Winning back-to-back premierships comes at a price.
Star Roosters duo Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Joseph Manu remain unsigned ahead of the November 1 deadline, with salary cap pressure set to force at least one premiership player out of the club.
Manu comes off contract at the end of the 2020 season but is likely to stay, with the centre stating he has been in dialogue with the Roosters regarding a new deal for some time.
“I’m pretty happy at the Roosters, everyone at the club has been great to me and we obviously won again this year," he told The Daily Telegraph.
"But I haven’t thought about it too much. There have been talks but I want to focus on the Test matches coming up. Once that’s done then hopefully we can knock it out and it over and done with,” Manu said.
“We’ve been talking all year, it’s not like I want to leave and it’s not like they want to let me go.”
However, the youngster stopped short of completely committing to the Tri-colours.
“Like I said, I’m happy at the Roosters and I don’t want to leave but at the end of the day you want to know what you’re really worth, where you want to be at in the future and all that comes into play but I'll be sorting it out once it’s all [Test matches] finished,” Manu said.
Waerea-Hargreaves, a triple-premiership Rooster, is just as keen to stay at the Bondi club, despite rumours that the Penrith Panthers are looking to pry him away on a lucrative deal.
“Obviously I’m still contracted and I’ve been at the Roosters for 10 years. I’d like to stay," the enforcer said.
"There’s a bit of talk but that’s just external stuff, for me it’s about worrying about my football and hopefully I can get a deal done very shortly."
Latrell Mitchell is another big gun whose future has been speculated on, with links being made to the Canterbury Bulldogs.
But the Belmore club have reportedly since shied away due to his high asking price.
In addition to the aforementioned, Jake Friend, Brett Morris and Zane Tetevano all remain unsigned beyond 2020.