Trent Robinson rarely gets plaudits he deserves despite his incredible record as Roosters coach
September 10, 2015 12:00am
by Paul Kent
IT was one of the more curious sights of the season.
A game at Brookvale and the cameras panned to the grandstand and there watching Manly take on North Queensland in their winter coats was Roosters coach Trent Robinson and star ­centre Blake Ferguson.
At one point, a fan walked up and asked Robinson if he could take a photo.
“Sure,” Robinson said.
So he handed Robinson his phone and turned and put his arm around Ferguson.
The coach is not exactly anonymous in the NRL, but he is not celebrated either.
The Roosters run out against Melbourne on Friday night as minor premiers for the third year in a row. Nobody has done that, in their first three seasons, since Norm Provan captain-coached St George to four minor premierships in 1962-65.
Robinson has the greatest winning percentage in the game’s history for any coach of more than 50 games.
The testimony of how well the Roosters are travelling is their record.
They have not lost since the first week in June and have 12 straight wins.
They have strike power from sideline to sideline and the ability to turn it up in either attack or defence.
They lost Kiwi international Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and NSW halfback Mitchell Pearce and instead of being crippled, they went out last week and put on 30 first-half points against the defending premiers.
Yet Robinson rarely gets the plaudits he deserves.
The casual dismissal of his record, if you want to go looking, is easy to make.
Look at his roster, his detractors say, and tell me how you can’t win with that? But that is the taste of jealousy.
The good rosters can be just as hard to manage. Just the problems are different.
And there is the magic of Robinson. When that vision of Robinson and Ferguson at Brookvale was shown later, many wondered who Robinson was spying on.
It was round 19 and the Roosters didn’t play Manly for six more weeks.
But the Sea Eagles were struggling at the time and hardly seemed worth the trip.
And they didn’t play North Queensland at all, not until a possible match-up in the finals when little of what they saw might still be relevant anyway.
So who was he there to watch? Or is the question why was he there, with the answer right next to him?
Ferguson has grown enormously this season.
He went from an immature but talented kid on the verge of blowing it all to his rightful place as one of the great threats in our game.
Robinson is rugby league’s version of the horse whisperer.
Shaun Kenny-Dowall returned last weekend after a troubled time away from the game following a domestic dispute. Charges have been laid, which Kenny-Dowall denies, and such was the toll he spent some time in hospital.
When Pearce wandered away from the game plan last season, dropped from Origin and with a firestorm raining down, Robinson spoke calmly about what happened without ever excusing it.
He carefully steered Pearce right and kept the Roosters performing through to another minor premiership.
The Roosters suffered a blow earlier this season when Roger Tuivasa-Sheck signed with the Warriors.
It could have imploded some, yet the Roosters merely got on with it and Tuivasa-Sheck remains one of their best.
James Maloney was moved on. There was uncertainty about Daniel Tupou’s future for a short time.
Michael Jennings was charged by police.
Willis Meehan was charged and stood down, and then ­finally sacked, when he could no longer obey the rules, a sign Robinson is not an apologist.
Yet the Roosters never ­wavered like other premiership threats have done.
They continue winning and sticking to their values.
And that’s what trips to the footy are about. They have nothing to do with the game in front of them. It’s the conversation in the stand that matters.
