2025 NSW Cup Thread

[Rooster_6]

Draw & Results

Round 1: Roosters 12 Vs Bears 10
Round 2: Panthers 38 Vs Roosters 10
Round 3: Warriors 46 Vs Roosters 12

[Rooster_6]

Reserved for Round 1 Review

[Rooster_6]

Round 2 NSW Cup Penrith Panthers VS Sydney Roosters

Penrith Panthers 38 defeat Sydney Roosters 10

Match Review:
We had a shocking start to the game, multiple dropped balls in the opening 20minutes under very hot conditions (37 degrees) meant Penrith just dominated field position and belted us as they jumped out to a 22 – 0 lead after 20 minutes. After the 20 minute mark we did a much better job of holding onto the ball and staying in the contest and the scoreline was 16-10 from min 20 to 80. Very hard to find standouts in what was a belting and given how fatigued the boys were having to defend in that heat for so long but there were some good signs from a handful of individuals.

1. Ethan King – Was high energy all game and a real standout, defused kicks well and carried the ball out of his own end strongly. Super reliable but also looked good in attack on some shapes we ran, he threw one stupid pass but also had a nice moment where he put Billy Smith away in our own half, only to support and get the ball back and then set up a try that was called back for a forward pass. Thought he was our best. 7/10

2. Tom Rodwell – Just really strong all game, took a heap of yardage carries, always looked super reliable in defence and defusing any kicks he had to and when he had the opportunity, he finished his try well. 7/10

3. Billy Smith – Happy to report he still has all his strength and power and it was very evident when he got the ball in a good position he’s definitely a level above. He put a really nice fend and move on Tailagi who was opposing him in the centres to score our first try of the day but he was also very loose with the ball in hand, made two errors and pushed two stupid offloads that results in errors as well. He was part of the problem but also very evident his class and quality 5/10

4. Ben Johnson – Our right edge was being torn apart in defence all game and he along with his inside and outside men seemed to be at sea. Copped a head knock around the 17^th min mark and had to go off for a HIA which he returned from but was very quiet and didn’t see many good attacking opportunities. 3/10

5. Tyreece Tait – I really like this kid but he had a shocker unfortunately, got found out in defence a number of times jamming in off his wing and he just had a very low involvement in the game. Barely took any yardage carries coming out of our own end. 2/10

6. Jake Elliot – A really tough game for the halves as we were run off the park in the first half and whilst we competed much better after the 20^th minute mark we never really enjoyed a good run of field position. Jake put in a really nice kick early on that McCathie should’ve dived on to score and he threw a really nice cut out for our second try of the game so hard to fault but just not the game for a half to shine. 5/10

7. Toby Rodwell – With no SG Ball this week Toby got the opportunity to step up a couple of grades, like Elliot not a great game for halves to shine. Overall thought his kicking game was decent, he had a couple of nice carries where he showed his excellent footwork but didn’t really have much impact on the game 4/10

8. Rhys Dakin – Silly pass early in the first half that resulted in an error contributed to lack of possession and early Penrith dominance but remained buys in defence and had a much better second stint in the second half. I think he will be a good signing for this side. 4/10

9. Tyler Moriaty – Good service, busy in defence but didn’t contribute much else to the game, had to play 78 minutes due to Allen being ruled out with a HIA. 5/10

10. Aholoka Toia – Not sited in first half due to lack of possession but had a really good second stint. Very powerful ball carry. 5/10

11. Max McCathie – Bombed a try in the first half, put on some good shots in defence one where he forced an error and he was one of the stronger ball carries in yardage but silly error and a bombed try brough him down. 4/10

12. Ethan Roberts – Really busy and makes good decisions in defence but seems to get out wrestled too often in contact. Seems to run good lines and has good intent but struggles to win the contact. First year up from SG Ball so plenty of time still to develop. 2/10

13. Hayden Barton – Very busy in defence but didn’t offer much with ball in hand, didn’t take a lot of carries and those he did take he was getting handled with ease. Small forward who probably needs some faster rucks where he can take some late set carries. 3/10

14. Jax Allen – Debut for the SG Ball captain, was super excited to watch him play and he got himself knocked out 2minutes into his debut, failed his HIA which means he’ll miss the next SG Ball game which is a big out for them. No Rating

15. Josh Finau – Came of the bench and helped stem the momentum with some really strong carries. Didn’t see a whole lot of game time but I thought he had a strong game, exactly what you want from an impact prop off the bench. 6/10

16. Lafi Tuinauvai – Along with Finau really helped turn the momentum of the game and stem the flow of points, strong carries, good defence. Hard to fault but just didn’t get much game time to show any more 5/10

17. Vito Tevaga – Had to come on early to cover in the centres for Ben Johnson’s HIA, thought he did well in defence, had some very strong carries and then shifted onto and edge again he was super involved. Really liked the intent he played with and thought he was one of the better performers 6/10

[Carlos Parra]

32 points for, 96 points against.

