Wests Devils sign NRL veteran Tautau Moga following Segeyaro backflip

The club announced the signing of the former Cowboys, Panthers, Sharks, Broncos and Sea Eagles rake in November on his return from a stint in the UK Super League.

However, the 33-year-old subsequently had a change of heart and sought a return home to the sunshine state, ending his stint in the Illawarra before it began.

"It was exciting for James to come on board a few months ago there, but he had a few changes and he decided to move back home to North Queensland," Devils coach Pete McLeod said.

"We weren't going to stand in his way doing that. It's disappointing for the club, but there's plenty of options around around nine (hooker) and we've got that really good side that won the reserve grand final last year so we'll look to them [to fill that position]."

Securing Moga hot on the heels of Segeyaro's departure is a major boost for the league heavyweight looking to bounce back from its first early finals exit in five years last season.

Once touted as the next Sonny Bill Williams, Moga endured an injury-plagued career that saw him undergo four knee reconstructions through an 87 NRL games with six clubs.

However, his most recent ACL tear came back in 2018, with the now 30-year-old having managed 33 games across the NRL and NSW Cup the past two seasons without a hiccup.

His 13-game stint with St George Illawarra saw him bag 13 tries in a late-career renaissance that will now continue at Parrish Park, where he'll provide cover across the outside backs, and possibly back row.

"With the competition the way it is, with the points system, it makes [recruitment] difficult, but he's been at training this week and has trained fantastic," McLeod said.

"He's only been there a couple of sessions, but he's been around a long time and he's got a heap of experience which'll be handy for us during the season.

"He's a big body and he's had a heap of coaches and a heap of different influences on his career, so it'll be good to see how that unfolds for us.

"We've had two training sessions this year, so they're all just training to compete against each other and trying to put themselves in the top grade, but we'll play him wherever we need to.

"He's happy to do that. He's a big boy and he runs hard, so he'll be hard to stop wherever we play him. He's been really good for the first couple of sessions and the young blokes will be really excited to play with him."

The 2024 season shapes as a fresh start at Parrish Park after a core group through two grand finals and a play-for-free COVID season appeared to run out of steam at the back end of 2023.

The push will again come in a condensed field after the IDRL board confirmed last month that the first grade competition will again be a race in six.

While future seasons will ideally see the competition expanded to eight or more combatants, McLeod feels 2024 shapes as a changing of the guard year across the board, with no let-up in the week-to-week grind.

"Hopefully we can get some more teams here over the next couple of years, but just looking around at the teams that are there this year, it's going to be a real strong competition," McLeod said.

"Whoever comes out on top at the end of the day is going to be an outstanding team. If you look along around the league, there's a heap of new faces that are going to be playing for different clubs.

"I think what's happened in the past is done now with COVID and all the other stuff, the rain that we had in 2022 and all the rest of it. Everyone's just excited for a new year and we'll be in there giving it a shake.

"We've been through a good season in the Illawarra League [last year] and I can see it being really hard fought among the six teams who are there because there's a lot of quality players."