Rugby Australia paid up to $9 million to secure Suaalii’s signature. The Roosters say he’s coming back in 2028. And when he pranked his Waratahs coach about returning to NRL — the joke landed a little too close to the truth.
On April 1, 2025, Joseph Suaalii walked up to NSW Waratahs coach Dan McKellar at training, looked him in the eye, and said: “I’m not sure if I was meant to tell you but I’ve been speaking to the Roosters and I think I’m going back there.”
It was an April Fools prank. Filmed by the Waratahs media team. McKellar’s reaction — a man who has invested heavily in building his team around Suaalii — was priceless. And the footage went viral instantly.
But here is what made it the most perfectly aimed joke in Australian sport in 2025: it wasn’t entirely funny. Because Suaalii is coming back to the Roosters. Not now. Not yet. But the return is already being talked about openly, publicly, by the people who matter most — including Nick Politis himself.
When Rugby Australia prised Joseph Suaalii away from the Sydney Roosters in March 2023, the financial scale of the deal was extraordinary. A contract worth up to $9 million — with a player option for two additional years — made Suaalii the highest-paid rugby union player in Australian history at 19 years old. Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh spoke openly about his excitement. The Wallabies made him central to their attacking plans. The deal was generational.
And yet — Nick Politis, sitting on the other side of the negotiating table, was already talking about the return. “Joseph is a good guy, a good kid,” Politis said. “It’s sad that we’ve lost him to union, but he tells us he’s coming back in 2028.”
“Joseph is a good guy, a good kid. It’s sad that we’ve lost him to union, but he tells us he’s coming back in 2028.”
— Nick Politis, Sydney Roosters chairman
A billionaire chairman publicly stating that the man who just signed a $9 million deal with another code has told him personally he is coming back. That is not a chairman clutching at straws. That is a man who knows something.
The prank revealed something important about how Suaalii himself relates to the Roosters and the NRL. You don’t choose that as your April Fools premise unless you know it resonates. You don’t make that joke if the idea of returning to the NRL feels completely foreign to you. Suaalii knew exactly why it would hit — because it touches something real.
Suaalii will be 24 years old when his Rugby Australia contract expires after the 2027 Rugby World Cup. Twenty-four. In rugby league terms, that is the doorstep of a player’s prime years. He has 66 NRL games of experience — scoring at a remarkable rate, with 131 run metres per game, 5.6 tackles per game, and the kind of one-on-one defensive capability that made him arguably the best young outside back in the competition before he left.
Add two years of elite rugby union physicality — the scrums, the contact work, the defensive structures of Test-level rugby — and what the Roosters get back in 2028 is not the teenager who left. It is a fully developed, physically complete, world-class athlete returning to the code where he was already a star.
The Roosters are planning for this. The salary cap space being kept for Nawaqanitawase, Manu and Suaalii’s potential returns in 2027-28 is a genuine structural consideration in how they build the roster right now. Trent Robinson has spoken about the value of players who know the Roosters’ system. Suaalii grew up in it. He knows every call, every structure, every culture note. His return would not require a settling-in period. It would be a homecoming.
Does Suaalii actually want to come back? The prank suggests the idea is never far from his mind. Politis’ public statement suggests the conversations are real. The cross-code loan discussions — which both Rugby Australia and the NRL confirmed occurred — suggest both parties are at least open to the possibility.
But Suaalii is also performing at the highest level of rugby union. He debuted for the Wallabies. He is central to their attacking plans for the 2027 World Cup. He has a $9 million contract with a player option for two extra years — meaning he could extend to 2029 if he chooses. The NRL return is not guaranteed. It is a probability being planned for, not a certainty being announced.
The April Fools prank played perfectly because it contained the most important ingredient of any great joke — a grain of truth that makes you laugh and then think. Joseph Suaalii is the $9 million man who pranked his coach about returning to the Roosters. The coach laughed. The internet laughed. And Nick Politis — watching from Bondi Junction — smiled quietly and kept on planning for 2028.
