The former Roosters star has been left baffled by the recruitment strategy of the club.
Roosters great Bryan Fletcher has called for Trent Robinson and his old team to show some transparency with the club’s potential signing of Francis Molo leaving fans bewildered. The Roosters’ depth will be placed under immense pressure in 2025 with the club watching a number of veteran superstars walk out the door at the end of last season.
The club’s retention and recruitment strategy has already been questioned after just one round with the Broncos hammering the Roosters 50-14. Robinson was left seeking answers having watched more than 1,000 games of NRL experience disappear in the off-season. The only signing the Roosters made was that of Chad Townsend from the Cowboys.
And one of the more bizarre decisions was to allow prop Terrell May to leave. May was left stunned when he was told he could speak to other clubs having only just signed a two-year contract extension with the Roosters. Having been told he wasn’t in the club’s plans for 2025, May joined the Wests Tigers on a three-year deal, worth $2 million.
And the prop showed why he could be a great recruit having played 65 minutes in the Tigers’ narrow loss to the Knights and was a standout in their forward pack. He had 21 runs for 189 metres, with two tackle breaks, five offloads and 34 tackles. As for Sitili Tupouniua, he scored a double in the space of six minutes in the second half against the Dragons, while also making 174 metres from 19 runs in a 42-minute cameo.
To make matters more confusing for the Roosters, the club is reportedly close to signing want away Dragons prop Molo. While the 30-year-old could be a decent signing for their depth, few could argue he has hit the same heights as May.
And Fletcher has called for Robinson to show some transparency with Roosters fans who have been left bewildered with the recruitment strategy since the beginning of 2024. “So you wait all off-season…this is where I’m spinning out,” Fletcher said about the news Molo could move to the Roosters.
“Tupouniua and Terrell May…are you telling me all of a sudden you want Molo? How did you not plan for this? I’m saying, you wait all off season, round one…’oh hang on we have some money in the cap.'”
“Just give us an explanation. I think if you are a Roosters fan, you can’t just cop, ‘Nah we’ve decided to go in a new direction’. You’ve got to come out and say, it was because of this reason.” While Fletcher admitted the Roosters missed out on some big name signings, including that of Ben Hunt, it wasn’t good enough to leave the fans in the dark.
Molo played 23 games for the Dragons in 2024 and scored one try for the club. The 30-year-old was seeking an exit from the Dragons ahead of the season and now appears a chance at landing at the Roosters. Unfortunately for the Roosters, their task doesn’t get any easier this weekend when they play reigning champs Penrith.
Terrell May praises Benji Marshall after move
May was left shellshocked by the Roosters’ decision to move forward without him last year, but he has found a mentor in new coach Marshall. The forward has embraced life at the Tigers and feels he owes the coach. “I feel like Benji knows me so well,” May said.
We chat a lot. It’s the first time I’ve really chatted to a coach this personally. He even texts me sometimes and just checks up on me. He’s a coach, but I see him more as an older brother.
“That’s why I want to go out there and do the best for him and do the best for this club. Because he brought me over and I’ve got to repay him back.” And while May was mainly an interchange for the Roosters last year, the prop is keen to spend more time on the field leading the young forward pack.
Although he is aware of not gettinga head of himself too early in the season. “You don’t want to pace yourself. You want to blow your load and see what happens from there,” May added.
“I came here to (play big minutes). I don’t know how long I played, but I knew I was out there for pretty long. But I don’t really care about what I do. I just care about winning. And obviously we didn’t get the result, so I’m not too happy.”
“Give us an explanation!”
Bryan Fletcher cannot believe the Roosters are now targeting Francis Molo after releasing both Terrell May and Sitili Tupouniua over the off-season!
