Tedesco open to positional move

[A Country Member]

James is open to playing 5/8 in a bid to keep Manu and Suaalii at the club. Also said he would like to play til he’s 35 (29 now) and possibly reach 300+ games.

This raises a few questions:

• Where does Keary go if James plays 5/8?
• Who plays fullback, Manu (26) or Suaalii (19) ?
• Will Brandon Smith have a battle with Joey for the 9 jersey ?
• Whats Tedesco’s clearing, tactical and short kicking like?
• Whats Tedesco’s organisational play like?
• Is there a way to play 3 fullbacks?

Anyway, good to hear unselfish thoughts and ways to prolong his glittered career.

[Rooster36]

Unselfish is the word from this great club….. TIT and TIN

i think fullback is fast becoming a very fluid position

[Rooster_6]

I think his more natural move as he enters the end of his career would be to centre if he doesn't just play out the rest of his career at fullback and Slater has shown it can be done.

[Roosterfarian]

Centre? Are you serious?

Personally I don’t think he would be any more impactful than his current position- Fullback.

He is not a half or centre.

[SupermanSupportsEasts4Eva]

IMO we are better off keeping Teddy at FB and playing Manu at 5/8. JS will just have to wait his turn. His only 19. 3-4 or5 years more at wing or centre won't kill his career

[Steakface]

If this is being discussed internally, it means a Keary retirement at seasons end is almost certain. I hope we can send him out a winner if that's the case.

Tedesco would be a better option than Manu at 6 (I've predicted this move previously)

He is a smaller body, sharper off the mark the Manu. Teddy's passing game is better suited to 5/8 as well. Teddy's short kicking is quite good, but long kicking is a bit of an unknown.

Robbo will possibly want to mould Walker into a more conservative game manager if this move happened too.

Manu to fullback. Sualli to centre.

[QWERTY]

Centre? Are you serious?

Personally I don’t think he would be any more impactful than his current position- Fullback.

He is not a half or centre.

If he were to move i’d rather him in centre than 5/8th, has no kicking game

[OMR]

If and only if Keary retires then Teddy to 5/8 Manu to fb and Sualli centre

[milanja]

Did keary cop another head knock that I missed? Why would he be retiring?

[ism22]

> “I played five-eighth for Italy at the World Cup. It could be an option down the track. You never know. The fullback and five-eighth roles are the same these days. You see [Cameron] Munster do it at Melbourne.

> “It requires a different fitness. Fullbacks do a lot of running, but five-eighth you’re a lot more forward and making more tackles.

> “I’ll leave it to Robbo. I do know every club would want Suaalii and Joey at their club.”

Sounds like very much a theoretical future to me...

[Roosta4life]

Very poorly written article based purely on speculation.

[A Country Member]

If he were to move i’d rather him in centre than 5/8th, has no kicking game

He boots dropouts 50+ more often than not

[Rooster_6]

Centre? Are you serious?

Personally I don’t think he would be any more impactful than his current position- Fullback.

He is not a half or centre.

Obviously not going to be more impactful than he is at fullback but that wasn’t the point I was making, just that he would be naturally a better centre than 5/8. I remember watching him play centre in the 2013 World Cup and thought he was a possible option for NSW there.

[Rooster_6]

He boots dropouts 50+ more often than not

I reckon more not than often, his consistency with drop outs is all over the place. I’ve posted before that he seems to rush his kicking too much but when he hits them sweetly they do fly.

[FlamingRooster]

I think his more natural move as he enters the end of his career would be to centre if he doesn't just play out the rest of his career at fullback and Slater has shown it can be done.

Agree. I think when he's 33/34 he'll let Suaalii move to fullback (if hes still heere)