Source :- THE AGE NEWS
In the Roosters’ dressing room on Friday night, and soon after with half a dozen recorders beneath his nose, Trent Robinson spoke to what all can see in his star-studded squad.
The Roosters have a glittering roster well and truly worthy of a title, despite putting themselves in difficult positions in games far more often than all-conquering Penrith, a Warriors outfit cast from the same mould, or the perennially dismissed Sharks.
Friday’s comeback against Canterbury was their fifth of serious note for the year, pinching a win that should have been the Bulldogs’ when they led 18-8 with 20 minutes to play.
Robinson was unable to recall a season with so many Roosters revivals.
“They’re pretty calm in the last 20 minutes,” he said. “They work out, ‘Are we up by 10, down by 10, what do we need to do?’ Rather than playing the end of the game going, ‘Oh God, [what] if we lose?’
“A lot of teams get into playing into the future, where these guys strategise quite well.
“And they’ve been able to change the game to suit the last 20 minutes on many occasions. So that’s a big strength. But I thought we were pretty average in patches [on Friday night].”
The Roosters have regularly been average in patches in games and seasons for some time. It’s part of their charm.
Also part of their make-up this year is the career-best form of more than half a dozen starting players.
Hugo Savala and Rob Toia play well beyond their years as NRL centres. Mark Nawaqanitawase is either the most watchable player in the game or second only to Sam Walker.
Mercurial No.7 Walker was not at his best against Canterbury, but has still come on in leaps and bounds in a breakout Queensland Origin campaign that has rolled into Roosters colours. Both have added shades of the consistency seen in Naufahu Whyte’s game, Robinson’s indisputable pack leader.
On their edges, Salesi Foketi is producing match-winning plays, like the last try that sunk Canterbury, after regularly terrorising opposition halves. Siua Wong has recaptured the form of his maiden 2023 season, and improved on it again, alongside Toia and Daly Cherry-Evans.
James Tedesco would be in career-best touch, too, if he hadn’t set the bar so impressively high during the past 18 months, but his added ball-playing threat around the ruck and skipping across defenders on edges has his autumn years in full bloom.
Every premiership comes with a slice of luck. Penrith’s misfortune is coming just at the wrong time, with all eyes now on captain and ball-playing maestro Isaah Yeo as he tries to rehab his way through a pec injury and back onto the paddock.
News that he’s avoided surgery as of Monday morning adds intrigue to the Panthers title run, after a weekend where fears Yeo was gone for the season had their rivals surging into premiership play.
How they fare on both sides of the ball while he’s sidelined will be a fascinating watch, not to mention whether Blaize Talagi or Jack Cogger claim the No.6 jersey for the long run home.
The Roosters, Warriors, Sharks and Dolphins, meanwhile, all have their question marks. Robinson’s side will confront theirs on Thursday night. The Roosters have an eight per cent win record against the Panthers since 2020. They’ve won one of their past 12 clashes, and have typically been expertly and systematically pulled to pieces by them.
Former Tricolours premiership winner Luke Keary noted earlier this year on The Bye Round podcast that Penrith’s regular dominance of their matches forced a genuine strategic departure from the Roosters’ regular game plans.
“In my whole career in the NRL, they were the only team where we thought, ‘We need to mix it up a bit here’. Subconsciously, you get that,” Keary said.
“It’s what a great team does. We saw it when we had a great run [the Roosters’ 2018 and 2019 premiership wins], you saw teams change, because they thought they couldn’t [win]. Penrith have that.”
This Roosters side has a brilliance more akin to the freewheeling fun of the Broncos and Raiders of last season than the systematic perfection of Penrith and the Warriors.
Pulling it all together remains a work in progress for the Roosters. Their fans are all too familiar with descents into clunky structure and maddening mistakes.
Among the regular “average patches” though, is enough composure to spring five comeback wins and a host of players hitting new ceilings in their careers. Penrith, as always, are now the sternest test of where they’re truly at.
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
