'Right club, right coach, right players': why Leeds Rhinos move is ideal for new signing Paul Momirovski

The former Sydney Roosters back reckons the chance came “at the right time” and Rhinos are the “right club, right coach, right players”. He arrived in England on Wednesday and trained under coach Rohan Smith, with his new teammates, for the first time the following morning.

Momirovski was a regular watcher of Betfred Super League in Australia and has no illusions about what is in store when the season begins next month. “It’s definitely something I wanted to try at some point,” he said of playing in Europe.

“I never put too many time lines on my career, I just see what happens and obviously the opportunity came at the right time - right club, right coach and right players. I think the boys we have here, it is really motivating and I am excited to see what we can do this year.”

Explaining how his move to Rhinos developed, Momirovski said: “Conversations with Rohan came about through Roosters and Leeds. Meeting Rohan, I could tell straight away we could gel; on a deeper football level, how we think about the game of rugby league and the style of football we want to play just really drew me to it and everything just made sense.”

An NRL Grand Final winner with Penrith Panthers in 2021, Momirovski has arrived in England at the peak of his career and believes the competition and Leeds’ style of play will suit him. He stressed: “I think defensive teams can win comps, the best attacking teams can win comps - you have got to find your style as a team.

“You’ve got to find what you’re best at and you’ve got to be able to do both. I guess everyone will call it the more attacking league and that does excite me, having more opportunities to attack. We have got some players who can do that and it’s exciting to see how far this team can go and the style of football we come up with.”

Momirovski was a clubmate of Rhinos second-rower Rhyse Martin at the Roosters and has played against some of the squad’s imports in the NRL, but met most of the squad for the first time at his debut training session on Thursday, less than 24 hours after landing in England. “I am learning names, learning a lot of things at the moment, but getting moving and getting around the boys, it has been really good,” he stated.

“I was straight into it, I wanted to do that. I think if you bask in your jetlag you just feel sorry for yourself. I’ve been up since 3am and I’m hoping to work up a sweat today, stay up as late as possible and try to beat that jetlag.”

Though Rhinos announced the signing on October 7, Momirovski remained in Australia for his wedding over Christmas and has been training with his previous club. He admitted it is a relief to finally meet his new teammates.

“It has been a super-busy period for me in Australia,” he said. “I was definitely a bit anxious - you see the boys training hard - as I was overseas - and you know you are missing time with the team. There’s that tiny bit of guilt that you’re not with them, but I have done what I needed to do and now I am here I am going to make the most of the time we have in pre-season and build those combinations.”

Momirovski made his NRL debut for the Roosters in 2018 before moving to Wests Tigers the following year. He then spent a season each at Melbourne Storm and Penrith and returned to his first top-flight club two years ago.

The time spent training with his former side means he arrived at Leeds in good shape and he confirmed: “Getting a good pre-season with them is always going to help you. I haven’t just been kicking around down the park, I have been doing a pre-season, just not this one here.”

Leeds began their pre-season campaign with a Boxing Day win over Wakefield Trinity. They have two more warm-up games, at Bradford Bulls on Sunday, January 28 and home to Hull KR seven days later, before the Super League round one visit of Salford Red Devils on Friday, February 16. Leeds will send an academy/reserve team to Hunslet on Friday, February 2.

“I’ll speak to Rohan and see what he thinks best,” Momirovski said of when he will pull on a Rhinos jersey for the first time. He had a tour of AMT Headingley on Wednesday afternoon and was clearly impressed. “It surprised me how much history there was there,” he said. “Hopefully this team can create more.”