Suaalii loaned back to rugby league in 2026.

[Schooner]

I think the talk of them coming back is just media hype. Manu has said he is not coming back after the first season of rugby he will look at other rugby options if he goes alright next year. Sualii wont get a better deal than Rugby Australia for the next 5 years. After that he will have to look at a serious downgrade even if he is very successful as he is being paid much more than an outside back is worth in either code. He would take time to readapt to league again.

[Mr Whippet]

$4 million player option in his favour for seasons 2028 and 2029[/URL] – but sources talking anonymously to protect confidentiality said the 21-year-old was recently the subject of talks between his current and former employers over a cross-code sabbatical.

While it is not unusual for rugby players to be granted sabbaticals to play Japanese or French rugby, RA considered the unprecedented idea of loaning its star signing to a rival code in a deal that would have seen Suaalii playing for the Roosters in between the marquee years of a 2025 British and Irish Lions tour and a home Rugby World Cup in 2027.

Waugh told the Herald he was approached by the Roosters about the idea, but that it didn’t go much further. The Roosters declined to comment. Suaalii’s manager Isaac Moses did not respond to attempts to contact him.
Waugh confirmed he had given brief consideration to an arrangement that could have seen Suaalii’s monster five-year, $8.5 million deal partly financed by a rival code.

However, the talks fell over when the Roosters learnt that Suaalii had a two-year player option in his favour for 2028 and 2029 to remain in the 15-a-side code for almost $2 million a season.

The Roosters paid Suaalii close to $800,000 in 2024 and would not have been willing to pay him much more if he was to return to the sport.

RA was equally reluctant to tip in a large amount of Suaalii’s contract for him to play another sport and the two parties agreed to end the conversation. RA remains open to the idea of Suaalii serving a sabbatical playing rugby overseas despite it having no contractual arrangements to do so.

RA currently owns the Waratahs, the team Suaalii will play for in the Super Rugby competition next year. A deal with an overseas rugby club could alleviate the financial toll Suaalii’s salary might have on the sport’s bottom line, especially with an $80 million loan hanging over its head.
Sydney Roosters billionaire chairman Nick Politis was last year quoted as saying that Suaalii was “always a Rooster”, despite him inking a deal with the Wallabies.

“Joseph is a good guy, a good kid,” Politis told Channel Nine last year. “It’s sad that we’ve lost him to union, but he tells us he’s coming back in 2028.”
The Roosters are now privately resigned to Suaalii not playing in the NRL until at least 2030, when he will be 26 years old coming into the season.

While Waugh was coy on his conversations with the Roosters, he admitted rugby league wasn’t the enemy.

“We need to co-exist with rugby league,” he said. “I’m less concerned about girls or boys playing league and AFL - as long as they are experiencing rugby. You’re not going to get me going head-to-head with Roosters and I think we can co-exist successfully and have done since rugby league was started.”

2 Year option at 2 million a year and a 40 million debt, good work ARU.
All this we have to co exist, BS they've run the white flag up.
Io recon there's blood in the water and old Nick knows it.

[Chook2]

His management couldn’t give a shit
just wants the highest pay check
he was no where near $800k for us for most of the last two seasons except maybe the last 6 weeks
tries hard and busts his gut back lacks the skills and talent
We lost out there paying overs for him
and Aus rugby will go broke trying to keep him

[bondi.boy]

We need to forget about Suaalii and move on. Buy or make a gun rugba leeg centre.
Big, strong, fast, muscular centre who can tackle and score tries.

[bondi.boy]

His management couldn’t give a shit
just wants the highest pay check
he was no where near $800k for us for most of the last two seasons except maybe the last 6 weeks
tries hard and busts his gut back lacks the skills and talent
We lost out there paying overs for him
and Aus rugby will go broke trying to keep him

Amen.

[Bondicigar]

I wonder who else they have available to loan out
or better still try the All blacks first.

[Headless Chook]

I wonder who else they have available to loan out
or better still try the All blacks first.

I wonmder if Max Jorgensen is back on the agenda for us at all

[ism22]

We need to forget about Suaalii and move on. Buy or make a gun rugba leeg centre.
Big, strong, fast, muscular centre who can tackle and score tries.

Somebody like... Mark N?

[bondi.boy]

Somebody like... Mark N?

Well, yes.

[On the Nose]

I don’t want suaalii or Manu back if they keep switching back and forth, what kind of stability it that?

first time in a while our club seems desperate.

If either of these 2 come back, the whole "trying to build culture" thing is just a crock of

[mightyrooster]

If either of these 2 come back, the whole "trying to build culture" thing is just a crock of

Then it must be a crock of ….at the Riff and Storm too because that’s all those clubs crap on about as well.

[ism22]

If either of these 2 come back, the whole "trying to build culture" thing is just a crock of

I think Manu's part of our culture and just got a bit stale.

Sua'ali'i? Farked if I know what to say really. I have no idea what the guy did to earn selection for NSW! Throbbing good athlete and top bloke too, but where were the 70m tries outta nowhere when we needed them?

Harsh on a young bloke but if he were on ~$400k and didn't engage in a public cross-code battle earning him millions, then I'd have some sympathy. I don't think he played like an invincible, $800k winger this year though. Heck, he didn't even play for 1/2 the season due to a stupid tackle (which was a crock and IMO as the season went on people realised Walsh & Mam simply got lucky in 2023... but STILL!!! It was one of the first plays and it was avoidable...)