in behind his line of defensive players and always shows up where he is needed to save a try or prevent a dangerous attack is pretty to watch.
He’s not the only fullback in rugby league that possesses this skill set but none are better than him at placing his body in the right place, in the right position, at a pivotal moment.
Tedesco is unselfish
Monday night was James Tedesco’s second career treble. The last one came a few years ago when playing for the Wests Tigers. Tedesco has never been the most prolific try-scorer, but when he does score a try, it is rarely ordinary. He creates something when nothing is on.
The reason Tedesco doesn’t score more tries is that he is always thinking. There was a moment against the Bulldogs when Tedesco could have gone for the corner and scored a fourth try.
Instead Tedesco threw a speculator pass back inside, which found the ground. It looked scrappy but if somebody following the fullback had Tedesco’s own tenacity and vision, he would have registered yet another try assist.
He is the ultimate team man
The best rugby league players make those around them better, and Tedesco certainly does that. You only have to look at the turnaround in New South Wales’ fortunes since Tedesco became a mainstay. Coach Brad Fittler is well aware of the phenomenon that has worn the number one jersey in recent years, and there is no way he will ever select anybody else in that jersey while Tedesco is fit.
Winning in State of Origin requires a team effort, despite the legend of players like Andrew Johns and the Wally Lewis, there is no individual great enough to win it on their own. James Tedesco’s Origin performances have often been worthy of individual accolades yet for some reason he is often overlooked.
The fact this doesn’t seem to bother Tedesco exemplifies that he is the perfect Origin player.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
He is humble but confident
Listen to Tedesco speak and you would not predict his standing in the game. He won the Dally M Medal in 2019, he’s won two grand finals running, he’s had winning moments for the Blues and he is now widely regarded as the best player on earth.
As an avid fan of US sports, I have no doubt given time that he would make it in American football in the running back position – he is that explosive. But rugby league cannot afford to lose James Tedesco. He knows he is great, but you will never hear him say it.
There isn’t much more you can say about the man. I’ve written about him a few times throughout his journey and each time I write about him the praise becomes more appropriate.
We’ve had the privilege of watching many great fullbacks in rugby league in the past 30 or 40 years. Prior to Tedesco, Billy Slater was the best, prior to that maybe Darren Lockyer. What the current Roosters number one has shown us since making his debut for the Wests Tigers is eclipsing even those greats of the sport.
Some will call this premature but my bold prediction is that James Tedesco will eventually be named a rugby league Immortal and potentially prevent that same accolade being bestowed on Slater and Lockyer.
He is that good.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
I wouldn't recommend Minichello as a comparison. He had one absolute blinder of a season where he was practically unstoppable, after that though he was strangely average.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
Rightttt. So Tedesco's game against a third rate club side is a clear indication that he'll go on to eclipse Slater & Lockyers' achievements in SOO & Tests. There should be a name for this process, which was last witnessed when Jarryd Hayne had a blinder against StGilla (and hasn't that turned out well?). Something that rhymes with 'complete plank' perhaps? Over to the Big Picture... 1. It's not just Tedesco who's being showered with praise, it seems that the majority of players are being drenched with superlatives by the Fox comms. Some reality would be good thanks Fox. 2. When it was announced that the NRL was cutting back to one on-field ref per game I opined that this was being done because it was getting too expensive to err 'influence' two. Having seen quite a few games now that opinion has been strengthened. 3. The Fall of the Bronco Empire. The biggest reason imo is their recruiting. Over the last 20 odd years they've missed out on; Cronk, Cam Smith, Slater, Inglis, Ponga, Munster, Thurston, Bowen and Dennis knows who else. And on the other side of the ledger they've signed... errr Milford and that centre from C-S whose name I forget. Something's not working. 4. A long-standing gripe: Despite the new, whizzo '6 again' law there's still too many tries scored from kicks. They make the game a lottery. Reduce their value.
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
:stoked: :stoked: Yeah, well do not expect that to happen any time soon, its a family investment and his son is being groomed to take over when Nick retires from the board, The young bloke is already running the car dealer ships of which there are several. Don’t hold your breath waiting I think my argument was strengthened this morning with the article in regards to the dogs & Craig Bellamy, coaches are not included in the salary cap as you know and Bellamy don’t come cheap.
Ballason
Guest
That's because Tadesco is from NSW so that's why he has his best performance in just a few games and already he has been predicted to be an immortal. How about the Queenslanders who have their best performances year-in year-out
Shane
Roar Pro
Interesting take. Lets pick up this argument if and when the Politis money dries up.
elvis
Roar Rookie
One second of bad luck can end your career, ask Jaral or Tiger. Good luck to him though, I hope he has a great career, but he is still 200 games and 10 years short of Lockyer, isn't test captain, and is a way off being the top test try scorer for Australia. And he only plays fullback. You can see I'm not a fan of predictive articles.
Nick
Roar Guru
Or thurston, or cronk...
