2022 synopsis

[Valheru]

I'll start by addressing the most recent events, that was an absolute debacle on Sunday. I was really hoping we would just turn up and put in a professional performance and get the job done. They completely lost their way and what we saw wasn't football as much as a circus. These roosters/souths games are become ridiculous and both teams need to be reigned in. For us we need to completely re-evaluate game week against souths because apart from a meaningless match for the stadium opener we have been on the wrong end of the emotional battle for 3 years now. Play with added intensity, sure, but other than that they just need to play footy like any other game and leave the emotion to the fans. The storm game 2 weeks earlier was a perfect example of lifting the intensity without going over the top.

On the actual game, there is no doubt in my mind we win if teddy stays on. In the end souths handled going down to 11 players better than we handled teddy leaving the field. Manu not being there, crighton going, tupou going and apparent injuries to Walker and JWH compounded things.

Having said all that I think it important to not to get to stuck in the moment and look at the season as a whole. I think a first week exit is a fail by our standards but there were some huge positives too. It took half the season to work out the halves positioning, how to maximise Manu, the best forward rotation and the identity of the team in terms of how they wanted to play. Once we got that right we were the 2nd best team in the comp for the last third of the season with the problem being we had to go on an epic run to qualify for the finals. We ended up one game short of the top 4 so those losses to knights and dogs were what ultimately lead to us finishing outside the top 4. It was quite similar to 2020 in that respect in that we couldn't afford to rest players and/or dip our performance in order to peak at this time of year.

I am optimistic that we have come through this little transition period now and can give the title a real shake next year. Not much will change apart from Smith coming in which may take some time to gel but we should be able to get some more wins in the first 15 weeks of the season and finish top 4.

 

[marshall stalin]

Trouble was the Roosters continued on with the so called old fashion softening up period. The team that starts to play footy after this "softening up period" usually wins.

Early losses to Knights/Dogs and Dragons cost them a top 4 spot as did i feel not switching Keary and Walker earlier and utilising Watson as a running forward

Robbo likes to build into the season as it progresses although early wins can mean having less to do at the back end of the season

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

I asked in the match discussion thread who takes over the captain‘s role when Teddy goes off. Jared seemed to be doing all the talking to Klein and questioning his decisions but it was Keary who fronted the presser so maybe Luke should’ve done more to get the game plan back on track. We were more than capable of winning that game. Yet another loss in season 2022 that shouldn’t have been.

I also believe Robbo may have to get the boys into camp on the lead up to these games so he can control what media they’re exposed to. Merkins lost their heads and not for the first time, either.

I see a minor silver lining in the Suallii’s average performance at fullback. I think he is a good kid and don’t believe the BS about him wanting to replace Teddy immediately. But just in case some of that outside noise was filtering through to his head, that performance makes it easy for Robbo to get Joseph to trust him and stick to the path that he has set out for him. Trent is the master of the long game after all. I’m not sure we can keep him from from the clutches of rugby but if he sticks to the apprenticeship that served Mini so well, having that kind of patience should make us feel more confident that he may become a forever Rooster.

Mega optimistic for 2023.
In Easts, we trust.

 

[Valheru]

Trouble was the Roosters continued on with the so called old fashion softening up period. The team that starts to play footy after this "softening up period" usually wins.

Early losses to Knights/Dogs and Dragons cost them a top 4 spot as did i feel not switching Keary and Walker earlier and utilising Watson as a running forward

Robbo likes to build into the season as it progresses although early wins can mean having less to do at the back end of the season

As it turned out we only needed 1 of those to be wins to finish top 4. The dogs is the one that really stands out for me, that was an awful loss. ANZAC Day is always a 50/50 proposition regardless of form, weird things just happen that day. The knights loss was poor but we are historically useless in round 1 under robbo so no shock there. The dogs loss, especially at the time with Barrett in charge was inexcusable.

Having said that, we were a bit unlucky to lose some if the games we lost too. The 2nd game against Penrith was arguably our best performance of the year and the refs f**ked us that day. The game against Canberra could have went either way and the loss to parra required them to play the best half of footy they will ever play.

