BY DAN

Newcastle has confirmed what we’d all known was coming for some time now. Trey Mooney is joining the club from next year for four seasons. His time with the Raiders ends shortly, and watching him in a Knights jersey will be bittersweet.

For Trey it’s a logical step. He’s been ‘next’ in line since 2022. That pre-season we’d seen some content from the Raiders social media team interviewing senior players about which rookie was ready to play first grade. Mooney’s name came up a lot. The Milk had acquired the former Australian schoolboy from Parramatta’s system and it seemed the word was the highest of expectations. He debuted later that season.

In the intervening period he’s never been able nail down a regular spot in the 17. Last season was the closest, in which he played 16 games in first grade, mostly off the bench, in the absence of Pasami Saulo and Corey Horsburgh. But by the time this season had rolled around again, he’d fallen behind Horse, Ata Mariota, Morgan Smithies, and the bench backrowers. With so much competition for chances, with defensive ability being rated at a premium, and middle minutes being eaten by Sasagi, Martin and Zac Hosking, the space for him to play just wasn’t presenting itself.

It presented a conundrum for both club and player. Anyone that had watched Mooney in Cup knew that he was too good for that competition. But the role he played there – bell-cow prop, taking the big runs, conking heads together and making adults look like children – just wasn’t available in the first grade side. That job was filled, by Taps, Papa and Ata. And the minutes that were available were for people to play with pace and defend with enthusiasm. He could do a version of one of those things.

In Newcastle he’ll have the opportunity to be the best Trey he can be. That’s good for him and for that club. Finally the Knights get a stray dog of their own to turn into the feature piece of their middle rotation. Trey will get his 50 minutes and 18 carries a game. He’ll average 150 plus metres, not be relied on to fill the defensive workhorse role expected of the people behind him. The Knights have got a good one. It’s not every day you’ll find a prop as comfortable running over his contemporaries as he is popping an offload or providing connective passing through the middle. His defence isn’t a strong suit, but if he’s the only defensive mediocrity in your rotation then his strengths outweigh his flat spots.

For Canberra through the decision is understandable. We’ve already listed the honour board of players in front of him. With the increased emphasis on defence, the ability of players like Nicholson, Martin, Hosking and Sasagi to do that job, and offer a point of difference in attack, it just doesn’t feel like there’s opportunities for Trey now.

There’s also the problem of tomorrow. Trey is being sandwiched by generations. Papa and Taps are the now, Ata and Horse the now and tomorrow. The future is coming through in players like Vena Patuki-Case, Mitch Prest and Jake Clydsdale (in that order right now) and with two of those three in the top 30 next year, you can understand the club just looking at the potential of Trey and the actual output and note that he’d be better off elsewhere. The opportunity that Papa’s departure was meant to provide for Mooney has vanished into thin air like Matthew McConaughey is about to tell us about how Wall Street works.

There will be some that would have preferred the club take a hard nose approach. Make him watch as Papa winds back the clock. Make him stand still while the next gen come strutting past. He didn’t seem happy before and he wouldn’t be happy then. If there’s one thing that this team has repeatedly said about their success, it’s that everyone is pulling for each other. It’s hard to know how long Trey could keep being a good soldier when it was his career on the line. It seems the club didn’t want to test his mettle.

So Trey leaves, taking with him all the talent a middle forward could want. That potential was never fully realised in Canberra. For his sake, I hope he makes it happen in Newcastle. It’ll be painful to watch, in the best way.

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