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Opinion
Should James Tedesco start thinking of a club and New South Wales representative move to centre or long shot five-eighth?
With this year’s Origin series seeing some changes in Tedesco’s involvement in the game, his form is still there but with his age should he now vacate the NSW 1 jersey to someone who’s entering their prime with back-to-back premiership rings?
Penrith Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards deserves his shot in the No.1.
The only question is, is NSW ready to do what Queensland did this Origin series, blooding a young Reece Walsh ahead of Kalyn Ponga, former Queensland incumbent fullback.
If NSW are ready to carry out such a move of one of the state’s most favoured sons in Tedesco, the credentials of a NSW great, before this reporter aims to justify his opinion that Edwards deserves the 1 jersey he must first acknowledge the efforts of the NSW great which is Tedesco.
Teddy came into the NSW set-up at a time when the team hadn’t really cemented some sort of consistent series wins and contributed immensely to the 2018 and 2019 series wins. The man is practically one of NSW’s best.
However, NSW must also take Tedesco’s form into consideration. To do what’s best for NSW, he should seriously consider a switch to centre or five-eighth experimentally at the Roosters.
The case study I use is the one involving a Queensland unsung hero called Darius Boyd. In 2016, incumbent Maroons fullback Billy Slater had been injured. Twenty-eight-year-old Boyd was fullback in all three games in a series-winning team effort.
Then you have him play Game 2 of the 2017 series – Boyd showed awareness even though not playing at centre before, the vision and skill to be a decent centre.
The time is right for NSW to usher in its next champion fullback that, with all respect to James Tedesco and everything he’s done with the Roosters, NSW and Australia, it is the window of opportunity for NSW.
How long will Edwards keep knocking, until the door opens? At 27 Edwards is one of the game’s most elite fullbacks and in NSW, himself, Latrell Mitchell and Tom Trbojevic are in a class above Cronulla’s Will Kennedy and Parramatta’s Clint Gutherson.
However, unlike Turbo and Mitchell, Edwards is a specialist fullback, and that’s what NSW need: a like-for-like specialist fullback who has a lot of great qualities similar to Tedesco. Turbo and Mitchell look best utilised for NSW in the centres.
However, with Trbojevic’s injury issues, should Tedesco now look at experimenting at centre or five-eighth like Boyd did at the back end of his career at the Broncos?
Should Teddy play another year at fullback and see Edwards turn 28, or should NSW now blood their next elite custodian?
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