Breaking News...
The Sydney Roosters have announced their new squad for the 2018 season. Their starting lineup is expected to be:
1. James Tedesco
2. Semi Radradra (yes they got him back from rugby yawnion at a minimal price & no cost to the salary cap!)
3. Will Chambers
4. Josh Dugan
5. Darius Boyd
6. Johnathan Thurston
7. Cooper Cronk
8. Jesse Bromwich
9. Cameron Smith (c)
10. Andrew Fifita
11. Boyd Cordner
12. Matt Gillett
13. Jason Taumalolo
Bench
14. Michael Morgan
15. David Klemmer
16. Jake Trbojevic
17. Tyson Frizell
The remaining members of their 30 man squad are RTS, Valentine Holmes, Dane Gagai, Jack Bird, Tom Trbojevic, Matt Moylan, Shaun Johnson, Martin Taupau, Nathan Peats, Aaron Woods, Josh Jackson, Wade Graham, Coen Hess.
Because they are still $300k under the salary cap according to Todd Greenberg, they have been given special dispensation to have a 31st member Cameron Munster.
Roosters' CEO Joe Kelly said that "despite only having a modest side for 2018, we are hopeful that we will be competitive & we hope to make the 8 next season". He also said that "I am pleased to welcome assistant coaches Wayne Bennett, Craig Bellamy, Mal Meninga & Kevin Walters to the staff & that we still had plenty of room to move under the new NRL soft cap". "It should be noted that because of our modest squad for 2018, we have forward loaded contracts & should be able to add some big names for the 2019 season."