The Roosters’ Sam Walker standoff is a premiership gamble they don’t need
Reynolds deserves one last lap
Adam Reynolds deserves a farewell game, although the fear after he injured his calf at training is that one of the great modern halfback careers may have reached its end without warning. He was due to undergo scans, and rugby league can only hope the injury gives him one more chance to leave through the front door.
Reynolds has played more than 300 games and won premierships at two clubs, having overcome an ACL injury as a young player before helping end a 43-season drought in 2014. He later took Brisbane to the 2023 grand final, then helped the Broncos break their own 20-season premiership drought.
The criticism that he was injury-prone always ignored the greater truth: Reynolds made teams better because he understood how to control them. He also had the humility to let Brisbane’s younger stars command the marquee while he supplied the calm, honesty and kicking game around them.
Souths forced him out and haven’t made the finals since. Time has exposed that decision for what it was: a dead-set howler. Whatever the scans reveal, Reynolds leaves as a champion who never needed the public-relations polish to prove it.
Penrith want more than two points
Penrith don’t merely want to beat the Roosters at CommBank Stadium; I reckon they want to leave a psychological bruise that survives until September. This is a final arriving before the finals, and the absences make the mental contest even sharper.
James Tedesco is out for the Roosters, while I expect Dylan Edwards to return after missing football since round 20 with a shoulder issue. Edwards restores leadership to a Penrith side still waiting on Mitch Kenny and coming off the loss of Isaah Yeo, whereas Tedesco’s absence strips the Chooks of their most reliable source of authority and escape.
Penrith will make the top four regardless, and they already understand September better than anyone. The Roosters have more to gain because winning would validate their premiership credentials and strengthen their belief that this campaign is different.
But that is precisely why Penrith will attack the contest so fiercely. Champions don’t just collect victories; they plant doubts in the opposition and wait for them to flower when the pressure rises.
Walker must shut the circus down
Sam Walker and the Roosters should park contract negotiations until October and concentrate on winning the competition. That is the only sensible response to a stalemate that exploded into headlines about 36 hours after a meeting involving five or six people produced no deal.
Walker’s camp was unhappy with the proposed terms, the Roosters did not counter in the way I expected, and both sides are now staring at each other across the table waiting for somebody to blink. They have been here before and eventually resolved Walker’s previous deal, which is why I still think common sense can prevail.
Yet the pressure now belongs overwhelmingly to Walker. He has played very well, made Origin and performed strongly there, but the unresolved question is whether he can lead a club through the decisive games that define a million-dollar halfback. Facing Nathan Cleary, the best No.7 of the modern era, will only intensify that examination.
If Walker reaches November 1, Canterbury and Papua New Guinea will consider him, while I reckon Brisbane would be mad not to investigate if he is genuinely available. Melbourne in 2028 is another real possibility in my view, particularly with Cameron Munster wanting to finish under Craig Bellamy and Billy tipped as the next coach.
The Roosters possess enough young halves to contemplate life without Walker, including Toby Rodwell, Hugo Savala and teenage standout Carter Gordon. But they don’t rebuild; they reset and chase the trophy again. Walker must decide whether he wants to remain at a club he loves or discover how quickly the market turns promise into expectation.
Canberra’s seven-day gamble is the right call
Canberra should force clarity on Hudson Young rather than allow his future to poison their roster planning for months. The Raiders have a fight on their hands, with fears Papua New Guinea could blow them out of the water, and sentiment cannot be allowed to become a salary-cap strategy.
The expectation is that Young’s agent, Sammy Ayou, will travel to Canberra within the next fortnight as both sides try to strike a deal. If they cannot, the Raiders are considering giving Young seven days to negotiate exclusively with Papua New Guinea, including the opportunity to visit Port Moresby.
It sounds dangerous because Papua New Guinea has a powerful pitch, but uncertainty is more dangerous. If Young accepts Canberra’s offer, the club retains a terrific player and favourite son; if he leaves, the Raiders know what money they have and can attack the market immediately.
There is also mail linking Young with Brisbane through his Michael Maguire connection, although I don’t know how much substance it carries or how the Broncos could fit him. My preference is clear: Young should remain in lime green. Canberra, though, are handling a difficult fight as well as they can.
Jet’s return is family business, not a succession plot
Jet Cleary returning to Penrith makes complete sense, but I’m not ready to turn it into some grand conspiracy about the Panthers’ next halves combination. The attraction is simpler and more human: Jet can train full-time beside Nathan Cleary and spend a season being coached by Ivan Cleary, an opportunity few families ever receive.
Father-son coaching arrangements can become awkward, as Brad Arthur and Shane Flanagan discovered, but Ivan’s partnership with Nathan has worked because Nathan is the best player in the game. Jet should be developed carefully rather than rushed into first grade to complete a family portrait.
Blaize Talagi being on the outer creates an intriguing positional wrinkle. A Talagi move elsewhere, potentially as a long-term fullback, could open space, while I’ve heard with some substance that Parramatta may try to bring back the player who got away. Their rebuild has spent too long wandering around in the dark, and recovering a versatile talent capable of starting on the wing before moving into the centres would at least resemble a plan.
The bigger clock belongs to Nathan. He has previously indicated he could reach November 1, and if he remains unsigned then, I’ll take it as evidence he is genuinely exploring his options and will probably leave. I don’t buy rugby union as the irresistible legacy play. Penrith still offers him the stage that made him.
PNG’s tax advantage fails the pub test
The tax-free element of Papua New Guinea’s recruitment pitch is ethically indefensible unless somebody can explain why a group of highly paid footballers should contribute nothing to the local economy hosting them.
The proposition is confronting: 30-odd men could become part of the country’s top one per cent of earners, make more in a day than many locals earn in a year and pay no tax there. Rugby league can celebrate expansion without pretending that arrangement is fair. It isn’t.
Nor am I entirely convinced player managers are merely using Papua New Guinea as an empty bargaining chip. Clubs have extensive networks and can quickly test whether rival interest is genuine, while Papua New Guinea appears interested in plenty of elite players and possesses obvious financial leverage.
That makes transparency essential. If the project wants credibility beyond recruitment headlines, it must explain why local supporters should embrace stars who enjoy the country’s hospitality while being insulated from one of citizenship’s most basic obligations. Expansion should build something, not simply extract applause and talent.
