Million Dollar Man: How much can a Teddy bear?

While he only has one Dally M Medal to show for it, James Tedesco has been the best individual player in the NRL for the past four seasons.

Sure, Tom Trbojevic, Jack Wighton and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck may have been deserving winners in their respective years, and Nathan Cleary is regarded as the player most coaches would take if they were starting a team from scratch, but if you balance it out since 2018, there’s really no comparison.

As for why I’ve gone with the seemingly arbitrary number of four seasons, the most important step in Tedesco becoming the dominant, two-premiership-winning fullback he is today was moving to the Roosters.

It may have been a tough decision for him to leave the Wests Tigers, but it was undoubtedly the right call for him as a player.

He’s gone from being an exceptional running threat at the Tigers to essentially becoming a second five-eighth for the Roosters, developing a sweet passing game under Trent Robinson.

(Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

Perhaps most importantly, his leadership has progressed to the point that when his former club teammate Boyd Cordner was forced to hang up his boots, Tedesco was his natural successor at both the Roosters and for NSW, with the smart money on Teddy also stepping up as Australia’s skipper at the World Cup at the end of this season.

And while youngsters and bit-part players performed above and beyond expectations last season as the Chooks suffered one of the worst injury tolls in recent memory, it was Tedesco that held it all together, leading his side to an improbable second-week finals appearance.

As I wrote following the Roosters’ finals victory over the Titans, “while he hasn’t scored or set up as many tries as Tommy Turbo over the course of 2021, Tedesco’s has been a more mature and, dare I say, more consistent season… he’s still the best all-round fullback in the National Rugby League.”

While Teddy’s season was put to an inauspicious end the following week – in a 42-6 drubbing at the hands of Turbo’s Sea Eagles, no less – I stand by that statement.

However, since signing off for a well-earned break following what must have been an exhausting season for Tedesco, spent most of the year carrying a club on his shoulders, the 29-year-old had an offseason he’d rather forget.

Firstly, he underwent stem-cell surgery on his knee shortly after the end of the season. It was a procedure he’d undergone four years earlier and one which saw him unable to run until mid-January.

Given Tedesco’s first-grade debut, for the Tigers back in 2012, was cut short by a season-ending knee injury, there may be a bit of concern for his long-term prospects following yet another procedure.

What received far more attention, however, was the infamous ‘Squid Game’ incident.

For those who perhaps live under a rock (to be fair, that can be a more hospitable place than NRL Twitter), in late October, a woman of Vietnamese heritage alleged that Tedesco had yelled “Squid Games!” – a reference to a Korean Netflix show – at her outside a licensed venue in the early hours of the morning.

When challenged over his behaviour, he allegedly asked the woman and her friend if they knew who he was.

“It was a group of about ten footy boys, and I was pretty intimidated. It felt pretty bad being laughed at,” Tiffany Trinh told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“A 20-year-old tiny girl, waiting for a lift home and you have a bunch of guys come up to you and laugh at you for being Asian.

“It was definitely him, no doubt, and the comment was undeniably directed at me, the intent was clear.”

However, Roosters CEO Joe Kelly said that it was a mix-up, that Tedesco was simply talking about the show near Ms Trinh.

“After we found out about the Instagram post we thoroughly investigated the matter,” Kelly said.

“There was absolutely no interaction between James Tedesco with this group of people. We categorically deny that anything untoward occurred.”

But it turned out the club’s thorough investigation did not include actually speaking to Ms Trinh, so the NRL Integrity Unit stepped in and ended up proposing “a $10,000 fine and that he must undergo education and training as directed by the NRL”, because Tedesco “allegedly engaged in drunken and disorderly behaviour directed at members of the public which caused offence”.

For what it’s worth, Tedesco broke his silence on the matter with News Limited this week, saying he “spoke to who was affected and owned up to it”.

“It was more about owning up to that and taking responsibility,” Teddy said.

That said, he also gave himself a bit of an out on the whole situation, saying “it’s not that people are out to get you, but it’s hard to hold in your frustrations when people are getting into you… Especially in Bondi as well, in the east, there’s always trouble with people around and that’s where everyone wants to go out. You have to be careful.”

(Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

So he “owned up to” his behaviour, then told the general public it’s hard being a rich, famous, successful, white dude who hangs out in Australia’s wealthiest suburbs.

I’m also interested in what exactly it was Tedesco “owned up to”. Because if it was what Ms Trinh alleged, then both Tedesco and the game as a whole are a million miles off in terms of both behaviour and the way that behaviour is handled.

Legit, if the NSW skipper admitted to yelling “Squid Games” at a person of Asian heritage, he should be stripped of all captaincies and hit with one of the headiest fines in the game’s history.

But Teddy didn’t say anything about those alleged racist comments in his interview with News, and the NRL didn’t address the issue in their statement, which seems like a pretty glaring oversight given it was the reason there was an investigation in the first place.

I guess we just give Tedesco the benefit of the doubt, but even so, it was bizarre behaviour at best for the then-28-year-old presumptive Australian captain.

As to where an injury and a bad night on the piss leaves the best player of the last Olympiad?

Honestly, my money is on it all just being a speed bump. That with his full complement of teammates back on deck, with the tyros in the team all benefiting from an unexpected yet unexpectedly successful season in the top grade, Teddy and his team will be the benchmark of the comp yet again.

Million Dollar Man series
A look at each club’s million-dollar man – the player broadly acknowledged to be taking up the largest individual chunk of the salary cap (even if they aren’t actually quite grossing seven figures).
» Can Tevita Pangai Jr finally put it all together at the Bulldogs?
» An off year or the beginning of the end for Jason Taumalolo?
» Scorned by Souths, it’s Reynolds to the rescue in Brisbane
» How much blame does Luke Brooks deserve for the Wests Tigers’ finals drought?
» Addin Fonua-Blake took the green but can he stop seeing red?
» Ben Hunt and how a single moment can define an entire career
» Jack Wighton wins awards but can he win a comp?
» Andrew Fifita’s busted knees, induced coma and $100K per game
» David Fifita, the richest benchwarmer in NRL history
» Is Kalyn Ponga red and blue, Redcliffe or misread?
» Mitchell Moses and Sterlo’s curse

Best-case scenario
When you’re in a team that’s missing the likes of Luke Keary, Lindsay Collins, Sio Siua Taukeiaho, Sam Verrills, Joseph Manu, Billy Smith and Joseph Suaalii from the final game of the year, a clean bill of health is going to take you even further.

And given that final game of 2021 was the second week of the finals, well, there’s really not much further the Chooks can go!

Add in the fact their coach is one of the best in the game and a man who simply doesn’t settle for second-best, and the optimum outcome for the Tricolours is to secure grand final number three of the last five years.

Tedesco on the dais, the Clive Churchill Medal around his neck, raising the Provan-Summons Trophy is the ideal for the club and their captain.

And honestly, the odds of it happening would probably be pretty narrow.

Worst-case scenario
Blergh. You know what sucks? Worst-case scenario for the Roosters is bottom-half of the eight. Because we surely saw their worst-case in 2021 and yet there they were playing finals footy – and they only missed the top four on for and against!

Given a clean-ish bill of health (there will always be injuries), a bad year for the Roosters would be to not make the grand final.

Their floor is higher than most clubs’ ceilings, so the sight of James Tedesco, sat on the grass, absolutely spent and a little moist around the eyes after a bruising loss in the preliminary final would have to be rated as just about as bad as it would get for the skipper.

Congratulations, Roosters fans. You’re a real pack of bastards.