Going well!

[Rooster_6]

32 points for, 96 points against.

Going well!

Has not been a good start that's for sure, but the club have been absolutely decimated with injury.

The Warriors side on the other hand were stacked with NRL experience, Morgan Harper, Edward Kosi, Tannah Boyd, Te Maire Martin, Freddy Lussick, Bunty Afoa & Tom Ale.

[Chook2]

When you think no Collins’s, cheese, walker and 2 butcher out of first grade + 2 Vaa bro, foley, ioelu, Foketi out of the res grade players and also Roberts and losalu didn’t play that’s 12 os their 17 not playing

basically the backline is contracted players and the whole forward pack is either under 20s or next comp down playing up

[A Country Member]

Round 1 highlights, Roosters v Bears

[A Country Member]

Round 2 highlights, Roosters v Panthers

[A Country Member]

Round 3 highlights, Warriors v Roosters

[A Country Member]

Interestingly, Moriarty has twice had to play play 70+ minutes due to failed HIAs. Whilst I haven’t seen enough of him play I think we need a specialist dummy half at NRL level to constantly get over the ad line in O

[Rooster_6]

Round 3 NSW Cup New Zealand Warriors VS Sydney Roosters

Penrith Panthers 46 defeat Sydney Roosters 12

Match Review:
That was a very tough game to watch, we were outclassed and run off the park in areas but the most noticeable being how easily the Warriors were rolling down the field on every set. Very evident that our forward pack just wasn’t up to it and against a side with plenty of NRL it was always going to be a long day. After 55minutes the score was 46-0 and we are probably lucky the Warriors took their foot of the pedal because it was looking like being a 60+ scoreline at one point.

To be fair the side are missing a lot of forwards who would usually be playing; Foketi, Steep, Roberts, X Va’a, D Va’a, Losalu, Dockar-Clay, Makatoa, Warwick & potentially Fanafou who’s had a late start to the season. So as they start to get some of those players back I’m sure their fortunes will change.


1. Ethan King – Another really busy game from Ethan King, heavily involved in everything and was everywhere. Good kick defusal at the back, carried well in yardage and was talking a lot of 5^th play carries to set up for the last tackle kick. Unfortunately had a couple of costly errors in good ball that hurt us and missed a key tackle that lead to a try but still one of our best and can never fault his effort. 5/10

2. Tom Rodwell – Similar to last week he was very busy in yardage doing the bulk of the work for the team in backfield carries, defended well and when he got the opportunity he finished his try very nicely with a left foot step to beat both cover defenders. His only flaw was I though he bombed a potential try scoring opportunity by being a little too deep on a play but other than that again one of our best. 6/10

3. Billy Smith – Very evident he’s a class above at this level although still had a mixed performance with a lot of errors happening in and around him. Needs to work on his passing and tap ons, it’s very much all or nothing and in first grade that just won’t fly. Had one really nice pass that should’ve resulted in a try but Tom Rodwell was just slightly too deep on the play. Very strong in his carries again, just all strength and he was really good in defence making some really good decisions and his contact was excellent all game. 6/10

4. Fetalaiga Pauga – A decent first game back from his back injury, had a nice pass to put Tait away on a 50m line break from our own end. And then did what he always does which is carry well, generally very safe and was good in defence except for the 2^nd try of the game where he jammed in where the better option would’ve been to slide out. 4/10

5. Tyreece Tait – Not a good showing from Tait again, got one opportunity in open space and showed his speed but again just wasn’t getting involved in yardage carries out of our own end and looked unconvincing when having to defuse kicks. 3/10

6. Jake Elliot – His combination with Rodwell this week looked better but playing behind a forward pack who was continually getting torn to shreds you’re never going to see much from your halves. Had a nice grubber kick early on that probably should’ve resulted in a try, the shapes he and Rodwell ran in attack looked good but again for most of the game we were either defending or bringing the ball off our own goal line, hard to be critical of the young halves. 4/10

