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Opinion
The return of Luke Keary from an ACL tear has the potential to take the Roosters from gallant finals over-achievers to their fourth title in the space of a decade.
Constantly under-rated in comparison to the NRL’s other genuinely elite playmakers over the course of his career, Keary’s return, coupled with the rise of the club’s talented youngsters, means they enter the season as one of the main threats for the premiership.
Trent Robinson’s troops battled bravely against the ravages of an injury toll which would have sent most clubs to the bottom of the ladder last year.
They still managed to finish fifth and reach the second round of the finals despite the fact that many of their most important and experienced players spent little or no time at all on the field.
Boyd Cordner was forced to retire without playing a game due to ongoing concussions while co-captain also had to hang up his boots for the same reason after a heavy knock in round one.
Keary tore his ACL in his third match, centre Billy Smith (foot) played the same amount of games and teen prodigy Joseph Suaalii managed five games before season-ending foot surgery.
Front-rower Lindsay Collins was bound for Queensland’s Origin side until his knee injury after six games and legendary winger Brett Morris’ season, and career, was over in the same fixture after just seven games when he also suffered an ACL tear.
Sam Verrills and Victor Radley were also in and out of the line-up but despite all the hurdles, the Roosters conjured up a 16-8 record.
“To watch it from afar, it made me proud to be part of the club but I didn’t expect anything less to be honest,” Keary wrote in an Athletes Voice column this week.
“I feel like that group, the coaching staff, that’s what they expect and anything less than that would have been unacceptable. All the boys who look back on that season don’t look back on it as a failure. The character they showed made it a successful year for the club.”
Luke Keary (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
The value of Keary is the way he keeps opposition lines guessing.
In his last full season of 2020 when he was mostly paired with Kyle Flanagan in the halves, he ranked second overall in the NRL for line engagements at 132 in 20 games behind Nathan Cleary’s 158.
For a small player this is no easy accomplishment. Running deep into the line before passing to a support player or continuing into the awaiting bigger bodies ready to mete out punishment takes guts. It’s what separates the good playmakers from the great ones.
He’s literally one tough little Rooster.
It’s no coincidence that Keary rated sixth in the NRL for try assists with 18 and was also top 10 for line break assists with 13.
The three-time premiership winner (once at the Rabbitohs and twice at the Roosters, including the 2018 Clive Churchill Medal performance) not only starts offence but is a five-star performer when it comes to supporting a teammate’s break.
Two seasons ago he ranked fifth in the league, and was best at the Roosters ahead of even fullback James Tedesco, with support plays at 236.
Keary, who also had an ankle clean-out operation during his year out of the game, is confident of being good to go for round one when the Roosters return to the SCG to face Newcastle on March 12 although Robinson has indicated he is still yet to be convinced.
He will sit out Friday’s trial against the Tigers in Gosford, along with Tedesco, who is not injured but is having his workload managed at the start of a busy year which ends in November with the World Cup.
On face value, a playmaking duo of Keary and whizz-kid Sam Walker may seem like pairing two players of similar stature and style.
But if Walker can keep building on his natural organising game, he will find Keary to be the perfect complementary piece. Not a big five-eighth like Cameron Munster or Cody Walker but one who is not afraid to run to the line and initiate the kind of attack which can take the Roosters back to grand final night.