Mark Nawaqanitawase's time at the Sydney Roosters may now be over, but everything he has experienced at the club suggests his departure is anything but goodbye, more of a see you later.
The rugby convert will now head to Japan on a two-year deal with Japanese Rugby Union, bringing the curtain down on a remarkable two-year stint in the NRL.
When asked, the Roosters star was anything but sure.
“I don't know. Do I come back?," he asked Zero Tackle.
And perhaps that is understandable given what has unfolded for Nawaqanitawase since he first arrived at the Roosters.
He was brought into the NRL for the final round of the 2024 season after being poached from Rugby Union, with Trent Robinson and Roosters chairman Nick Politis identifying his potential early.
“I think it was at the end of 2023, Nick Politis and Robbo were doing all the work. They had given me an opportunity, had a lot of faith in me and I couldn't say no," he said.
What followed has been a meteoric rise.
Nawaqanitawase played 23 games in each of his first two full NRL seasons, while also making his Australian debut in last year's Ashes series and helping the Kangaroos claim the series.
He then made his State of Origin debut this year, winning another series before adding the biggest prize of all to his collection, an NRL premiership.
The winger was instrumental in the Roosters' grand final triumph, scoring twice as the club claimed its first premiership in seven years.
Yet for all the representative honours and the success that has come his way, it is his connection to the Roosters that makes his impending departure feel more like a temporary goodbye than the end of the story.
Nawaqanitawase grew up watching the Roosters and admiring the players who wore the famous jersey.
One of those players was the man who stood on the opposite side of the field to him, veteran winger Daniel Tupou.
“I've grown up watching him,” Nawaqanitawase said of Daniel Tupou.
“I watched his 2013, 2018, 2019 finals, always been watching him play. Then coming over, I learned a lot, a lot from him straight away.
“You know, he was always willing to help me.”
For Nawaqanitawase, Tupou was not simply a teammate.
He was one of the players he had watched from afar while growing up, making the opportunity to eventually share a dressing room with him something far more significant than simply another chapter in his professional career.
“You know, being a part of the game as a winger I couldn't be more proud to have the opportunity to be a teammate of his and so grateful to have won a premiership with him," he said.
That is why his two years at the Roosters never felt like a simple stopover on the way back to rugby union.
The club he grew up watching had become the club where he established himself as an NRL player, pushed him to represented his state and country and ultimately became a premiership winner.
Asked whether he believed the extraordinary success he has enjoyed over the past 24 months months could have happened anywhere else, Nawaqanitawase did not hesitate.
“No. Like the club, the players I'm with, and the coaching staff. Look, there's great clubs out there, but what I've experienced here with the Roosters has been absolutely out of this world. So grateful to be a part of their rich history now. Yeah, I'm so lucky to be here," he told Zero Tackle.
Despite his exit meaning we will be without his freakish talent and try scoring brilliance, Nawaqanitawase said there is still unfinished business in the Roosters' outside backs.
He was quick to nominate 22-year-old centre Robert Toia as the player supporters should continue to keep an eye on, having emerged into regular first grade around the same time as the rugby convert.
“Rob Toia,” he immediately answered on who are the Roosters next exciting outside backs.
“He's 22, it's crazy. So there's so many young kids here at the Roosters that I'm so excited to watch over the next year. But Rob Toia for me, I love that guy.
Nawaqanitawase will now leave behind a club that he has grown deeply attached to, while heading back to the sport he left to pursue his NRL dream.
But his own words suggest the Roosters have already become a part of his story that will be difficult to leave behind permanently.
The Japan move gives him the chance to return to rugby union and experience another chapter of his career, but it does not erase what has happened at Bondi.
He arrived as a rugby convert chasing an opportunity.
He leaves as a State of Origin winner, an Ashes winner and now, most importantly, a Roosters premiership winner.
And after fulfilling the childhood dream of playing alongside the likes of Tupou and becoming part of the club's history himself, there is every reason to believe Nawaqanitawase's story with the Roosters has not yet reached its final chapter.
