Official Match Day Thread: Roosters v Cowboys

[Rooster_6]

I’m not going to pile on Robbo alone given he wasn’t out there shitting the bed. But it happens so often that this insanely talented roster decide to have a “lazy day” as you call it. The mentality is so far down the drain it’s not funny and whether we like it or not it HAS to come back down to the coaches message.

I’m not saying he is deliberately saying yeah boys take it easy this ones in the bag, but whatever he is saying is not getting through and is either too nonchalant or the players don’t give a stuff and do their own thing. Given how highly he is spoken of, I strongly doubt it’s the latter.

There is off nights but if the club hadn’t tossed up tripe like this for the last 3 or 4 seasons you could use that excuse. The excuses are done.

You remember it more because it’s our club but lazy performances happen to all clubs.

12 months ago the Storm put in an equally pathetic display of effort against the Cowboys and I remember Craig Bellamy having an all time breakdown in the press conference. Now Robbo wont do that because he rarely criticises his players publicly but you can’t tell me it’s the coaches, players have to be accountable for effort. Blame the coaches for poor tactical decisions, team selections, lack of development but you can’t blame them for the effort the players display on the field unless you’re going to claim the culture is completely broken which clearly isn’t the case.

[fletch]

Still maintain this team has a massive Brandon Smith problem way overpaid for what he provides this team.

[Steggles]

I thought May and Whyte played really well and were by far our best, Radley was OK.
Steep had a decent debut……well done young man.
Good to see Wong and Sitili get some game time with Wong looking particularly good.
We missed Angus a lot on the left edge.
Manu overplayed his hand far too much and stifled the attack. Young was really poor.
Luke Keary made some terrible decisions as captain, particularly taking the goal after the sin bin. We missed Teddy big time.
I hate the impact that Origin has on club results.

[DP1990]

Still maintain this team has a massive Brandon Smith problem way overpaid for what he provides this team.

Overpaid and overrated !

[nayfo]

We looked so slow today

[Crab]

An exciting loss .... What else can you say ?

[BTRD]

We looked so slow today

Yep obvious from the kick off. And looked disinterested.

We lose far to many of these type of games.

[HunchoRooster]

I thought May and Whyte played really well and were by far our best, Radley was OK.
Steep had a decent debut……well done young man.
Good to see Wong and Sitili get some game time with Wong looking particularly good.
We missed Angus a lot on the left edge.
Manu overplayed his hand far too much and stifled the attack. Young was really poor.
Luke Keary made some terrible decisions as captain, particularly taking the goal after the sin bin. We missed Teddy big time.
I hate the impact that Origin has on club results.

It’s more depressing though when you realise Cowgirls had half their team out with Origin.

[HunchoRooster]

You remember it more because it’s our club but lazy performances happen to all clubs.

12 months ago the Storm put in an equally pathetic display of effort against the Cowboys and I remember Craig Bellamy having an all time breakdown in the press conference. Now Robbo wont do that because he rarely criticises his players publicly but you can’t tell me it’s the coaches, players have to be accountable for effort. Blame the coaches for poor tactical decisions, team selections, lack of development but you can’t blame them for the effort the players display on the field unless you’re going to claim the culture is completely broken which clearly isn’t the case.

I don’t think the culture of the club is broken, far from it. However I think there are a few players who are either coasting on their laurels or completely disinterested in the team.

Its on the coach to find them and get rid of that attitude or get rid of the players.

[Judge Smails]

We were out muscled ..

We had one legitimate front rower on, 2 small backrowers, Sandon smith playing hooker, a debutant backrower of 90kg, Toupanua playing prop and B Smith looking unfit and tired

the Cows are a big team and rolled us

Walkers long kicking game is NSW cup standard

Sandon smith is too small for hooker moving forward

Walkers goal line defence will cost us more so too

Manu wasn’t at his best

Young needs no explanation

Toupo was great

sadly, our boys were already thinking about next week and that, along with a tiny pack is on Robbo

[elo]

We looked so slow today

I was at the game, whilst the surface had been cut it was clearly still quite heavy under foot - didn't really suit how we have been playing.

Having said that, the Cowboys kicking game kept them in that first half, it was noticeable at ground level how much higher and deeper their kicking was - it wasn't even close, without that they would have been 20+ behind instead of 10.

The second half......just poor, really poor. We came out like we had won the game, zero respect for the opposition and ended up getting our pants pulled down by a reserve grade team that wanted it more - it happens FAR too often with this lot, hard to take us seriously with this nonsense.

[RoosterBooster]

I have to agree with this, it was noticeable at the game that he started strong but does not have the motor at back end of half’s .

Through circumstances we have a lot of room in our cap so it’s not a major issue, but he does not play anywhere near his reported $800K .

I think I say it often but with a team full of players who want the ball in their hands Brandon can often over complicate a situation when quick service to our half’s is the go.

he is far from terrible but I would go to market for 2026

Still maintain this team has a massive Brandon Smith problem way overpaid for what he provides this team.

[milanja]

Still maintain this team has a massive Brandon Smith problem way overpaid for what he provides this team.

My biggest issue with smith is, that when he doesn’t play, or isn’t on the field, I don’t think we miss him at all.

Some hookers are known for being tackle machines, others for game management, creativity and so on, I’m not sure what Brandon’s best attribute is to be honest.

[Big Dog]

Ruled to have come off a Cowboys hand as it was passed - didn't show the replay in any great detail to see if that was true.

Pretty happy with how we're playing. Cowboys look very rudderless and don't expect them to out-score us by 10 points in the second half. We don't need to score 40 here, just remain composed and limit their opportunities, and it should be a (relatively) cruisey win from here)

Oh well

[zac]

you sensed the cows were going to come home strongly after they outscored us a man down. credit to them, they played well.
we looked out of juice but still had enough opportunities to win and should have defended their tries better.