Are we up for Finals footy? Can we handle the pressure?

[roosterchook]

Are we able to handle finals footy pressure? We’ve been eliminated 3 times in a row now in the finals after winning the minor premiership and having a home game.
I believe we are the best team by far but when it comes to the finals we just seem to fall apart both coach and players.

Now we’re on top again and headed for our 4th final in recent years. It seems that both the team and coach just can’t seem to handle the pressure of finals footy.

Its great being on top again but I’m concerned about how we are having so much difficulty handling finals pressure.

[PRIDE]

The same questions could have been asked of the Storm before last year after their failures from 2013 to 2016.

[PRIDE]

No club wins every year.

[Waylander]

Cords thinks we are:

A team losing in the preliminary finals is heartbreaking enough. Then there's the Sydney Roosters who have missed three grand finals in four years by doing just that.

Falling one game short three times so close together could leave some deep scars. Roosters back-rower Boyd Cordner has put up with that pain each time.

He felt the elation of winning the 2013 grand final, following by the deflation of losing the 2014, 2015 and 2017 preliminary finals.

"It definitely hurts," Cordner told NRL.com as the Roosters have positioned themselves nicely once again in 2018 to have a crack at a Telstra Premiership grand final.

"But while it hurts emotionally, I don't think it hurts us moving forward as a team.

"We learned those lessons. And there was some very big lessons to take out of those three losses.

"We'll draw on it but we don't want to get down in the dumps about it. We're playing some good football at the moment and we want to head into the finals in this good form.

"Everyone knows it's a whole new competition each September so we'll worry about that [past near misses] when it comes.

"Personally, however, I will be using those losses as motivation."

With only five survivors from the 2014 preliminary final loss to the Rabbitohs, it might help that there are not too many carrying four years of disappointment.

But there are 12 players in the current Roosters roster that remember how they felt when the full-time siren sounded at Allianz Stadium last year with the Cowboys finishing upset 29-16 winners and on their way to the grand final.

"They'll be motivated but obviously we've got two significant new faces in guys like Cooper Cronk and James Tedesco," Cordner said.

"Cooper is a master at those sorts of games. He's in a position, being halfback for us, that he has most of the say and control on what we do in attack.

"So we've got one of the best in the game in doing that. And also Teddy has just had an amazing Origin campaign and he's a big-game player. Oppositions hate facing him.

"And I see that Latrell Mitchell is a way different player to last year... An improved and stronger player; a more dangerous player.

"Even the blokes who were there in 2014 and 2015. They are more experienced, more mature footballers as well. That's how I think it will help us.

"I suppose I'm trying to say we're not carrying any demons from those years we came so close."

[dice]

Another thread ignorant of our injury issues. We were never going to win in 2015 without a halfback, and we never going to win last year with two forwards playing in the centres.

My only criticism is the way we played the final round in 2014 as though it were a grand final. With suspensions to Guerra and Napa it ended up being our grand final.

[Keith]

If we can get to the finals without any more key injuries then we have a real crack at it.
If Keary and Jared come back fit and healthy , lets go !

Big tests coming up vs Raiders and Broncos , both away games for us and down a couple of key players.

[Waylander]

Big tests coming up vs Raiders and Broncos , both away games for us and down a couple of key players.

Bronco's is a home game. We're away to Parra in Rnd 25.

[Keith]

Bronco's is a home game. We're away to Parra in Rnd 25.

Yes you are correct thanks , I will be away and can't go to the game , hence my confusion

[Kingsgrove-Loiner]

Another thread ignorant of our injury issues. We were never going to win in 2015 without a halfback, and we never going to win last year with two forwards playing in the centres.

My only criticism is the way we played the final round in 2014 as though it were a grand final. With suspensions to Guerra and Napa it ended up being our grand final.

Don't forget about the penalty avalance in the grand final qualifier when we were 12-0 up. If I remember it was 6 in a row to stop our momentum. Teo killed us in the second half, but by then we were well out of gas.

