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Great post on ABC website
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-...ites/100719066
In 2021, the Roosters still finished fifth, despite being one more injury away from pulling some lager louts out of Bondi Diggers and seeing if they could give them 10 good minutes off the bench, but it would have been worth a wooden-spoon-type season if it meant they found somebody like Sam Walker.
Sometimes you could be forgiven for thinking Walker was created in a laboratory by a group of mad, rugby league-obsessed scientists with a particular penchant for long cut-out passes.
Rarely has a halfback of his age looked so comfortable in progressing to the big leagues, and there's no question he's poised to become one of the best playmakers of the next decade.
He'd be good on any team in the league, but at the Roosters? With Luke Keary and James Tedesco and Joseph Manu and Victor Radley and all the rest of the club's big guns all back together? With their injury luck all-but-certain to turn after the horror show they endured in 2021? With Trent Robinson concocting game plans and managing Walker's progression like only the truly great coaches can?
It's more than intimidating, more than imposing. It's a horrifying prospect for any team to face. While other teams are frantically looking for answers in key position and hoping new things will stick, all the Roosters have to worry about for their line-up is deciding who fits into the back line out of Joseph Suaalii, the most-hyped prospect in years, premiership-winner Paul Momirovski, Adam Keighran (one of their most improved players last year) and Kevin Naiqama, who was man of the match in the Super League grand final.
It's not really a question of whether Keary and Walker fit together, because they're both so flexible as playmakers in their ability to play first receiver or second receiver and on both sides of the ruck. It's a question of just how good they can be together.
Brandon Smith isn't even here yet and the Roosters are looking like they're ready to leave the blemishes of the last two years behind.
The competition big guns, like Penrith and Melbourne, will be able to hang with them, and maybe Souths, Manly and Parramatta can, on a good day, but for the rest of the league it'll take all their strength and cunning just to run them close.
In Bondi, they like to say they play for premierships and the rest of the league best buckle-up because the Tricolour winning machine is about to get back into high gear.
In 2021, the Roosters still finished fifth, despite being one more injury away from pulling some lager louts out of Bondi Diggers and seeing if they could give them 10 good minutes off the bench, but it would have been worth a wooden-spoon-type season if it meant they found somebody like Sam Walker.
Sometimes you could be forgiven for thinking Walker was created in a laboratory by a group of mad, rugby league-obsessed scientists with a particular penchant for long cut-out passes.
Rarely has a halfback of his age looked so comfortable in progressing to the big leagues, and there's no question he's poised to become one of the best playmakers of the next decade.
He'd be good on any team in the league, but at the Roosters? With Luke Keary and James Tedesco and Joseph Manu and Victor Radley and all the rest of the club's big guns all back together? With their injury luck all-but-certain to turn after the horror show they endured in 2021? With Trent Robinson concocting game plans and managing Walker's progression like only the truly great coaches can?
It's more than intimidating, more than imposing. It's a horrifying prospect for any team to face. While other teams are frantically looking for answers in key position and hoping new things will stick, all the Roosters have to worry about for their line-up is deciding who fits into the back line out of Joseph Suaalii, the most-hyped prospect in years, premiership-winner Paul Momirovski, Adam Keighran (one of their most improved players last year) and Kevin Naiqama, who was man of the match in the Super League grand final.
It's not really a question of whether Keary and Walker fit together, because they're both so flexible as playmakers in their ability to play first receiver or second receiver and on both sides of the ruck. It's a question of just how good they can be together.
Brandon Smith isn't even here yet and the Roosters are looking like they're ready to leave the blemishes of the last two years behind.
The competition big guns, like Penrith and Melbourne, will be able to hang with them, and maybe Souths, Manly and Parramatta can, on a good day, but for the rest of the league it'll take all their strength and cunning just to run them close.
In Bondi, they like to say they play for premierships and the rest of the league best buckle-up because the Tricolour winning machine is about to get back into high gear.
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