We had a very tough draw as well. You have to be good enough to beat who is in front of you but it's no exaggeration to say the sharks for example finished ahead of us purely because they got to play the likes of warriors, tigers and Titans twice whilst we didn't. They also played Penrith, parra and cowboys once each while we played them twice.

 

[Valheru]

I asked in the match discussion thread who takes over the captain‘s role when Teddy goes off. Jared seemed to be doing all the talking to Klein and questioning his decisions but it was Keary who fronted the presser so maybe Luke should’ve done more to get the game plan back on track. We were more than capable of winning that game. Yet another loss in season 2022 that shouldn’t have been.

I also believe Robbo may have to get the boys into camp on the lead up to these games so he can control what media they’re exposed to. Merkins lost their heads and not for the first time, either.

I see a minor silver lining in the Suallii’s average performance at fullback. I think he is a good kid and don’t believe the BS about him wanting to replace Teddy immediately. But just in case some of that outside noise was filtering through to his head, that performance makes it easy for Robbo to get Joseph to trust him and stick to the path that he has set out for him. Trent is the master of the long game after all. I’m not sure we can keep him from from the clutches of rugby but if he sticks to the apprenticeship that served Mini so well, having that kind of patience should make us feel more confident that he may become a forever Rooster.

Mega optimistic for 2023.
In Easts, we trust.

Yeah Jared is a leader via actions on the field, as an actual captain talking to officials he is far from ideal. Keary to be honest doesn't look comfortable doing the role either. Crighton might be the best option but he was off as well, it is definitely something that needs to be looked at next year.

On sualli there is pretty good oil the bloke who said that in the media doesn't have much to do with him anymore and is friendly with souths. I just trust the organisation to manage him both on and off the field and bring him through in good time. Rugby might be irresistible to him but we will see.

On his performance, I feel for him, that was never meant to happen and he went in there in tough circumstances. I'm sure it is a learning curve. Hopefully next year we are in a position where we can rest teddy and give him a game back there against one of the lower teams in the back end of season.

 

[Captain Apollo]

The big factor this season was our generally poor ruck defence. Since Jake Friend's retirement, the defence in and around the ruck has been poor with many teams exploiting it. Whilst Sam Verrills give good service from dummy half, he is nowhere near the caliber of defender Jake was, so a lot of that tight defence around the ruck fell on Jared's shoulders. That is why when he went down with that hamstring injury our defence looked even worse as he was the only one who seemed to be able to take up the slack left by Friend's retirement. It is also one of the reasons I suspect that the club recruited Brandon Smith to help tighten up our ruck defence.

In terms of captaincy, last time it was commented on (which was about 1-2 years ago), Jared was listed as vice-captain. He has been in the club's leadership group for the longest, so I dare say he was captain after Teddy went off.

In relation to Joseph Suaalii, I think the "he wants to play fullback, Teddy must go" b/s is just that, b/s. The guy who talked to the press about it was Suaalii's mentor when he was at Souths, and he is identified very much as a Souths supporter. As such I do not pay much attention to it at all. He may want to play fullback, but at 19 few if any clubs will gift him that role after only 1 1/2 years of first grade, where he has played most of them on the wing. In the scheme of things, I suspect he will be Teddy's heir to the position and that is how the club will be preparing him. That is why there is talk that in 2023 he will be moved into the centres.

The one thing that needs to be looked at is recruitment for 2024. Considering his age, finding a suitable replacement for JWH would be the number one priority in my opinion. Also we need to look at some of our three quarters, especially the wing as with Tupou turning 32 mid-next year and the injury problem he's had this year, it has shown how poor some of our back up players have been when you have a specialist half playing centres when some of our starters are out injured. As soon as Billy Smith went down with another ACL injury, we had problems filling the three quarters with enough quality many weeks.

 

[Valheru]

Hopefully Billy Smith can get through a season next year because teddy, tuppu, manu, Smith and sualli is a backline that will score far more points than they concede.

 

[H.H]

All good points team. The game on Sunday was an absolute sh*t show. We were so poor once it got to 13 on 11, but losing Ted, Crichton and Toops killed us. We were cutting them open at will down our left. All structure went out the window once they went off. Also, Souffs were a disgrace the way they layed down - worked in their favour massively - it frustrated the sh*t out of our guys and also slowed the game down so our power game was nullified. Frustrating AF and we need to find a way around this as they are killing us the last few years.