7. Toby Rodwell – Similar to Elliott didn’t get much chance to show off his ability but when we did have the ball in good positions I thought he organised well, we had some good shapes, his general play kicking was strong and his restarts on drop out ands kick offs were good, on 2 occasions we won possession back. 6/10

8. Aholoka Toia – Big powerful prop but just didn’t have much impact on the game at all, few carries and made a silly error in the 2^nd half that hurt us. 3/10

9. Tyler Moriaty – Feel sorry for the kid, looked like he had been in the wars before the game had even start with headgear and what appeared to be some bandaging on his chin and then copped another head knock early in the 2^nd half. Never stopped trying in defence, super busy but just never got any momentum off his forwards to show anything out of dummy half. Unfortunately got stripped in a 1 on 1 in the second half which again added to the problem. 4/10

10. Rhys Dakin – The new prop had a game he’d probably like to forget, really poor one on one miss off a 20m tap restart that kind of set the tone for the game. Worked through his tackles and had a few carries but never really had any impact on the game. 3/10

11. Max McCathie – Took a lot of tough carries on some hard lines against a regularly set defence because we had no momentum, one of the few forwards who probably hangs around when all the rest of the boys start to come back in. Poor missed tackle on 1^st try and made a basic error but never stopped trying. Physically still struggles a bit in the contact when carrying. 5/10

12. Vito Tevaga – Didn’t see much ball down his edge but when he did he had some flashes of maybe being able to create something with his footwork intent but overall largely ineffective and threw an intercept that compounded the continual turning over of cheap possession. 3/10

13.Hayden Barton – Probably the hardest working forward in the team, his defence was actually really good one of the few middles who was making an impact in trying to stem the flow of momentum but again in yardage a lot of work but largely ineffective. 5/10

14. Josh Finau – Big powerful prop again showed that physically he’s up to this level but just didn’t get many minutes and for those he was on a lot of defending. 4/10

15. Kyron Fekitoa – Don’t want to be too harsh as he’s a centre who was force to play dummy half due to the number of injuries but as expected his passing was poor, his defence was ok and he had a couple of good scoots out of dummy half. 3/10

16. Lafi Tuinauvai – Really big fella, good strong carries as well but again mostly defending during his short stint. Would like to see some more of him. 4/10

17. Julius Mitchell – The young prop backed up from Jersey Flegg and only got on for 10-15 minutes and similar to the rest was mostly defending and only had a couple of carries and as such too hard to judge. No rating.

[Rooster_6]

On a side note I watched parts of the Jersey Flegg contest and Fanafou Seve was super impressive, very physically imposing both in defence and carrying the ball. Clearly way too good for that level, understand he might play a few games there whilst tyring to build fitness but the NSW Cup side could definitely do with his ability sooner rather than later. Scored a try too and looked super pumped to be there.

Only played the 20minutes or so but very evident this guy could be something special.

[Chook2]

On a side note I watched parts of the Jersey Flegg contest and Fanafou Seve was super impressive, very physically imposing both in defence and carrying the ball. Clearly way too good for that level, understand he might play a few games there whilst tyring to build fitness but the NSW Cup side could definitely do with his ability sooner rather than later. Scored a try too and looked super pumped to be there.

Only played the 20minutes or so but very evident this guy could be something special.

Great update thankyou
seems it was true that he did have time off for a while - and only just coming back to training and playing again
does he seem slightly smaller but more agile and higher ceiling than the Vaa bros?

certainly nsw cup need him asap but also the nrl squad are short on middles atm with Collins out and the Vaa bros out
could he debut this year?

[Davo]

On aside note, i watched SG Ball at Leichardt this morning and his brother Itulu was massive, strong runs and offloads, a few big hits in defence. Also Kannan Magele in combo with Itulu laid a great platform early and when they went off the score was 34 to 6. Those 2 will no doubt jump to Jersey Flegg quickly.

[SamKerrSimp]

So I take it we won't be seeing Tyler Moriarty on the bench in first grade against the Titans, who are we going to have as the rotation hooker with Watson out? At least the Flegg boys had a big win so we got some pride back there.

Who is this Fanafou Seve is he supposed to be the next big thing? There's a thread about him saying he left the club but now he's playing Flegg.