round 4 clash with the Canterbury Bulldogs, pain in his back returned. This severely harmed his chances of regaining his Australian fullback jersey and he was overlooked in favour of both Brett Stewart and Melbourne Storm fullback Billy Slater. Stewart and Slater were also the respective fullbacks for NSW and Qld at the time. In 2009, Anthony played 2 games before injuring his ankle against the Canberra Raiders. He was sidelined until Round 20; by then, the Roosters were in deep trouble and staring down of their worst season since failing to win a single game in 1966. Eventually, the Roosters finished last on the NRL ladder, completing a spectacular downfall from the first half of the decade in which the Sydney Roosters were dominant, but had only one NRL Premiership to show for it. 2010s In the 2010 NRL season, Minichiello returned to the field injury-free for the first time since 2005. As part of the Roosters "clean out", he was moved from fullback to the wing to make way for new recruit Todd Carney. He settled well in this position and was selected to play in the 2010 City v Country Origin match on 7 May 2010. Due to Minichiello's good form, he and his manager cleared all rumours of a possible move to the Cronulla Sharks, and signed a one-year deal with the Roosters with a possible one-year extension on top of that. On 23 August 2010, Minichiello broke the 100 try barrier against the Gold Coast Titans in Round 24. Minichiello was rested from the Roosters' final two regular season matches with a hamstring injury, however he returned to full fitness for the 2010 NRL finals series. The Roosters advanced to the Grand Final, were beaten 32–8 by the Wayne Bennett coached St George Illawarra Dragons in a disappointing end to what was otherwise a massive improvement from the previous year. By Round 8 of the 2010 season, Mini had been moved back to fullback by coach Brian Smith, with Carney moving to his preferred position of . Other than playing on the wing in rounds 12 and 13, Mini would remain at fullback for the rest of the year. For his part, Carney would go on to win the Dally M Medal as the NRL Player of the Year, the first Roosters player to do so since Gary Freeman in 1992. In 2011 he was