A chance meeting with well-known player agent Isaac Moses at a Penrith chicken shop led to James Maloney passing on the Sydney Roosters and accepting a coaching job with North Queensland.
Maloney had spoken with Roosters coach Trent Robinson about returning to the club in a part-time role once he touched down from France, where he had spent the past few years enjoying retirement after a final stint with Catalans.
Ben Hunt did not want to stay at the Dragons but he has turned up to pre-season training a month earlier than scheduled.
The 37-year-old Maloney won the 2013 premiership with the Roosters and retained a healthy relationship with Robinson and chairman Nick Politis.
Maloney revealed he was helping his kids settle into school out west when he stopped for lunch, only to cross paths with Moses who told him Cowboys coach Todd Payten, one of his clients, was on the lookout for someone to replace Dean Young on his staff.
Four days later Maloney agreed to head north and trade the Tricolours for the tropics.
Moses upset the Roosters earlier this year when he largely left them out of negotiations as Joseph Suaalii signed a monster deal with Rugby Australia – so you can only wonder how impressed they were when he inadvertently steered popular Maloney to a rival club.
Maloney stressed Moses had nothing to do with the deal, and any 6.5 per cent “agent’s fee” went to himself because he now manages his own affairs.
The move 2000km north also reunites Maloney with his 2016 Cronulla premiership halves partner Chad Townsend.
Maloney told this masthead he reached out to Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon, Canterbury’s Cameron Ciraldo and Penrith’s Ivan Cleary about potential coaching roles, but was always heading to the Roosters before the 11th-hour change of plans.
“I spoke to Robbo, who had a part-time role for me there,” Maloney said. “He told me if I couldn’t find a full-time role elsewhere, he had the next best thing for me at the Roosters.
“It came out of the blue the move to the Cowboys. I arrived back in the country on a Tuesday and by Thursday we had just finished organising the kids back into school out in Penrith where we were moving back to.
“I went to a chicken shop and bumped into Isaac Moses, who looks after Todd Payten. As I was heading out he said to me, ‘What are you doing?’, and I said, ‘I’m doing some stuff with the Roosters’, and he said, ‘Toddy is looking for an attack coach up there’.
“I had a chat with Toddy on the phone, flew up the following week, and by the Friday I had a job.
“I phoned Robbo when I got the Cowboys job. He said he was always happy to have a chat if I had any questions about coaching.”
Maloney told his wife, Jess, that she had already given up her life following him around as a player, and he was happy to stay in Sydney if she wanted him to. The couple and their four children will relocate to Townsville in the new year for at least 2024 and 2025.
Despite being known as a larrikin, Maloney was always praised by players as having one of the sharpest football brains, which will prove a huge asset for Payten and playmakers Townsend and Tom Dearden.
As for one day becoming an NRL head coach, Maloney said: “Who knows. This is a new challenge for me. I’ve seen improvements in little things already during the pre-season, which is exciting, and hopefully, we can get to where we want to get to next year.”
Aside from two titles with the Roosters and Sharks, Maloney also helped Nathan Cleary adjust to life early in his career at club and Origin level.
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