Lam

[Johnny Brass]

It was a good first up game for Lam in a team that he's only played in the halves for once before and that was with a very different group of players around him.

I thought he controlled the tempo of the game well and did what Robbo wanted, he wanted a ball in up tempo game and it was definitely that.

He kicked the ball 12 times, 5 more times than Flanagan's season average. Kicked the ball for 384metres, the 3rd most kicking metres of any Roosters half this season and had 50 possessions of the ball which is 14 possessions higher than Flannagan's season average.

What was extremely noticeable is that Lam was playing both sides of the field both in his ball-playing and kicking game, this is not something we have seen Flannagan do really at all so far in the first half of the season he was pretty much locked onto that right edge of the field. The combination between Keary & Lam seemed to flow a lot better than it did with Flannagan and it really seemed to bring the best out of Keary who had an absolute blinder. There seemed to be more cohesion and trust, Keary was not afraid to run the ball on the 5th play because he just trusted that Lam would be there to kick on last no matter which side of the field the ball was on, Robbo made special mention of this post game.

One game really doesn't mean much though if you can't go out and replicate/improve on that performance over the coming weeks.

Without doubt our hardest test of the season next week against Melbourne with a huge injury toll.

Agree with everything you wrote , it was noticeable they were playing both sides of the field and it freed Keary up.
It was mentioned pre game that some of the roosters leaders had some reservations about whether Flanagan was up to it.
I know he's been doing his best but defensively he has become a target that other teams are exploiting and I think Lam's bigger body is better suited in the defensive line.