All gear, no idea: Roosters have best toys but do they know how to play with them?

[weplayforprems]

This x3 FB story is getting old; It’s clear Manu and Joey have accepted Teddy is our FB and even signed extensions to play in the centres. It’s manufactured drama or at best a 2-3yr problem being brought forward for drama and clicks.

I guess it’s a small price to pay to have them all in our team.

I’m not so sure about that. Teddy and Joe are both off contract at the end of next season. In 2025 the British and Irish lions tour and the World Cup is 2 years after that. I’d say Joe holds a lot of cards if the roosters will keep a 32yo Teddy by then and deny Joe a fullback shot.

I would hope we might even see a bit of a mini/RTS situation next year where they switch between roles a bit.

Teddy has been and is still magnificent. But I don’t want to risk losing 10 years of Joe for 2-3 years of Teddy slightly past his best.

[weplayforprems]

Our squad is grossly over rated. The forwards who got all that game time in 2021 when we had all the injuries haven't kicked on to become mainstream top players. They are still only good backup players. The release of SST is going to hurt us , Jared's injury proness and absence hurts us and the injury to Lodge has further hurt us. We were up 12-6.... Lodge was enormous in that first 20 minutes. When he and Collins were subbed off,the go forward disappeared. Unfortunately Rads effectiveness of hitting chest high has gone,due to too many citing.....his aggressive lower tackle style is going to Friendy style concussions. Ithink we are in for a troubled season with injuries already a significant hurdle...

Fletcher Baker not kicking on has been disappointing. I thought he showed huge promise in our covid NorthsGate season. But he’s not done much since

[Billy Gunn]

The SMH these days loves to lay the boot in and likes to go into bat for the bunnies when they have a sook about the Roosters.

This time Webby is spot on, we have all the players but our playing style is so predictable. I can't remember any second phase play and as soon as we started to drop the ball the game was gorne!!

[Water boy]

Lodge and Collins too.

not too sure how keary would go on the open market these days though.

Marty Kennedy 2.0.

[HunchoRooster]

Marty Kennedy 2.0.

Might need to check Lindsay's luggage for any goanas or frillnecks to confirm...

[Bansai Pipeline]

Thinking we're contenders this year is pretty naive.

Keary and Walker aren't bankable owing to injury and size.

Smith will take a long time to settle in.

And on top of that we've got too many old blokes in the mix.

Wiser supporters should have expected a result like that against the Dolphins. It's exactly the kind of game we've never shown up for. I was expecting it. Disappointing, yes. Surprising, no.

[SamKerrSimp]

you cannot argue we have the strongest collection of players in club footy hands down.

Yes you can have you seen the Penrith team lately? Back to back premiers 3 grand finals in a row and we haven't beaten them since 2019

[roosterchook]

I think the problem is that rooster mentality has degenerated to “we can win cause we are the roosters”. Without the hard work? Without that extra % effort to get to that tackle or ball?

We became champions through “hard, hard work” and the Dolphins beat us because they worked very hard while we kept thinking “we are the champion roosters, we are supposed to win this easily”. And when everything went south the entire team panicked. But we thought being the roosters guaranteed us the win! We acted almost shocked that we couldn’t win without any hard work. Success has bred a lazy entitlement which breeds wooden spoons. No hard, hard work = no win and a possible thrashing.

[Les Tricolores]

Good article King Salvo… and good to see you’re still trucking around

We are severely underdone at the moment… at full strength no one can touch us… but we also may never get to full strength this year

[Les Tricolores]

Thinking we're contenders this year is pretty naive.

Keary and Walker aren't bankable owing to injury and size.

Smith will take a long time to settle in.

And on top of that we've got too many old blokes in the mix.

Wiser supporters should have expected a result like that against the Dolphins. It's exactly the kind of game we've never shown up for. I was expecting it. Disappointing, yes. Surprising, no.

Well the bookies weren’t expecting it… and they put their money where their mouths are… we were 1.10… about as short as you can get in the NRL

I expected us to win… and it certainly looked that way for awhile… but no it was never going to be an easy game… Dolphins have a good forward pack if not a great deal else

[roosterchook]

The SMH these days loves to lay the boot in and likes to go into bat for the bunnies when they have a sook about the Roosters.

This time Webby is spot on, we have all the players but our playing style is so predictable. I can't remember any second phase play and as soon as we started to drop the ball the game was gorne!!

Thanks for mentioning that - predictability. Teams know our style of play so well that any team can wallop us. Sad.

[HunchoRooster]

Yes you can have you seen the Penrith team lately? Back to back premiers 3 grand finals in a row and we haven't beaten them since 2019

On paper, we have better players. Not a better team.

Teddy is better than Edwards
Toops is better than May
Manu is better than Tago
Suualii is better than Crichton.
Keary is better than Luai.

And when looking at this season:
Smith is better than Mitch Kenny
Crichton is better than Garner.

Only one's you'd 100% take and consider it an upgrade would be Cleary, T'oo, Yeo and maybe Martin

[SamKerrSimp]

On paper, we have better players. Not a better team.

Teddy is better than Edwards
Toops is better than May
Manu is better than Tago
Suualii is better than Crichton.
Keary is better than Luai.

And when looking at this season:
Smith is better than Mitch Kenny
Crichton is better than Garner.

Only one's you'd 100% take and consider it an upgrade would be Cleary, T'oo, Yeo and maybe Martin

Thank you for letting me know not to pay attention to your opinion we haven't beaten them for over 3 years and they have hardly lost a game and you think we have better players

[Noosa Rooster]

Thank you for letting me know not to pay attention to your opinion we haven't beaten them for over 3 years and they have hardly lost a game and you think we have better players

I too think we have the better players but like HR said, they are the better team.

An old footy coach used to always say to us - A team of champions doesn’t make a champion team.

The Roosters and Panthers have proved him correct over the last few years.

That doesn’t mean a team of champions can’t play like a champion team. 2018/19 is a great example. It will take time just like in those years. I still expect us to finish top 4. After that, who knows.

[Bansai Pipeline]

Well the bookies weren’t expecting it… and they put their money where their mouths are… we were 1.10… about as short as you can get in the NRL

I expected us to win… and it certainly looked that way for awhile… but no it was never going to be an easy game… Dolphins have a good forward pack if not a great deal else

Bookies don't have the Rooster radar you develop as a seasoned fan. Every year we're certain to blow a few games that, on paper, we should win. It's the Roosters way.