Robotic Rabbitohs need James Maloney’s creativity, says Matthew Johns

SOUTHS have made a huge play for James Maloney because they need him desperately to give them a tactical change of direction, writes Matthew Johns.

A NUMBER of clubs are pursuing James Maloney aggressively, but reports are South Sydney have made the huge money play for him.

They need him desperately.

This is a club which needs a tactical change of direction urgently, and Maloney can provide it.

For Souths, their structured style is best described as “robotic”, Maloney on the other hand is a “play what he sees” style of footballer and he’s one of the best at it.

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James Maloney flies in to score for the Sharks against North Queensland. Picture: Getty Images

He’s a player of immense self belief and that seems to bleed into his teams.

Maloney gets plenty of wraps but in my opinion, still not enough. His record is outstanding, he’s a winner.

I can’t quite understand why a player of such class has had so many clubs ... they tell me he’s an unrelenting pest, maybe that’s got something to do with it.

He certainly marches to his own beat. I first came across him at Melbourne in the lead-up to the 2009 season.

The Storm needed a back-up to Cooper Cronk and had seen Maloney playing lower grades at Parramatta and decided to offer him a chance.

James Maloney celebrates scoring a try against Penrith. Picture: Gregg Porteous

One of Maloney’s Parramatta teammates came up to me and asked whether I was “working with Sterlo” in my job as Storm halves coach.

I was confused. “Sterlo?”

“James Maloney. That’s his nickname — Sterlo.”

“Who gave him that?” I asked.

“He did.”

As I said, he doesn’t lack confidence.

The Storm won the grand final that year and while Maloney only played a handful of games he was super impressive. When he played, the side didn’t miss a beat.

It earned him a move to the Warriors, where he immediately became their chief playmaker. In his second year there, he took them to the grand final. Given what they’ve done since, that is truly remarkable.

Souths have struggled to find the try line this year. Picture: Mark Evans

In 2013 he was picked up by the Roosters and in that first season he was a key figure in them taking out the title. He was outstanding on grand final night, setting up two tries.

Then of course he moves to Cronulla in 2016, a club yet to win a title in its 50-year history, and you guessed it, they win the comp.

There are two constants with James Maloney:

1. When he goes to a club, they improve dramatically.

2. Apart from the Storm, all the clubs he’s left have gone backwards just as dramatically.

In Maloney’s three years at the Roosters they were premiers in 2013, then minor premiers the subsequent two seasons.

When he became a Shark last year, the Roosters finished second-last.

James Maloney lifted the Sydney Roosters each year he played at the club. Picture: Mark Evans

I asked Maloney’s old Sharks teammate Mick Ennis about the playmaker.

Ennis said he was the most adaptable footballer he’d played alongside, having the smarts to know when to break away from a game plan when it wasn’t working.

He spoke about Maloney recognising a defensive vulnerability at times and altering the Sharks’ attacking play to take advantage of it.

Ennis also spoke of the playmaker’s outstanding ruck recognition, which is a half knowing when to let the big men roll up field, and when to call the ball and create.

In Ennis’ words: “I loved playing alongside Jimmy, so smart, such great vision, I learnt so much about reading a game from him.”

James Maloney makes a break down the field during his stint with the Storm in 2009.

Ennis then broke into laughter: “But jeez, he’s a pest, a larrikin.”

OK, let’s focus on the other James Maloney, the pest, the larrikin.

Maloney was only a few NRL games into his Storm career and Craig Bellamy had assembled the team for a pre-training meeting to address a poor performance.

The room was deathly quiet apart from Bellamy’s slow, deliberate words, giving the team “both barrels”.

When Bellamy delivers such speeches, he greets the end of each sentence with a pause to allow the words full effect.

On this particular day each pause was met with a loud crunch.

Bellamy: “And I tell you what ...”

CRUNCH!

“ ... our performance needs to lift.”

CRUNCH!

“..and if it doesn’t.”

CRUNCH!

After about a minute Bellamy turns to the right to see the rookie, Maloney, crunching down a packet of potato chips.

“For f---s sake James, get rid of the chips, I’m trying to make a point here!”

The Sharks’ players talk about how he drives their strength coach crazy. The trainer likes a quiet gym, Maloney likes the volume on the stereo cranked up to 11.

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The trainer turns it down, Maloney turns it up, down, up, down, up …

Maloney always wins.

At the end of a recent Cronulla video session, coach Shane Flanagan turned to the players and asked: “What did we learn from that?”

Maloney piped up. “When Jimmy Maloney wants the ball, give Jimmy Maloney the ball.”

A lot of people would agree.