Jason Taumalolo has been labelled “unsellable” amid reports the Cowboys are potentially “putting pressure” on the star forward to explore his options.
Taumalolo was named on the bench for the Cowboys this weekend against the Roosters, despite the Townsville-based club missing six players to Origin duties, including star forwards Jeremiah Nanai and Reuben Cotter.
Taumalolo is in the seventh year of a record ten-year deal with the Cowboys, worth up to $1 million per season, but is averaging just 38 minutes a game.
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Payten has said that the club is managing Taumalolo’s minutes due to “some degenerative cartilage” in the forward’s knee, but Fox League’s James Hooper believes there’s “friction” between player and coach.
“This stuns me. They have six State of Origin players out of the team to face the Roosters on Sunday and their highest paid player can’t even make the starting 13,” Hooper said on NRL360.
“I’m told there is a lot of friction between Todd Payten and also Jason Taumalolo and dates back to probably 18 months ago, maybe even as far as a couple of years when Todd first got the job.”
For NRL great Gorden Tallis, it’s simple. A club legend like Taumalolo must start, believing “you can’t have your best player going against you”.
“It’s been poorly handled,” Tallis said.
“I got under Todd’s skin the first time he challenged one of North Queensland’s greatest players … He played at Penrith (in 2021), replaced him and said he’s not up to it and not driving the standard. I don’t think you do it to Jason Taumalolo.
“He said he was sending a message but the message now has dwindled out.
“If he’s your best player, if he’s your most damaging player, if he’s your leader, he leads.”
Hooper went onto say that the move not to start Taumalolo this week is telling.
“From an outside point of view, it looks as though there’s going to be some agitation here at some point and I think the club may have already tried to put some pressure on Jason,” Hooper said.
“To me, reading between the lines, it looks as though by not selecting him in their best 13 to start this weekend, is that they’re trying to put pressure on him.”
NRL360 host Braith Anasta said that the decision not to start Taumalolo “devalues” the premiership-winning forward, which in turn negatively affects the Cowboys.
“What it does too by not (putting him in the starting side) is that it devalues him which means another club won’t pay anywhere near that which means it’ll cost the Cowboys even more to let him go somewhere else because I’m assuming he still wants to play at the highest level.”
“The Northern Pride (Cowboys feeder club) in the QLD Cup is going to have a good front rower,” Tallis quipped.
At this stage, it appears unlikely that Taumalolo will remain at the Cowboys for the length of the massive contract.
So what other clubs will be interested and what would they be willing to pay?
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The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis believes Taumalolo is “almost unsellable”.
“No one is going to pay him $900,000 now, so you get to the point you actually can’t sell him because the Cowboys aren’t going to chip in $300,000 to play elsewhere,” he said.
“What’s another club willing to pay him? $500,000-$600,000 max? So the Cowboys will have to chip in $400,000 to $500,000?” Anasta asked.
“And you can’t do that,” Carayannis replied.
“ That’s not sellable because you still need to replace him in your cap. At the moment you’ll be spending $600,000-$700,000 for a player that’s in the bottom of your 30 and Jason Taumalolo playing elsewhere.
“It can’t happen.”