- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Opinion
Such is their embarrassment of riches at the fullback position, Australian selectors can’t go wrong.
James Tedesco has reached a point in his career where he is not necessarily the top fullback in the NRL but that doesn’t mean he should be stripped of the Kangaroos’ No.1 jersey.
Reece Walsh, Dylan Edwards and Kalyn Ponga have outshone Tedesco on the field at club level in 2023.
Walsh also outperformed him in the first couple of Origin matches before his ref abuse cost him a third Queensland jersey.
But it was just 10 months ago that Tedesco led Australia to an unbeaten defence of their World Cup crown in the UK, a trickier assignment than most people think given the raft of players who were unavailable after declaring their allegiances to other nations.
Ultimately the only two games where the Kangaroos were truly tested were the semi-final against New Zealand and the decider against Samoa but the team needed to be peaking at the right time of the tournament with a disparate squad which had previously spent little time together.
James Tedesco. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
With the International Rugby League finally getting its act together last week and announcing a calendar until the end of the decade (like one of them proper global sports like), the Kangaroos, and all other teams for that matter, can now think long term.
The captaincy of the national rugby league side should be a post that is occupied for at least two or three years to give the team stability of leadership, like the Australian cricket team, not passed around with a different skipper year to year like it has been in the past with the Kangaroos.
Tedesco’s grown into the role of being a leader in the past couple of years at the Roosters, NSW and Australia, following on from former teammate Boyd Cordner after his career was cut short by concussions.
The next World Cup is in 2026, which looks like being a year or two too far away for Tedesco to retain the post but the 30-year-old deserves another crack when coach Mal Meninga picks a squad for the tri-series with Samoa and New Zealand which is due to kick off in mid-October.
A Kangaroos captain shouldn’t automatically get the flick if rival players have shown better form over the course of a few months.
Meninga himself was not one of the best two centres in the game at the tail end of his career as Australian captain – the likes of Andrew Ettingshausen, Steve Renouf and Paul McGregor had overtaken him by the time he had his swansong on the 1994 Kangaroo Tour but there was never any doubt that he would hold his spot.
Walsh is one of the most exciting prospects in league since the Greg Inglis/Jarryd Hayne/Israel Folau crop of talent 15 years ago.
But the 21-year-old still has some growing up to do, as we saw with his petulant referee rant during the upset loss to the Gold Coast a few weeks back, and far from the finished product. That was evident again on Friday night in Brisbane’s cakewalk win over Parramatta – he was a key element in some blistering attack, then coughed up possession a couple of times when he chanced his arm with a low-percentage play.
Reece Walsh. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
In a year or two, he could position himself to have an extended run as Australia’s fullback along the lines of his Queensland coach Billy Slater’s near uninterrupted reign of 30 Tests from 2008-14 before shoulder injuries struck in the latter stages of his career.
Ponga has been dynamic for the Knights as they’ve surged into the finals equation with five straight wins but setting aside his recent history of missing plenty of game time due to concussions, he’s not done enough to unseat Walsh or Tedesco from their representative berths.
Tom Trbojevic is again out of the picture due to injury while Latrell Mitchell has the talent but his frequent hamstring and calf complaints have stymied his representative career over the past couple of years as well.
Edwards is the player who should be Australia’s fullback if Tedesco is unexpectedly punted at the end of this season.
The 27-year-old Panther is as close to the complete player that you can have in an NRL fullback.
There is not a weak spot in his game and even though he is not the biggest, quickest or strongest in his position, he’s been the best arguably for the past two seasons.
(Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
Consistently outshining allcomers with metre-eating, not overplaying his hand as a creator when popping up on either side of Penrith’s attacking shapes and reliable under the high ball or in defence.
A lot of fullbacks have been called safe over the years and it’s usually a euphemism for dependable but not overly exciting.
Edwards is both solid and potent. Or as Jackie Chiles would describe his assets, they’re real and spectacular.
That should be putting plenty of pressure on Tedesco but he deserves one more chance to show he’s still up to the task.