Apollo I agree 100% on Smith - as much as I like Verills he was exposed a couple of times on Sunday and yes, our middle has not been the same since Jake left. I don't know if Smith can re-produce Jake's workrate, but his defence will stiffen that middle up immeasurably.

As for the centres, man having Hutch there was a disaster and I knew it would bite us eventually. I know Gildart and Keighran aren't world class, but they have speed and I can't see how they could have been worse than Hutch in that spot.

Finally, apart from Toops and JWH, we're still a young side so I don't have a Melbourne feeling about us. Plenty to look forward to and I said a number of times after the 2021 season that we were a year or two away but that said, if things went our way we would've given it a massive shake this year. Very positive about the coming few years.

As for this weekend, let's gone Sharks!!!

 

[Captain Apollo]

Neither Gildart nor Keighran are renowned defenders. It should speak loads that Gildart couldn't even crack the Wests Tigers first grade side after he was dropped following Round 9 this year. Gildart played a lot of NSW cup before we picked him up on loan.

 

[Valheru]

All good points team. The game on Sunday was an absolute sh*t show. We were so poor once it got to 13 on 11, but losing Ted, Crichton and Toops killed us. We were cutting them open at will down our left. All structure went out the window once they went off. Also, Souffs were a disgrace the way they layed down - worked in their favour massively - it frustrated the sh*t out of our guys and also slowed the game down so our power game was nullified. Frustrating AF and we need to find a way around this as they are killing us the last few years.

Apollo I agree 100% on Smith - as much as I like Verills he was exposed a couple of times on Sunday and yes, our middle has not been the same since Jake left. I don't know if Smith can re-produce Jake's workrate, but his defence will stiffen that middle up immeasurably.

As for the centres, man having Hutch there was a disaster and I knew it would bite us eventually. I know Gildart and Keighran aren't world class, but they have speed and I can't see how they could have been worse than Hutch in that spot.

Finally, apart from Toops and JWH, we're still a young side so I don't have a Melbourne feeling about us. Plenty to look forward to and I said a number of times after the 2021 season that we were a year or two away but that said, if things went our way we would've given it a massive shake this year. Very positive about the coming few years.

As for this weekend, let's gone Sharks!!!

Well said.

Cheese I think will be a huge difference for us. The usual suspects have already tried to lay the boot in because of his dip in form this year. Of course they ignore the fact that he didn't play hooker at all this year and rotated between front row, lock and 2nd row. Give him some consistency and he is undoubtedly a top 3 hooker in the NRL I suspect it won't he long until the same suspects start complaining about our salary cap again.

 

[marshall stalin]

All good points team. The game on Sunday was an absolute sh*t show. We were so poor once it got to 13 on 11, but losing Ted, Crichton and Toops killed us. We were cutting them open at will down our left. All structure went out the window once they went off. Also, Souffs were a disgrace the way they layed down - worked in their favour massively - it frustrated the sh*t out of our guys and also slowed the game down so our power game was nullified. Frustrating AF and we need to find a way around this as they are killing us the last few years.

Apollo I agree 100% on Smith - as much as I like Verills he was exposed a couple of times on Sunday and yes, our middle has not been the same since Jake left. I don't know if Smith can re-produce Jake's workrate, but his defence will stiffen that middle up immeasurably.

As for the centres, man having Hutch there was a disaster and I knew it would bite us eventually. I know Gildart and Keighran aren't world class, but they have speed and I can't see how they could have been worse than Hutch in that spot.

Finally, apart from Toops and JWH, we're still a young side so I don't have a Melbourne feeling about us. Plenty to look forward to and I said a number of times after the 2021 season that we were a year or two away but that said, if things went our way we would've given it a massive shake this year. Very positive about the coming few years.

As for this weekend, let's gone Sharks!!!

Hutchinson gets a bad wrap i see on some other sites but the guy did play all 25 games and the Souths final was not the first time he played centre - 4 other games and most of the game vs Dragons when Smith went down and they won all those games.

