The Roosters love a shiny, million-dollar back-rower. This is why they don’t need one

September 22, 2026 — 5:00amIn a Roosters hall of fame, the back-rowers have their very own corridor – where names like Cordner, Ricketson, Fitzgibbon, Aubusson and Sonny Bill Williams from this century alone loom large.The club has long had an eye for shiny, expensive edge recruits.Keep it in the Chookpen: Angus Crichton (centre) says the Roosters back-row stocks are in good hands with Siua Wong (left) and Salesi Foketi (right).Wolter PeetersPenrith’s Liam Martin – who has paused contract talks until after the season – has his fans among Tricolours heavy hitters.Subtle enquiries were made about Jacob Preston before he resigned with Canterbury. And David Fifita, of course, was signed and sealed with the club on a $3.3 million, four-year deal in 2024 ... until he wasn’t.But rugby-bound back-row mainstay Angus Crichton says there is no need for the Tricolours to look to the market. Their future is right here, right now.“Siua [Wong] and Salesi [Foketi], they’ve got such a big future ahead of them,” Crichton says. “The club can do what they want in the front office, obviously. But both those guys, I feel, have put their hands up to claim their edge spots for a long time.”Salesi Foketi has been a revelation for the Roosters this year.Getty ImagesCrichton himself has put his broken foot on the line – after a three-month recovery – to play a 30-minute “kamikaze” role off Trent Robinson’s bench against the Sharks and Dolphins in Friday’s grand final qualifier.Foketi, once a 120-kilogram, teenage five-eighth, has enjoyed a break-out campaign and made Crichton’s left-edge enforcer role his own at Robinson’s urging.“Robbo sat me down and said, ‘We want you to play on the left edge. You haven’t really been allowed to express yourself doing those 15-minute stints’,” Foketi says.“He basically just said, ‘I want you to go out there and have fun and just be yourself’. That gave me a lot of confidence.”Crichton has watched the rise of both Foketi and Wong for several years and from the stands for the past 12 weeks. And he couldn’t be happier for either of them.What he sees in Foketi – the south Auckland-raised wrecking ball – is particularly poignant.“As soon as he got here, he’s just been a good person with good, strong values,” Crichton says. “A lot of people come into this sport looking for money, accolades or fame, the wrong sort of things. Salesi is just the complete opposite. He’s just all values first and foremost, and then he’s a great footballer on top of it.”Wong, too, is finding his feet in his fourth season of NRL.Siua Wong has been in fine form in 2026.Getty ImagesAfter bursting onto the scene in 2023, his sophomore year included stints in reserve grade, and the Fijian international believes he will “probably always” be working out exactly how Robinson wants his back-rowers fitting into his game plans.“There’s a lot of little things for me with our edge play in the Roosters system, especially in defence,” Wong says.“It’s a constant thing. And that’s a good thing, it might be how I position my feet in contact, my wrestle on the ground, my wrestle standing up, there’s always something to work on. But playing outside Daly Cherry-Evans has been massive for me this year.“I think he’s opened up my game so much, he’s given me so much confidence, I can just feel it running out with him.”Again, so can Crichton.“Robbo expects a lot out of his edge back-rowers, he’s pretty pedantic with how he wants you to defend and the support lines you run,” Crichton says.“It’s a bloody tough position to play at the best of times, but especially here at the Roosters, I think they expect a lot of you on the edge. But Siua is my locker buddy here and I’ve seen him grow up I guess.“What I love most about Siua and Salesi is, I think for young back-rowers it can be easy to fall into the trap of becoming a robot a little bit. Just doing what the team needs, playing in the system, and yes you need to do that.“But the best back-rowers, they still have X-factor and their own personality in their play. I think we see that in those two boys for sure.”Crichton has a two-year Rugby Australia contract and potentially the 2027 World Cup on the horizon, but he’ll still be calling Allianz Stadium home throughout the year with the Waratahs, most likely as a hard-running, sky-blue No.12.“And I’m pretty sure the Chooks will be OK without me,” he grins.News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.Dan Walsh is a sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.From our partners