League: Warriors snare another Rooster

Another Sydney Rooster is on his way to the New Zealand Warriors rugby league club.

Roosters second team captain and halfback Grant Rovelli has agreed to join the Auckland-based National Rugby league franchise for two seasons.

Roosters premier league coach last year Ivan Cleary returned to Auckland as the new assistant coach and the club also snared Roosters winger Todd Byrne.

Now Cleary's association with the Roosters' second team has seen Rovelli agree to join him at Ericsson Stadium.

The promising 21-year-old will give the club back-up at halfback while he also has the ability to play hooker, standoff and fullback.

From Mackay in North Queensland, Rovelli is in his third season with the Roosters, all of them spent in premier league.

He was in the New South Wales Residents side that beat Queensland Residents in the curtain-raiser to the third State of Origin match in Brisbane.

Rovelli has not played in the first grade but hopes his move to the Warriors will change that.

"Coming to the Vodafone Warriors is an opportunity," he told the Warriors website.

"I was with the Cowboys before coming down to the Roosters and now this move gives me the chance to better myself.

"I'm still fairly young and I've enjoyed my time with the Roosters but I'm looking forward to starting with a new club."

The fact Cleary is on the coaching staff was an attraction while a chat with his former premier league teammate Byrne was a clincher.

""Skinny (Byrne) and I played together and get on well. I spoke to him about the move he'd made and he said he's loving it over there. That helped me to make up my mind."

Rovelli will come to Auckland as a largely unheralded player, much in the same mould as Brent Webb when he was signed from the Queensland Cup competition.

- NZPA