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
If the Knights had replaced Johns with Lockyer, they wouldn’t have missed a step.
matth
Roar Guru
I do get a bit sick of the "The Broncos have a great team so no individual in the team can be great". By that definition we have to cut Raper, Gasnier, Langlands, Cam Smith, Slater, Daley, Clyde, Lazarus etc from the list of greats. They played in some of the the strongest teams of all time. In any case it took Brisbane, despite all it's inherent advantages, nine years to reach another grand final post Lockyer. That 2006 premiership team was good but nothing like the class of the "no salary cap" post Super League years of 2000 and before. They were in no way favourites for the comp that year and were even long shots heading into the grand final. I think it's too hard to decide who is a better player because of who was in their teams. There are too many variables. Johns may have had a different career at Brisbane or the Roosters, but maybe not and maybe (for example) he needed to stay in his home town with his brother to become the player he was. Probably not, but who knows? Neither Johns nor Lockyer ever changed clubs and left their comfort zone. But JT did. Does that make him better? Having said all that my purpose was not to get into another Johns v Lockyer debate, but just to point out to the Teddy fans that while recency bias tells us "new is always better", it's not always the case. For those Canterbury fans living in the era I bet Les Johns was the best there ever was.
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
Shane,they all get an equal share from the NRL to begin with. How they manage that is what counts. No not all clubs get a hefty grant from a licenced leagues club either. However, if you see the clubs that are struggling It has more to do with mismanagement than anything else. A classic example is the Bulldogs. They get a huge leg up on top of the NRL grant from both Bankstown Sports & The Canterbury Leagues club, but their woes are because of mismanagement of the salary cap not because they have a financial struggle. Less financial clout is a myth everyone thinks that the Roosters have this massive 3rd party process in place, that is not fact and what the Roosters have in place is a pittance compared to what the Bronco's have in 3rd party deals with players. It is not about financial clout it is about salary cap and roster management and you can put together a pretty solid team of players from all the ex Roosters players in the other NRL teams . Whatsmore look at some of the other players that the Tigers let go, moved on or wanted out besides Teddy
matth
Roar Guru
Yes, I didn't say Lockyer was better, I'm just saying there was debate at the time, which shows how good Lockyer was.
Aiden
Guest
Could be onto something, there is less of a focus on out and out athletic ability perhaps. And I do think that nothing is tougher than the amount of tackles an NRL forward puts in week in week out. But on the minus side, more competition for roles, and the job is deceptively technical in terms of the plays and tackling style, penalties etc. A lot to learn. Any cross code transfer, you need the reps. We have some supreme athletes, if they have a pipe dream they should be heading over when they are 18, not early 20s.
SourD
Roar Rookie
I'm not quite old enough to have watched much of Jack or Belcher, but they were both maybe just above the pack yeah? Canberra went from Belcher to Mullins so they had fb sorted for awhile. Although Mullins had an awesome peak but fell off pretty quickly. Speaking of... Barba's peak might have been the most awesome of all. I don't know if people remember that in 2012 he wasn't just scoring and setting up amazing tries, he was all over the place stopping them too. He became a held-up specialist and was always there to deal with kicks. I'd say his best was better than say, Bowen's best. (But i'd still probably have taken Bowen at the Dogs over him when adding it all up).
Rob
Guest
Watching him early in his career it seemed as though he was going to be one of those special players who had their careers ruined by injuries. As a footy fan i'm glad that wasn't the case as is he is incredible to watch. It might be a bit early for the immortal discussion and comparisons to Slater but if he maintains this level for another 4-5 years, I think he might just go down as the best fullback of all time.
Shane
Roar Pro
Fair chance, I’m definitely no knock on him.
Shane
Roar Pro
To my point, maybe if clubs with less financial clout were rewarded for developing exceptional juniors, they wouldn’t lose said juniors so often. Roosters don’t let go of too many superstars in their prime.
Nat
Roar Guru
Well, I'd have Richards over Caine if I was choosing Tigers. Hodgson would have to get a special mention. I was just reviewing the list above and I'd have to elevate Jack above that pack and just about the greatest ever Tigers FB would you agree?
kk
Roar Pro
Sorry for late reply, Nat. Answer : Yes. With more to come. Establishing the core group of ten + on the pathway to a premiership or even top 4 takes at least five years. The quest started in 2019 so I have pencilled in 2024 at the earliest on the patience meter.
Steven gunua
Guest
When Slater on the move,Every NRL full back find themselves no space in the representative football..Teddy definitely knew that, so he went and joined the Italy..Billy was recognized as the world class fullback.In 2015 ,all the best athlete in different sports in Australia compete to find out who is the best athletes and Billy won the best athletes medal,he was recognized as the world class best fullback..Teddy is small boy,he is just another seasonal fullback
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
What did Raper and Gasnier 'do for the game' then apart from being the best players in their positions, and winning grand finals and tests?