NRL star transfer market settles in for season 2018 after big moves

IT feels like the most anticipated start to a league season in years after all the star player movement. All these superstars have the ability to ignite their new clubs’ premiership aspirations and have fans counting down the days to when the season kicks off.

The moving season: How huge movement in the NRL transfer market will affect 2018.

• DRAW: Full NRL 2018 fixture for every team

IT feels like the most anticipated start to a league season in years — from the red, white and blue-riband signings of James Tedesco and Cooper Cronk at the Roosters to Mitchell Pearce heading north from Bondi.

Strongman Aaron Woods and Kieran Foran are freshly settled in at the Bulldogs and Jarryd Hayne is back in blue and gold in Parramatta.

All these superstars have the ability to ignite their new clubs’ premiership aspirations and have their fans counting down the days to when the new season kicks off on March 8.

And right now, among all the star billings for 2018, everything is coming up James Maloney at the Panthers.

Like Gus Gould’s trotter winning.

Or his new halves partnership, with an old Warriors ball boy, building.

Elsewhere, Maloney’s home in Glenmore Park is sorted. And the guy who fixed his pool, a Penrith member.

Hell, even lunch breaks are spent with his Winfield Cup spirit animal.

“Roycey Simmons and I, yeah, we’re always chatting,” the playmaker grins of said Panthers staffer and legend. “Whenever I see him wandering about the office, we’ll always sit down for a yarn.”

And who wouldn’t pay a pineapple to listen in on that?

Still, talking old premierships — and slow racehorses — doesn’t win you new ones.

And really, what else matters?

Seven days out from the start of the new NRL season, the hunger for premiership success isn’t only why Maloney is the yarn out Penrith way right now.

There’s also Cooper Cronk at the Roosters, Mitchell Pearce in Newcastle and that pair of Prodigal Sons — Jarryd Hayne and Benji Marshall — for both Parramatta and Wests Tigers, respectively.

Premierships are why Canterbury not only lost a board but gained Kieran Foran. Then Aaron Woods.

James Maloney has won premierships at two clubs and is looking for a third.

Why Cronulla doubled down on Josh Dugan with Matt Moylan.

And why St George Illawarra ... well, they’ve spent even more than a Mad Monday bar tab on James Graham and Ben Hunt.

All this, too, before we discuss Josh Reynolds at Wests Tigers. Or Kalyn Ponga at the Knights.

And what, besides headlines, will Bryce Cartwright bring to Gold Coast?

Elsewhere, everyone wants to know if James Tedesco can take a premiership to Bondi. And Dane Gagai, Redfern.

While down in Melbourne town, Slammin’ Sam Kasiano — or whatever’s left of him — is gunning to pip both and win the Storm back-to-back titles.

Truly, not since Super League have so many superstars boasted new clubs, jerseys, hope, everything.

The Bulldogs will look to revive themselves with the help of Kieran Foran and Aaron Woods. Picture: Brett Costello

Throw in more than a little pressure, too.

For apart from the obvious need for success — think the kind involving grand final laps being walked — every poster boy mentioned above is also expected to find a groove, both individually and for those surrounding him, in the time it takes to make a coffee.

Which is why this week we buzzed Maloney.

For who knows more about starting at new clubs than the man who has churned through six of them? Or seven if, unlike the NRL, you’re happy to include North Sydney.

Better, Maloney finds success.

Quickly.

Dragons $1 million signing Ben Hunt will be expected to turn the club around. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Not only winning premierships with both Cronulla and the Roosters in his first season, but going all the way to a grand final with the Warriors in 2011.

Yep, the Warriors. Which is a bit like saying you slayed White Walkers with the Salvation Army.

So c’mon Jimmy, as a playmaker who, time and again, has changed clubs with immediate success, what’s your secret?

“Strong forward pack,’’ the 31-year-old replies, without pause. “There isn’t a playmaker anywhere who finds life easier on the back foot.”

THE MOVING GAME

ELSEWHERE, Maloney also pays close attention to the potential of the club’s youngsters — such as Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary, a Warriors ball boy during his time across the ditch — while adding that his ease in shifting camps may also be because, well, he doesn’t mind a chat.

“So all those things other players often find tough — like fitting in among a new bunch of guys, getting to know and relate to different personalities — that’s always come fairly easily to me,” he says.

“And I think that’s why I’ve never found switching clubs intimidating or a challenge. Why I actually enjoy it.”

After first playing lower grades with North Sydney and Parramatta, this gutsiest of NRL sixes has since waltzed his swag through stints with Melbourne, the Warriors, Roosters, Sharks and now Penrith.

Nathan Cleary will have the task of turning the Panthers around with James Maloney.

“But playing alongside different players, and under different coaches, you get a far greater perspective on rugby league,’’ he says.

“You know the old saying about there being many ways to skin a cat? Well, there’s also a lot of different ways to play rugby league.

“And I’ve learnt so much playing for different coaches at NRL level.

“But if you’ve only ever learned under that one coach, it’ll always be difficult to have more than the one view on football.”

Undoubtedly, Maloney’s breadth of knowledge is a key component of his arrival out west.

So too his experience, aggression and that directness that, for more than a decade of NRL winters, has always seemed to ensure he’s missing skin from somewhere around the eyes, nose, cheek, chin, wherever.

Cooper Cronk is a Rooster after a hugely successful run with the Melbourne Storm.

And now ... well, that busted melon is set to become the new face of Penrith.

Just as Cronk and Tedesco are already selling a host of jerseys at Westfields Bondi ahead of the season’s March 8 kick-off. And Hayne, reviving title talk for those fans caught in league’s longest premiership drought.

But can the Plane really fly again?

Will it be Foran who revives the game that made him a New Zealand Test star?

Or maybe Marshall who finds one more ounce of magic dust?

Again, when was the last time more questions were being asked of so many megastar signings?

Like, can Pearce get Newcastle into the eight? Then higher again?

What will Woodsy bring to the Dogs? How dangerous can Gagai be?

Josh Reynolds will look to be a huge part of the Tigers rebuild.

And at what point does Kasiano simply disappear altogether?

As for Maloney? Well, only last month it was revealed that since signing with the club, Panthers memberships have risen 46 per cent. An announcement that surely had him asking the boss for a cut, right?

“Ah, no,’’ the incumbent NSW No.6 cackles. “Maybe I should’ve.”

Maybe. Or perhaps you just ask Gould, who boasts shares in a couple of horses, to offer a sneak peek at his Best Bets guide?

“I’m hoping for some tips from Gus, definitely,’’ Maloney grins. “Actually, one of his trotters had a win the other day ... so right now things are good.”

Originally published as NRL star transfer market settles in for season 2018 after big moves