There should be an asterisk next to Souths 2014. *Courtesy of the NRL.

[Spirit of 66]

Another thread ignorant of our injury issues. We were never going to win in 2015 without a halfback, and we never going to win last year with two forwards playing in the centres.

My only criticism is the way we played the final round in 2014 as though it were a grand final. With suspensions to Guerra and Napa it ended up being our grand final.

Do not forget that 2014 was International Be Kind to Vermin Year. There was absolutely no way that Souths were going to be allowed to lose that GF Qualifier. The refs had already invested so much in getting them there.

[dice]

Do not forget that 2014 was International Be Kind to Vermin Year. There was absolutely no way that Souths were going to be allowed to lose that GF Qualifier. The refs had already invested so much in getting them there.

I know we got stitched up in the Souths game, and even had a fair try disallowed in the Panthers game. These things are out of our control.

Talking about things that were in our control. If Guerra and Napa don't get suspended we beat the Panthers, a week off, an easier prelim final vs Bulldogs, and meet the Bunnies in the grand final. Instead we backup from three tough games to meet a refreshed bunnies in the prelim final.

Winning the MP at any cost was a tactical blunder. The priority should have been to make it through the final round without any injuries or suspensions.

I fear we are in a similar position this year. We could potentially rest players in the final week without sacrificing a home final. But will instead go hard chasing the MP.

[roosterchook]

3 consecutive finals losses indicates to me that we haven’t learned anything from these setbacks unlike what Cords says.

[roosterchook]

I know we got stitched up in the Souths game, and even had a fair try disallowed in the Panthers game. These things are out of our control.

Talking about things that were in our control. If Guerra and Napa don't get suspended we beat the Panthers, a week off, an easier prelim final vs Bulldogs, and meet the Bunnies in the grand final. Instead we backup from three tough games to meet a refreshed bunnies in the prelim final.

Winning the MP at any cost was a tactical blunder. The priority should have been to make it through the final round without any injuries or suspensions.

I fear we are in a similar position this year. We could potentially rest players in the final week without sacrificing a home final. But will instead go hard chasing the MP.

Robbo did say he’s where he wanted us to be so I assume that means leading the comp. But as you say injuries are crucial in the next few weeks, more important not to sustain injuries than finish 1st. No prize for winning the minor premiership only to bow out in the finals. I’m sick of getting eliminated every final, It is a strategic problem because we have had the team to win the comp for many years but stuff ups in bench selections as well as risking injury to get that minor premiership have cost us dearly. Priority is the premiership nothing else.

[Tommy Smith]

Another thread ignorant of our injury issues. We were never going to win in 2015 without a halfback, and we never going to win last year with two forwards playing in the centres.

My only criticism is the way we played the final round in 2014 as though it were a grand final. With suspensions to Guerra and Napa it ended up being our grand final.

Well said.

Name me a team that's lost its key halfback and best forward on the eve of the finals and gone on to win the comp.

Doesn't happen. Never will happen. So 2015 was just bad luck.

2014 was frustrating but history shows that teams simply don't go b2b. That 5% loss in motivation is all it takes to lose your edge. Compound that with the NRL and refs being hellbent on getting Souffs home and it becomes clear what went wrong.

And we were the worst 2nd placed team I can recall last year. The Storm would have smashed us in the GF so it's not as though we blew a Premiership. But still, that Prelim was an undoubted hatchet job on many levels.

But only 2014 leaves a sour taste in my mouth for the reasons you mentioned. We went too hard at Souffs in rnd 26 and it cost us an easy Prelim vs the Dogs.

[Darkone]

3 consecutive finals losses indicates to me that we haven’t learned anything from these setbacks unlike what Cords says.

As long as we're there to win or lose on the crucial day is ok

to assume lessons aren't learned is a bit rich, we have Teddy & Cronk a back line thats matured