The Sydney Roosters are rallying around champion five-eighth Luke Keary as the three-time premiership-winner deals with his latest fight against concussion.
The Roosters have long been regarded as the benchmark club when it comes to dealing with players who have sustained repeated head knocks.
Champion backrower, NSW and Australian captain Boyd Cordner was forced into an early retirement at the beginning of last season as was co-captain and Tricolours favourite son Jake Friend.
Keary is the latest Roosters star facing a challenging cross road after sustaining his most recent head knock in the round 14 loss to the Melbourne Storm.
The Roosters are taking a cautious approach with the hugely-popular pivot with the club hopeful the 2018 Clive Churchill Medallist will be available for the round 18 match against St George Illawarra on the Central Coast.
With the Rooster scheduled for a bye following Friday night’s blockbuster against premiers Penrith in round 16, it means Keary can be given some valuable breathing space.
The timeline means Keary will have a full month of rest from heavy contact and can do all the necessary medical testing required.
The Roosters are renowned for sparing no expense in this space and will make sure Keary is getting the best medical advice available.
The best case scenario is Keary makes a full recovery and returns to try and spearhead the Chooks towards this year’s finals.
One of the other alternatives is the Roosters have to look at a medical retirement – a road no one at the club wants to see Keary forced into.
Keary is still signed at the Roosters until the end of 2024 on a deal believed to be worth around $850,000-a-season.
So it’s a big call with two years left on his current contract.
If the three-time premiership-winner is forced into retirement the Roosters will have to pay out his contract but it will not be included on the club’s salary cap.
The NRL would need to approve any medical retirement but given Keary’s well-documented history with concussions it’s unlikely there would be any issues.
The Roosters remain hopeful the club favourite son will return to the playing arena soon with a view to piloting the Tricolours towards the finals.
GUS CLEARS AIR WITH DISGRUNTLED SPONSOR
Canterbury boss Phil Gould has broken bread with the powerful Laundy family, the Bulldogs major sponsor.
The Laundy’s were initially unimpressed when they were left out of the loop about Trent Barrett being moved on from the club.
Gould has since had a sit down with the family patriarch Arthur Laundy and the relationship is back to being extremely strong.
Hotel baron Laundy was the architect who initially got Gus back into the fold at Belmore with a view to fixing the club’s ongoing poor results.
The Laundy’s are now currently in negotiations about extending their tenure as the major sponsor at Canterbury-Bankstown.
The next challenge for the Bulldogs will be working out a way to try and retain NSW State of Origin centre Matt Burton beyond next year.
The Laundy’s played a major role in bringing Burton to Belmore with Arthur travelling to his hometown of Dubbo to meet his parents.
Burton’s management has told the Bulldogs he will not be taking up the option in his contract for a third season at Canterbury-Bankstown in 2024 until he knows who the club’s new coach is going to be.
BLUES PAIR WHO MUST FIRE TO BREAK SUNCORP HOODOO
The last time the NSW Blues orchestrated a series win at Suncorp Stadium was back in 2005 when champion playmaking pair Joey Johns and Danny Buderus were in career-best touch.
It might be 17 years later but there’s an argument the Blues pair of Nathan Cleary and Api Korisau are in a similar vein of form off the back of State of Origin II – and they’ll need to be.
The Maroons at home will be a completely different proposition to the Queensland side comprehensively outplayed in the second half in Perth off the back of the Felise Kaufusi sin-binning and NSW having 61 per cent of possession.
There’s also no way Cameron Munster will be kept as quiet as he was in the final 40 minutes of Origin II – even if he is carrying an AC joint injury which will mean he misses Thursday’s round 16 clash between the Melbourne Storm and Manly.
BURGESS REVEALS $1M GAL OFFER
English international James Graham is fast making a name for himself as a multimedia star.
Articulate, funny and quick with a left-field train of thought, Graham is a regular on Fox Legaue’s NRL360, Triple M’s Sunday Sin Bin and is now also embarking on a podcast project titled The Bye Round With James Graham.
In the latest episode, Graham sits down with great mate Sam Burgess — the fellow English international he famously locked horns with in the 2014 NRL grand final.
It’s a cracking listen with Burgess at one point revealing he was offered $1 million to fight retired NSW captain Paul Gallen inside the boxing ring.
“No I won’t be getting in the boxing ring,” Burgess said.
“I got offered to fight Gallen. I initially said no and then the contract came again.
“And I said ‘no’. And then the contracts came again and I liked the contract.
“Six minutes work, it was three two minute rounds.
“But it was another decision I was going to make based on money.
“The $1 million would have been nice but in the long run the cost would have outweighed the benefit.
“I’ve got a bung left shoulder. No joke, I tried to do a bit of training but I would have been taking the mick out of boxing.
“I think it probably would have been a bit disrespectful to all the boxers who are out slogging away.
“I’d have got paid more than all of them would have. I appreciate what they do.
“I’m not going to make a career out of it. I’m just snatching and grabbing a mil.”
ROOSTERS SET SIGHTS ON COWBOYS FLYER
Matt Lodge isn’t the only forward the Sydney Roosters have been crunching their recruitment numbers on.
Queensland Origin backrower and North Queensland Cowboys forward Jeremiah Nanai is the latest emerging talent the Chooks have got on their radar.
Nanai, who has only played 17 NRL games, has caught fire at the Cowboys this season to the point where Billy Slater had no hesitation bringing him straight into the Queensland Maroons set-up for the Origin series.
There were a host of clubs queued up for Nanai earlier in the season until he inked a one-year extension with the Cowboys until the end of 2023.
The Cowboys forward will be a free agent again as of November 1 and the Roosters have pinpointed the out-of-the-box backrower as a priority signing.
Still only 19, Nanai has shown a freakish knack for putting himself in the right position to score tries bagging 11 four-pointers in only 13 games this season.
TIGERS’ FIVE-STAR PR MOVE
SPOTTED: The Wests Tigers on the charm offensive with select media at well-known rugby league lunch venue Grappa in Leichhardt.
Tigers director of football Tim Sheens and chairman Lee Hagipantelis hosted a handful of journos on Tuesday as the club looks to try and improve its image.
The Tigers embarked on a similar exercise earlier in the year at the same venue – the irony being previous head coach Michael Maguire was also present.
Grappa is well-known as the alternative Rugby League Central for some of the biggest names in the game.
Owner Charlie Colosi is famous for rolling out the red carpet with his signature slow-cooked lamb shoulder or the tagliolini pasta with WA crab meat, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, garlic, chilli and parsley.
Ever the quality host, Charlie always insists on a limoncello at the end of every meal