Hutchinson playing centre didn't lose the game vs Souths in the Final though - a rather convenience scapegoat

Tedesco being HIA'd out / Toops breaking down / poor discipline by certain players and poor game awareness. i.e when 13 on 11

You can't start playing footy 2/3 rd;s of the way through the season though - need to re-assess the way they approach the pre-season and the season as leaving a lot to do at the back end of the season will always come back to bite you in the finals - winning 4 games from outside the top 4 to win a comp is close to impossible.

They always talk about how they are not playing 80 minutes in the press conferences which is something they do need to work on if they really want to be a premiership contender.

Cant be good for 30 / 40 or 50 minutes and sloppy for the other time in a game - a consistent level of footy over 80 minutes week in week out is required.

 

[Valheru]

You can't start playing footy 2/3 rd;s of the way through the season though - need to re-assess the way they approach the pre-season and the season as leaving a lot to do at the back end of the season will always come back to bite you in the finals - winning 4 games from outside the top 4 to win a comp is close to impossible.

I really don't think that will be an issue next year.

After all the injuries and retirements last year, there was always going to be somewhat of a transition period.

I think they look much more settled for the start of next season

 

[Valheru]

I hope last night's result hurts the team because that should have been us. We are a better footy side than souths but they have some mental grip over us at the moment.

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

I hope last night's result hurts the team because that should have been us. We are a better footy side than souths but they have some mental grip over us at the moment.

I sent a text similar to this to a mate at FT of last night’s game

 

[Captain Apollo]

A nice compilation video -

https://www.nrl.com/news/2022/09/18/the-best-nrl-tries-from-the-roosters-in-2022/

 

[Captain Apollo]

This is a good read -

So good for so long: How Roosters can bounce back in 2023

Such are the expectations both internally and externally after finals appearances in nine of the last 10 years and three premierships to boot, an honourable exit in week one at the hands of your arch-enemy will burn the Roosters players all summer. And that is what has made them so good, for so...

www.nrl.com

One key point in this article I'll extract -

In the final analysis, only Sam Walker, Angus Crichton, Nat Butcher and Drew Hutchison would play all 25 games, meaning the Roosters were undermanned more often that not as they had to fight like hell to even reach September, let alone make an impact once they got there.

So injuries, yet again, were a major factor this season.

 

[MKCS]

This year I genuinely think that we would've won the comp if we'd kept our full side on the field. If we had finished up 5th and played the Raiders I think we would've gone on and beat Parramatta, beat the Cowboys and be playing Penrith this weekend with a very real chance of winning. Unfortunately we had bad luck with injuries and took on a absolutely filthy Souths team.

Despite my genuine thought that we could've taken it this year I think next year we'll be much more dangerous. Sam Walker is now almost 50 games into his career and is improving every season, Suaalii has played a full season pretty much and has shown what he can do, Keary/Walker have finally played a full season (Almost) together and therefore will only be better next year, Tedesco, Tupou, Manu, Keary, JWH, Lodge, Crichton, Butcher and Radley would all walk into most other teams and are some of the best players in the league.

As much as I like Verrills I think Smith is a HUGE upgrade on him. Smith is easily one of the best hookers in the world right now and at just 26 years old he'll still be a great hooker for 5 or more years. Comes from a winning team also so hopefully he won't want to f**k around.

The only thing I'd like to see us do and I'm not sure if we've got the cap room for it but I'd like to see an experienced forward signed for our bench because E Butcher, Terell May and Fletcher Baker don't have a heap of experience. I find most teams typically carry one experienced bench forward and ours (Taukeaiho) just left.

 

[Captain Apollo]

MKCS, I think that's why the Roosters are hoping to be able to re-sign Matt Lodge. When Collins comes back it would give us a 3 prop rotation of JWH, Collins and lodge if that occurs.

 

[Valheru]

In regards to props and the forwards in general, I think we will also unleash Whyte, Wong and Tapuha next year along with May getting some more minutes as well.

 

[Valheru]

The biggest thing we will miss with SST is he is one of those modern "middle forwards" in that he can play Prop and lock. Every good team needs one of those. JWH, Lodge and Collins are genuine props and Radley is a genuine lock with his 2nd best position being hooker.

N Butcher is capable of being that "middle forward" but IMO he is best left at starting 2nd row with Sitilli on the bench. Butcher is just a bit more reliable defensively. Hopefully one of the guys mentioned earlier can adopt that prop/lock role.