By Emma Kemp
It was little more than a year ago that Jared Waerea-Hargreaves conjured Spencer Leniu’s crazy eyes. The former had squirted a water bottle at the latter, and then tossed it in his general direction.
After almost a full game of fire between the Roosters prop and his Penrith counterparts at Allianz Stadium, this latest gleeful taunt became the apparent last straw. Leniu’s eyes popped so far out of their sockets he was at risk of detaching the retina. Fists were cocked and both men were sin-binned. Leniu, still blazing, challenged Waerea-Hargreaves to finish what they’d started out in the car park.
The Panthers won the game 30-6, but the sub-contest was less comprehensive. Waerea-Hargreaves rarely lets those ones get away - even if he already knew today’s enemy would be next season’s teammate.
“Jazza is sort of similar like me, I’ll protect my brothers until we cross that white line,” Leniu said after joining the Roosters in 2024. “That’s just how it was. He was protecting his brothers and I was protecting mine at the time. Now I wish I knew him a bit earlier, and got to play with him a bit earlier, just to see how genuine he is as a person.“
More on Waerea-Hargreaves as a person later, but for now back to Waerea-Hargreaves the player, because there possibly won’t be another like him. Commentators say this a lot when a veteran moves on. This veteran, however, is the last of the code’s genuine enforcers.
If Saturday night’s preliminary final against Manly turns out to be the prop’s final outing before departing for England’s Hull KR, historians will determine that September 21 was the date the NRL’s endangered species officially became extinct.
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, pictured scuffling with now-Roosters teammate Spencer Leniu, will leave an indelible void at the club.Credit: Getty
The traditional rugby league “enforcer” dates back to the beginning of time – or 1908 – when a very specific subset of front-rowers ruled paddocks around Australia via campaigns of ferocity, otherwise known as clobbering the opposition into submission through whatever means necessary. They were the days of Mark Carroll, Les Boyd and John Donnelly, when the first 20 minutes was still the softening-up period and referees left that volatile underworld to its own devices.
If the NRL still subscribed to Darwinism, the hitmen might still run the show. But natural selection no longer applies now that the biff and the shoulder charge are banned, and education around concussions is more advanced. The modern-day match review committee leaves no room for violence, deliberate or otherwise, and improved replay technology detects it in real time.
Waerea-Hargreaves, who made his NRL debut for the Sea Eagles in 2009 and then the Roosters in 2010, was created by a game that no longer really exists. At 35, he is one of the oldest players still regularly starting in the NRL (when he is not suspended) and, alongside Daniel Tupou, one of only two remaining from the Roosters’ 2013 premiership team. And while the rules of engagement have changed over the course of his 15-year, 314-game career, he, largely, has not.
That is a polarising thing if ever there was one. Mostly in the sense that Roosters supporters unequivocally adore him, while most rival fans feel exactly the opposite. For teammates, he is a spiritual leader, tapping into something on the field that impels those around him to find an intensity when they already thought they were at their limit.
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves after suffering a head injury during his 300th Roosters game against St George Illawarra.Credit: NRL Photos
The only party for whom hyperbole is not involved is the judiciary, which has suspended him for nine of the past 10 weeks. The first came against the Dragons in July, when he marked his record 300th club game with six stitches in the head and a sin-binning that turned into a four-week ban.
In late August, 11 minutes into his return from exile, an errant tackle against Gold Coast earned him another three weeks on the sidelines. Saturday marks the grand return, with his team’s season on the line and everything to play for – but maybe just don’t play too hard, or it might be his last game even if the Roosters win.
Tupou described Waerea-Hargreaves as a walking morale-booster full of passion and aggression who often gets the side over the line. “In saying that, it has to be controlled aggression,” he said. “Because he gets a bit hot-headed easily.”
Luke Keary this week lamented that Waerea-Hargreaves “would’ve been a handy addition” in last weekend’s opening exchanges with Penrith, who ran all over the Roosters en route to a 30-10 win. “He’s played 300 and something games, so he knows better than us, and obviously the game’s changed a little bit in terms of what you can and can’t get away with,” Keary said. “I’m sure he’s had those discussions with the coach himself over the last couple of months, about what he needs to pull back and push forward.”
Club captain James Tedesco said his presence will be crucial against Manly’s big forward pack. “I don’t think you can be more physical than Jared,” Tedesco said. “He definitely adds that for us, which is awesome.
“We definitely missed that [last weekend] - they came out and were rolling us, and were more physical in defence as well. I know Jared is going to bring that himself, but I think he’s going to bring that to everyone around him as well, which is what we need.”
Leniu has spent this season learning from his former enemy, not just about his game but also developing an appreciation for Waerea-Hargreaves’ gentle nature off the field. It is the Kiwi’s most counterintuitive trait: that he is a quietly spoken family man who shies away from the spotlight – to the point he did not conduct a single media interview this week – but is generous with his time in all other respects.
“He’ll sit there and talk to your family for half an hour, and he’s the last one in the sheds talking to everyone,” Leniu said. “Just how he treats people in general. Obviously, being a front-rower, Jazza’s who you look up to. To do it for so long, as he’s done it for now, with all the milestones he’s achieving now, it’s pretty inspirational, especially being a bit older [now] and seeing how he goes about his work still.
“I feel like I’ve been with him for so many years. He just has that aura about him that you just don’t want to let him down. His impact on the group … when he’s around, you can really feel his presence, and just how genuine he is as a person … it really makes you want to play for him.”
How well Waerea-Hargreaves treads that line between the old NRL era and the new could well go a long way to determining the winner against a Manly forward pack featuring former Roosters teammate Matt Lodge and the in-form Taniela Paseka.
“He hated me and I hated him, but we got along really well,” Lodge said earlier this week. “We had a good time together, and we still check in every now and then. But I’m sure we’ll probably hate each other on [Saturday] night as well. That’s what front-rowers do. He sets the tone for them, the benchmark and he always shows up in the games.”
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