James Tedesco’s late strike in a Roosters side that collapsed to an 18-16 loss against the Cowboys on Sunday left the club’s powerbrokers less than impressed. Tedesco was called into the Blues camp on matchday as an injury replacement for Dylan Edwards, who missed Wednesday night’s State of Origin opener with a quad injury.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson refused to use Tedesco’s late NRL neglect as an excuse for his side’s loss to a struggling Cowboys side missing six players due to Origin commitments. The Roosters were also missing five Origin stars after their captain was a late call-up to the Blues squad after coach Michael Maguire initially dropped him as NSW skipper and replaced him with winger Edwards.
But veteran News Corp league reporter Phil Rothfield told The Big Sports Breakfast on Monday that Roosters management were unhappy with how the Tedesco situation had unfolded and how it had left them struggling to change their starting side on matchday. “Clubs have to give up a lot on country of origin.
(Cowboys and Roosters) were missing 10 players from yesterday’s game and then Tedesco had to give up,” Rothfield said.”They weren’t happy because it happened on a game day, they were fine, they gave up. every other player a week ago when the teams announced they felt it could be the difference between winning and losing in a close game. of football, Tedesco’s managed to keep his side together with the management. You can’t blame James for wanting to play, it would have been interesting if he fought back and smeared them..
