Hastings

[Vasco]

Would you risk moving Pearce on end of this year and run with a Watson/Keary combo for 2017 and go hard for a name in 2018 if it's not working?

The question needs to be asked, if Pearce is rissoled will Jake Friend play nice with the replacements? Our captain has shown some real unprofessionalism this year.

Chook.

I's Hastings that is disliked by many. His ability, or lack of, isn't compensating for this which is why he will be punted.

it's probably only the fact that we would have to pay a huge part of Pearce's salary that they didn't get rid of him this year.

i reckon next year is his last chance though, and rightly so.

I would offer Shaun Johnson what ever he wanted.

[Johnny.]

If Jackson Hastings is let go, I hope he goes to a club and comes back to regularly screw the Roosters hard every time.

It would be just desserts for the sick, twisted and stone frigging blind love affair with that putz of a halfback.

[Gary Worthless]

Jackson has been treated so poorly by this club. Disgraceful. I'm now anti-Trent and even more anti-Jake.

[redrooster]

Poor Robbo,his blind love for Pearce and refusal to move him along will see the death of him at our Club..

Politis is known to be a fan of Pearce

[roosterproud]

im tipping connor watson will be the Daniel Mortimer of 2017. filling in where ever needed. 6, 7, 9 or even centre. good acquisition. There is room to keep jnr horrie but if he decides to go to another club we wont be paying any of his contract. he is slow, shit kicking game and average tackler. famous by name not by ability. just remember we have garvey coming from the 20s next year, we still have tyler cornish to come thru yet. looking forward to 20:1 odd next season.

[Johnny Tobin]

I'm surprised by the amount of sympathy for Jackson.

He was getting hammered regularly on here when he was in firsts.

My two cents. I also want him to go to another club and be a great success for them. I also think he has been treated terribly. And I agree that he is slow.

[ism22]

Just saw a quick cut of an interview with Robbo talking about Friend. Made me puke. He judges Friend only by his tackle numbers and said he's really grown as a leader. Fark that. Robbo better wake up and be more willing to shake things up or he's goneski. More heart brake headed our way in 2017 and some big losses coming in rest of 2016.
Broncos are gonna kill us tomorrow night. Copley back at centre, boyds gonna have a field day.

Watch the full thing (uncut, ~15 mins long) on Roosters.com.au.

Yes he says something like 'with 70 tackles, you can't really argue his form/effort'. However, he also mentions that:
- Friend has been awesome off-field (helping others through rough time, putting LOTS of effort into training/recovery while encouraging others to do the same...etc).
- Doing all that tackling can hurt his attacking game. This is an issue because the Roosters wanted Hendo to give him a rest (to let him focus on attack a little more) but he broke his leg early on. This means we're having to rely on youngsters who are still developing their defence.
- Pearce seems to have learned his lesson and improved, but we are most of the way through the season and Robbo has been impressed by multiple layers of Friend's on/off-field performance.

I suspect Friend has been keeping people positive and out of trouble, and that in itself is worth the money. There's only one thing worse than a shyte season... a shyte season where we're in the media for misbehaviour every week and nobody gives a shyte.

Despite our season being over, we've been positive during the back end of the season and we've kept out of trouble. If Friend's responsible for that, then he's my captain!

[nikottam]

I think Watson will be playing exactly like Kodi Nikorima does for the broncos: comes on anywhere, adds spark and more often than not immediately after he comes on his side scores a try. I don't really care where he plays as long as he is in our 17, and kept happy so he stays at the club for a loooonnnggg time to come

[Bigchook]

I'm surprised by the amount of sympathy for Jackson.

He was getting hammered regularly on here when he was in firsts.

My two cents. I also want him to go to another club and be a great success for them. I also think he has been treated terribly. And I agree that he is slow.

Never had nothing but praise for him. He did a great job for us off the bench filling in at hooker for his debut season of a handful of games. He was awesome for us last yr when we needed him. And he was thrown under the bus in an underperforming and injury ravaged side this year, despite his age and inexperience. He may be slow but he can kick and pass and his selection of when to kick or pass has been pretty good in my opinion. He will be a very solid player elsewhere. I have less of an opinion of Watson who seems to get so much praise because he has speed.. Speed will only take you so far as a half. It can carry wingers and centres through careers but to be a 5/8 he will need a lot more than I've seen. Hopefully he can learn to settle down mentally whilst playing fast physically.

[Bigchook]

I think Watson will be playing exactly like Kodi Nikorima does for the broncos: comes on anywhere, adds spark and more often than not immediately after he comes on his side scores a try. I don't really care where he plays as long as he is in our 17, and kept happy so he stays at the club for a loooonnnggg time to come

Would much rather see nikorima who I think has the better kicking and passing game than Watson. Watson seems to be getting the edge because of his physical size. I rate Pearce but don't think he's creative enough to carry Watson abd lead the team to 20+ points each week.

[ism22]

I think Watson will be playing exactly like Kodi Nikorima does for the broncos: comes on anywhere, adds spark and more often than not immediately after he comes on his side scores a try. I don't really care where he plays as long as he is in our 17, and kept happy so he stays at the club for a loooonnnggg time to come

I'm happy to see an indigenous kid get a go. With Latrell, Fergo and Watson all being given a fair go, I hope that more feel comfortable with our club in the future.

[Johnny Tobin]

I think Watson will be playing exactly like Kodi Nikorima does for the broncos: comes on anywhere, adds spark and more often than not immediately after he comes on his side scores a try. I don't really care where he plays as long as he is in our 17, and kept happy so he stays at the club for a loooonnnggg time to come

It's the role our Nikorima was supposed to play. I wonder what happens to him now?

[TheBigFella]

But all those options in the halves don't give us a Maloney type of player who just plays off the cuff footy. He is a schemer. The blokes we have are all organisers. Where do the chance plays come from.

[Thirteen]

I think Watson will be playing exactly like Kodi Nikorima does for the broncos: comes on anywhere, adds spark and more often than not immediately after he comes on his side scores a try. I don't really care where he plays as long as he is in our 17, and kept happy so he stays at the club for a loooonnnggg time to come

I'd like a bit more than 3 games to be able to rate if Watson is the goods or not and to consider wheather or not he is a "loooonnnggg" term prospect.
Some of you jumped on the Matterson and Hastings bandwagons way to quickly. And some of you judged Hastings simply by his name.

[John Corey]

at least Robbo finally admitted something today that the rest of us already knew, he mentioned our offseason preparation was unacceptable, not surprising given a fair chunk of our leadership group and team were more interested in partying than preparing properly for a football season.

before everyone jumps in with the "players have lives too crap", I don't have a problem with players going out and having a few beers with mates during the offseason, its the continual binge sessions that have to stop, you can't be an elite athlete and treat your body that way.

since we won the premiership in 2013 it seems Robbo has had a real tough time to get our guys to put in the required dedication to reach the summit once again, he has continually mentioned not all players being at the same motivation levels since winning the premiership.

hopefully the embarrassment of this disgraceful campaign might prick the pride of a few of our guys to once again focus on being great and 2017 can be a better year and a launching point for the next assault at a premiership in 2018 or 2019

Wasn't there talk in 2014 of SBW being pissed off with the attitude of some senior Roosters? We didn't have the same professional attitude as the year before. I seem to remember something along those lines.