I have bitten my lip for 24 hours, but I can remain silent no longer.
Yesterday, the week before, and close to a month before it again, the Roosters have looked and played like a disinterested, demotivated team... Just like recent seasons past.
The effort has not been there. The care has not been there. The great Bondi Junction wall of defence has crumbled and dissipated.
While words cannot describe how bad we were against Gold Coast, here are some I will use to try to paint a picture of where we are at... sluggish, lackadaisical, tired, soft, lazy, distracted, irritable, lethargic, nonchalant... the list goes on.
We need to be snapped out of this one way or other, soon, or we will be heading directly out the back door of the finals campaign.
My biggest worry is, that for some reason, the team has lost motivation and heart. It's not just a simple matter of "peaking too early" although I think there is some merit in that argument.
The real worry is that the team knows it has overachieved, and now the key players are prepared to rest on their laurels, slide into the finals and "hope for the best".
I don't see a team of 13 plus 4 players out there, doing their best to win games over the last month. I see them trying to do it the easy way. I don't see the effort that characterized the first three quarters of the premiership.
And nothing more exemplifies this, and this is the reason I have been prompted to write this post, than the players' reactions to the simplest of all the set-pieces and restarts in a game of Rugby League.
Drop the ball backwards in possession - few other Roosters are prepared to put their body on the line and dive on the loose ball to lock it up. Too often the opposing team's players dive on it with relish.
Pack the scrum quickly when it is our advantage to do so for timekeeping purposes - over the last month, we have been hopeless at this, with players not showing any urgency to pack a scrum when needed.
Kick-off restarts after opposing team tries - we have been terribly slow at this, even when behind. Against the Gold Coast when behind towards the end, the ref blew the restart whistle, and Maloney and other players were wandering around arguing about what to do. About 20 seconds wasted when we should have been showing purpose and urgency.
Taking the easy option - enough said. Quick and easy offloads (which end disastrously) are our preferred way to get out of trouble, instead of going back to basics and doing the hard yards up the middle.
The dreaded bomb - we still are massively over-reliant, moreso than any team in the comp, on the dreaded last tackle bomb. You'd think Mark Murray was still coaching us. Against the Gold Coast surely we could have come up with better last tackle set-pieces that the Pearce or Maloney bomb.
Going for the quick fix try rather than taking two points - in the first half we were gifted around three opportunities to get back within six points of the Coast, by taking the two. This game was a perfect semi-final rehearsal. Behind by 8 points after 20 mins or so, and playing unfamiliar catch-up football... why not practice for this likely semi-final scenario, by showing some patience, taking the two, chipping away at the Coast's lead. Then play to win in the second half. But NO... we were so over-confident that we could blitzkrieg our way over the line, that we got cocky, and started making stupid mistakes every time we had a great close-to-the-line opportunity.
Lastly (there are many more but this is all I have time for)... NO F*&^% REPEAT SETS... I mentioned semi-final football above. We all know what I am whining about when I talk about lack of repeat sets. It is our biggest weakness, and this is where Melbourne and souffs will tear us to pieces in the finals.
I won't even go on about slow and sluggish play the balls.
I know many of you won't like reading the above, and I know that there have been some mitigating circumstances in this long, arduous season... refereeing atrocities alone... But that facts are, someone has to speak the truth now before it is too late.
The Roosters are on course for a train wreck of a finals campaign unless the above specific issues, and the lack of enthusiasm and spark more generally, are quickly addressed.
I trust that the coach is working on it... He needs to be.
Yesterday, the week before, and close to a month before it again, the Roosters have looked and played like a disinterested, demotivated team... Just like recent seasons past.
The effort has not been there. The care has not been there. The great Bondi Junction wall of defence has crumbled and dissipated.
While words cannot describe how bad we were against Gold Coast, here are some I will use to try to paint a picture of where we are at... sluggish, lackadaisical, tired, soft, lazy, distracted, irritable, lethargic, nonchalant... the list goes on.
We need to be snapped out of this one way or other, soon, or we will be heading directly out the back door of the finals campaign.
My biggest worry is, that for some reason, the team has lost motivation and heart. It's not just a simple matter of "peaking too early" although I think there is some merit in that argument.
The real worry is that the team knows it has overachieved, and now the key players are prepared to rest on their laurels, slide into the finals and "hope for the best".
I don't see a team of 13 plus 4 players out there, doing their best to win games over the last month. I see them trying to do it the easy way. I don't see the effort that characterized the first three quarters of the premiership.
And nothing more exemplifies this, and this is the reason I have been prompted to write this post, than the players' reactions to the simplest of all the set-pieces and restarts in a game of Rugby League.
Drop the ball backwards in possession - few other Roosters are prepared to put their body on the line and dive on the loose ball to lock it up. Too often the opposing team's players dive on it with relish.
Pack the scrum quickly when it is our advantage to do so for timekeeping purposes - over the last month, we have been hopeless at this, with players not showing any urgency to pack a scrum when needed.
Kick-off restarts after opposing team tries - we have been terribly slow at this, even when behind. Against the Gold Coast when behind towards the end, the ref blew the restart whistle, and Maloney and other players were wandering around arguing about what to do. About 20 seconds wasted when we should have been showing purpose and urgency.
Taking the easy option - enough said. Quick and easy offloads (which end disastrously) are our preferred way to get out of trouble, instead of going back to basics and doing the hard yards up the middle.
The dreaded bomb - we still are massively over-reliant, moreso than any team in the comp, on the dreaded last tackle bomb. You'd think Mark Murray was still coaching us. Against the Gold Coast surely we could have come up with better last tackle set-pieces that the Pearce or Maloney bomb.
Going for the quick fix try rather than taking two points - in the first half we were gifted around three opportunities to get back within six points of the Coast, by taking the two. This game was a perfect semi-final rehearsal. Behind by 8 points after 20 mins or so, and playing unfamiliar catch-up football... why not practice for this likely semi-final scenario, by showing some patience, taking the two, chipping away at the Coast's lead. Then play to win in the second half. But NO... we were so over-confident that we could blitzkrieg our way over the line, that we got cocky, and started making stupid mistakes every time we had a great close-to-the-line opportunity.
Lastly (there are many more but this is all I have time for)... NO F*&^% REPEAT SETS... I mentioned semi-final football above. We all know what I am whining about when I talk about lack of repeat sets. It is our biggest weakness, and this is where Melbourne and souffs will tear us to pieces in the finals.
I won't even go on about slow and sluggish play the balls.
I know many of you won't like reading the above, and I know that there have been some mitigating circumstances in this long, arduous season... refereeing atrocities alone... But that facts are, someone has to speak the truth now before it is too late.
The Roosters are on course for a train wreck of a finals campaign unless the above specific issues, and the lack of enthusiasm and spark more generally, are quickly addressed.
I trust that the coach is working on it... He needs to be.
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