{"id":936083,"date":"2026-10-21T20:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T20:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936083\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T20:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T20:38:16","slug":"nrl-news-roosters-2027-squad-and-joey-manu-pursuit-after-premiership-success-of-daly-cherry-evans-mark-nawaqanitawase-cooper-cronk-sonny-bill-williams-under-trent-robinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936083\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news, Roosters 2027 squad and Joey Manu pursuit after premiership success of Daly Cherry-Evans, Mark Nawaqanitawase, Cooper Cronk, Sonny Bill Williams under Trent Robinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many analysts will be tipping the Roosters<\/a> to go backwards in 2027.<\/p>\n

After all, there is only one way you can go once you\u2019ve reached the top.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Can Joey Manu (left) emulate the instant success of Sonny Bill Williams and Daly Cherry-Evans?\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Trent Robinson<\/a> is set to lose at least six players from his squad that clinched the premiership this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Nawaqanitawase<\/a>\u00a0and Angus Crichton<\/a> are jumping ship to rugby, Daly Cherry-Evans<\/a> is headed to the Super League, Connor Watson<\/a> is driving down the highway to play for the Dragons<\/a>, Spencer Leniu is joining the Eels, and winger Daniel Tupou has hung up the boots<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They are all stars in their own right who played big roles in the success of the Tricolours \u2013 albeit Watson missed the big dance due to concussion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Oh, and assistant coaches Michael Cheika and Matt King are also gone.<\/p>\n

But while the line-up is losing some star power, rivals have been put on notice by a report from nine.com.au\u2019s The Mole this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Roosters are exploring the possibility of bringing back superstar Joey Manu<\/a> for a \u201cguest stint\u201d before joining Papua New Guinea<\/a> for the inaugural Chiefs season in 2028.<\/p>\n

Manu was one of the best players in the NRL<\/a> before packing his bags and flying overseas at the end of 2024 to try his hand at rugby.<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s been out of the game for a couple of years, he would still be one of the better centres in rugby league and adds an X-factor to any side he slots into.<\/p>\n

With Nawaqanitawase\u00a0and Tupou disappearing from the flanks next year, bringing Manu into the backline for the second half of the season would inject some serious talent.<\/p>\n

The knock-on effect will, obviously, cost one player their spot in the team that evolves through the early part of next season.<\/p>\n

But the Roosters have a history of making bold signing gambles which tread on toes but have often been rewarded by an immediate premiership.<\/p>\n

The Chooks finished 13th on the ladder in 2012 before Robinson was brought to the club to replace seasoned coach Brian Smith.<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s signing was a gamble in itself, given he was relatively unknown in Australia at the time.<\/p>\n

The club also added Sonny Bill Williams to the roster that year.<\/p>\n

Williams was a Bulldogs phenom when he burst onto the NRL scene in 2004 and spent just four seasons in the blue and white before his bombshell defection to rugby.<\/p>\n

The Roosters brought him back to league to do a job and together with the guidance of rookie coach Robinson, the Roosters won the premiership in 2013. Mission accomplished.<\/p>\n

The club, led by uncompromising billionaire chairman Nick Politis, shocked the league again in 2017 when they went after Storm champion Cooper Cronk, and landed his signature.<\/p>\n

It meant pushing the club\u2019s favourite son Mitchell Pearce out the door, and at the time it raised eyebrows from fans.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cooper Cronk with Luke Keary celebrate winning the 2018 grand final.\u00a0nna\\telbra<\/p>\n

But, again, it paid off with premierships in 2018 and 2019, before Cronk retired with a perfect record in the red, white and blue.<\/p>\n

Two years ago the Chooks took a punt on Nawaqanitawase.<\/p>\n

He was an obvious talent in rugby but his introduction to the 13-man code was far from smooth, with many critics highlighting his error rate and defensive deficiencies early in his NRL career.<\/p>\n

He left the game this month as an Ashes winner with Australia, a State of Origin champ with NSW, and with a fresh premiership ring on his finger.<\/p>\n

Along the way the Roosters also brought veteran halfback Daly Cherry-Evans south of the bridge to Moore Park for a hit-and-run job.<\/p>\n

On the back of a bizarre Chad Townsend sojourn that spectacularly failed the year prior, critics once again questioned the strategy of bringing an ageing halfback to a club where Sam Walker and Hugo Savala were seen as the future.<\/p>\n

Twelve months later, the Cherry-Evans signing was proven a stroke of genius. He kicked the field goal that decided the grand final in a one-point win over Newcastle.<\/p>\n

Critics will always claim the Chooks buy premierships, but it\u2019s better than sticking with the status quo and being a perennial also-ran.<\/p>\n

Will the brief return of Manu next year bring about more success at the eastern suburbs glamour club?<\/p>\n

Time will tell. But it would be a brave pundit to write them off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many analysts will be tipping the Roosters to go backwards in 2027. After all, there is only one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-936083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}