NRL: good business primes Roosters for Storm chasing

At some point in life you’d hope to attain the kind of clear-eyed perspective that has you agreeing with Tennyson, that it is indeed better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. But as so many young NRL fans will discover this coming season you don’t reach this point without first enduring a lot of long, lonely nights tearfully singing Simply the Best while hate-watching YouTube highlights packages of your former love carving them up.

Player movements are commonplace in professional sport but the shuffling of the decks that has taken place in the NRL over the off-season has been remarkable. It’s as if the clubs had a key party over summer. While it’s torn young hearts asunder to see their once favourite players pull on the colours of another club (a situation referenced by the NRL’s latest ad campaign) the club-swapping has added considerable intrigue to the 2018 season which commences at Kogarah Jubilee Oval on Thursday night.

This is particularly the case because of the quality of the players involved. Cooper Cronk (Storm to Roosters), James Tedesco (Tigers to Roosters), James Maloney (Sharks to Panthers), Matt Moylan (Panthers to Sharks), Josh Dugan (Dragons to Sharks), James Graham (Bulldogs to Dragons), Ben Hunt (Broncos to Dragons), Jack Bird (Sharks to Broncos), Jarryd Hayne (Titans to Eels), Dane Gagai (Knights to Souths), Mitchell Pearce (Roosters to Knights), Kalyn Ponga (Cowboys to Knights), Aidan Guerra (Roosters to Knights), Tohu Harris (Storm to Warriors), Kieran Foran (Warriors to Bulldogs), Josh Reynolds (Bulldogs to Tigers), and many others, all made off-season moves.

Source: theguardian