It was the debut a year and heaven knows how much newsprint in the making but Joseph Suaalii’s long-awaited NRL debut will be remembered for many things aside from the first game of the 17-year-old prodigy.
In an often violent, always spiteful and extremely disjointed affair, the Sydney Roosters were stunned in the upset of the season by the lowly Brisbane Broncos. Victor Radley was sent to the sin bin twice and placed on report a further two times in a match that featured four sin bins, 15 penalties, five further ruck infringements, 69 missed tackles and 20 handling errors. The 34-16 Broncos win was arguably the most shocking result of the season.
It certainly wasn’t what Roosters coach Trent Robinson or the top brass at club HQ would have been expecting when they announced Suaalii would be a late inclusion to take on the Broncos and get his first taste of senior football. Robinson, a highly astute coach with the job security and wherewithal to take a long-term view of such matters, indicated Suaalli would be eased into the first grade. As much was presented to the NRL when the Roosters sought an exemption in the pre-season to be able to play the schoolboy before his 18th birthday against the competition’s age regulations.
In horse racing parlance, they call it a kill, a city stable taking a young galloper with promise to the bush for an easy victory to teach them all about winning. The Broncos, 15th on the ladder and with just two wins for the season, seemed like an ideal way to ease Suaalii in. Despite a string of injuries to Roosters backs throughout 2021, Robinson has, until this point, resisted the urge to play the youngster. The conditions had to be right.
On paper, they were, against a struggling side in front of a home crowd at the SCG, and on a night the club bid farewell to Jake Friend. Bookmakers had the Roosters favoured by 24.5 points. On paper it was one of the biggest mismatches of the season.
But rugby league is not played on paper, and the way the game unfolded could not have suited the young phenom any less. Suaalii saw very little ball and had even less space, with the Roosters continually on the backfoot. He and fellow teenager Sam Walker were targeted all evening, testing their physicality.
Under the circumstances, it was a sound debut. He ran 121m and made seven tackles. He missed two tackles and made a handling error.
“I thought it was a good, solid start from Joe,” Robinson said. “He should have had a try assist. He covered his side really well [in defence].”
Wearing headgear and towering over plenty of Broncos, including opposite number Jesse Arthars, Suaalii certainly did not look out of place at NRL level. The major concern about young talents, particularly backs, getting into the top grade is their ability to handle the physicality.
Suaalii dominated as a schoolboy at both union and league and then held his own at NSW Cup level, but there remained plenty of question marks about whether he was ready to meet the best in the world. He put those concerns to bed, even in defeat and a game that did not suit, making good defensive reads and appearing comfortable against adult bodies.
This year the Roosters have already seen the highs and lows of a talented teen can do at NRL level with Walker. The second-generation star has been mostly sublime, sitting second in try assists. But he turned in his worst career performance against the Broncos, with four handling errors and four missed tackles, and kicked poorly.
Suaalii certainly will not play out the remaining schedule with the Roosters. Robinson will pick and choose his spots. However, he will not be out of place when he is called upon, a tremendous credit to someone yet to celebrate his 18th birthday.
There will be games when he will be able to showcase his attacking skills more than he did against the Broncos, when the Roosters are rolling and he has more opportunity to put more of a stamp on the match. But they should not take away from a very solid debut, in which a young talent, who may well ascend to become the best outside back in the competition, showed he was ready to mix it with men even though he is but a boy.
