Tucker
Well-known member
Thanks for the incredibly boring and pointless diatribe, butmy point was that he grew as a ball player after leaving here.Sorry I am going to join the push-back on your revisionist baloney. All your comments about Tedesco are myopic. It's long.
Firstly Tedesco was at Tigers 6 seasons, not 5 minutes. The year he debuted (2012) was the year after we made the finals twice in a row and should have won the comp again. In his debut he played with Benji, Gareth Ellis, Chris Lawrence, Farah, Woods, KG, Adam Blair, Heighington etc. That's the calibre of the team he debuted into and he'd been earmarked for that spot his whole juniors.
2013 Tedesco gets the call up for NSW City, the least experienced player to ever be named (only having played 4 FG matches to this point). This is again not something that happens to mediocre-level players. Recognised game-wide talent whilst playing for Wests Tigers.
After being injured for the bulk of 2 of his first 3 seasons, he had undeniable elite form scoring 17 tries in 21 appearances 2015, followed by 14 tries from 17 appearances 2016. At this stage you are in the Moses/Brooks era.
2015 Tedesco makes the NRL Team of the Year on the bench and wins RLPA's Player's Player award. Repeats 2016 as NRL's fullback of the year, despite having his season ended early with a broken jaw. Picked as 2017's RLPA Player's Champion.
He gets picked for Game 3 Origin 2016 and all of 2017. Is NSW fullback every season uninterrupted until 2025.
These are not things that happen to a player on a middling or normal trajectory.
Especially when these 2016-2017 are losing seasons - Tigers finishing 9th in 2016 and 14th in 2017. You don't get continually picked for Origin and NRL Team of the Year, from a non-finals team, unless you are a special and widely-regarded talent. It's clear about how well established he is - Roosters pony up a million to sign him, despite vowing to never deal with his manager.
Statistically:
2015: 24 matches, 17 tries, 12 try assists, 24 line breaks, 167 tackle breaks (1st in NRL)
2016: 17 matches, 14 tries, 12 try assists, 15 line breaks, 106 tackle breaks (9th in NRL)
2017: 21 matches, 5 tries, 8 try assists, 13 line breaks, 172 tackle breaks (1st in NRL) --> Last season Tigers
2018: 25 matches, 9 tries, 15 try assists, 15 line breaks, 158 tackle breaks (1st in NRL)
2019: 24 matches, 18 tries, 13 try assists, 23 line breaks, 166 tackle breaks (1st in NRL)
That equates to (per match):
2015: 0.71 tries, 0.50 TAs, 1.00 LBs, 6.95 TBs
2016: 0.82 tries, 0.71 TAs, 0.88 LBs, 6.24 TBs
2017: 0.24 tries, 0.38 TAs, 0.62 LBs, 8.19 TBs
2018: 0.36 tries, 0.60 TAs, 0.60 LBs, 6.32 TBs
2019: 0.75 tries, 0.54 TAs, 0.96 LBs, 6.92 TBs
So nowhere in the empirical data does Tedesco have some mad peak or jump between leaving Tigers and joining Roosters. And that's one of the main points about Tedesco's whole career, that his form is so steady and he remains an attacking threat even as he ages. His attacking stats are club-agnostic.
In fact you can fairly argue that 2016 was his best attacking year, when you see those numbers and consider that Tigers didn't have a finals-level side.
You can also clearly argue that despite 2018-2019 being Premiership-winning years for the Roosters, Tedesco is NOT statistically better than he was at Tigers. In fact his 2018 numbers are down a little despite winning the comp.
The only difference for Tedesco's trajectory at Roosters is he joins a top-tier side with established hard-heads and young strike power across the park.
The reason I get so particular about this topic is all my non-Tigers friends said the same stuff when he left in 2017, that he "got better at the Roosters". This is a narrative only of people who forget his play in 2015-2017 or, in the case of non-Tigers people, didn't actually watch him every week. I made the point of remembering that his output between the two clubs was consistent, not just evident in his statistics, but his rep honours and awards. So many people mis-remember that Tedesco didn't start winning NRL awards or playing Origin until he joined the Roosters.
What people are actually remembering is the calibre of roster that Tedesco had around him. To be posting elite-level attacking stats in non-finals teams is remarkable. And it's not all tries aka "selfish hog" as you put it. He has a clear and consistent level of try assists at both clubs.
So when Tedesco joined Roosters in 2018, it was a different calibre of team. Opposition defences were less certain where the attack would land. In Tedesco's first Roosters GF the backline was Tedesco, Tupou, Latrell, Joey Manu, Blake Ferguson, Keary and Cronk. The pack was JWH, Friend, Taukeiaho, Cordner, Mitch Aubusson, Radley. Bench Liu, Dylan Napa, Tetevano, Ryan Matterson. Absolutely elite-level backline.
2019 GF it's almost exactly the same side, amazing consistency and injury run, except Ferguson had joined Parramatta, replaced by Brett Morris. Angus Crichton and Nat Butcher on the bench; Verrills starting hooker with Friend to the bench.
So 2018-2019 Tedesco didn't have to do as much work as for Tigers and wasn't always triple-teamed when he got the ball. But he also didn't suddenly leap in output, rather the calibre of the team around him improved. And that appears to be what you mis-remember about the end of his Tigers days.
He progressed from a talented ball runner to a ball playing fullback without losing his ball running ability.
That is growth and that was my point.
All the butthurt in the world does not change that.