SQUAD v TITANS

[Headless Chook]

Basically the season has been cruelled by a host of players not in great nick form wise plus throw into the mix injuries that has tested the squad depth.

I am sure they are working hard at training and on areas Individuals and the Team need to improve on but sometimes even that doesn't bare fruition.

As an example I am sure David Warner is working hard on his batting with the batting coach/video analysis and in the nets - sometimes no matter how hard you work on improving it doesn't always pay off.

The Coaching staff can only do so much and they don't have a magic wand to magically put a player back into form. - The player has to take ownership of their form when they cross the white stripe

I am still confused with the view of posters on here who don't rate a whole raft of players either wanting them in NSW Cup/Retired or Banished from the Club but then on the flip side bang on saying it's the best squad and it's the Coaches fault.

That's illogical to say the least.

Don't hold your breath waiting for an answer to this one

[Headless Chook]

You’re the one that said ‘you can’t defend or support the coach on this forum apparently’, not me. My point is that nobody takes issue with you or anyone else supporting the coach, none, zip, zero.
Defending his recent performance is another matter.

So it's ok for people to be critical of him but nobody is allowed to defend him? That's a pretty balanced view!!

[Qld Chook]

Basically the season has been cruelled by a host of players not in great nick form wise plus throw into the mix injuries that has tested the squad depth.

I am sure they are working hard at training and on areas Individuals and the Team need to improve on but sometimes even that doesn't bare fruition.

As an example I am sure David Warner is working hard on his batting with the batting coach/video analysis and in the nets - sometimes no matter how hard you work on improving it doesn't always pay off.

The Coaching staff can only do so much and they don't have a magic wand to magically put a player back into form. - The player has to take ownership of their form when they cross the white stripe

I am still confused with the view of posters on here who don't rate a whole raft of players either wanting them in NSW Cup/Retired or Banished from the Club but then on the flip side bang on saying it's the best squad and it's the Coaches fault.

That's illogical to say the least.

Who says this? Call them out because I’m sick of this people falling back on this excuse.

I rate all our players, hence why I’m so disappointed. I called for Lodge to be dropped but that’s it and that was more than deserving IMO, he was a culture cancer and not putting in and suprise suprise he is no longer with us. Other than that I just wanted players shuffled around into positions where they can play their strengths.

[Qld Chook]

So it's ok for people to be critical of him but nobody is allowed to defend him? That's a pretty balanced view!!

I welcome people defending him. But I haven’t seen any defence mounted for his decisions. You just winge about people challenging his questionable decisions.

I am happy to hear differing opinions. But it’s just blind defence with no actual substance.

[The Brain]

I guess Walker is still working on those areas of improvement….

I think he is out for the season

[ism22]

I think he is out for the season

Yeah that's my bet. Don't know a thing about ACLs but grade 1 ACLs seem to be quite rare in the NRL.

Guessing he's stretched the ACL and right now wants to do everything within his power to stop it from progressing to a grade 3 tear (which is a massive shyte as you never 'repair' a torn ACL, you 'reconstruct' it).

The way I see it our season does not rest on his availability. Might as well wrap him in cotton wool and make sure he recovers 100% because it would be a MAJOR bust if he was unavailable for 2024 (and lost speed/confidence) due to an entirely preventable ACL injury.

Look maybe if we make the preliminary finals and Sandon's injured then maybe it's worth the risk. However, isn't Watson due to return soon? (Oh I forgot... he's a front rower).

[Steggles]

So it's ok for people to be critical of him but nobody is allowed to defend him? That's a pretty balanced view!!

The original comment was that “you can’t support or defend the coach on this forum”. If you’ve read the posts, you’d clearly see that my point is that this is not right at all as most of us support the coach, but are critical of people blindly defending the indefensible. Pretty simple really.

We all have the right to be either critical of in agreement with the coaches actions, but some will simply defend Robbo’s decisions without question because they think they are actually supporting him. For instance, there is one prominent member (recently rested) on this forum who continually accuses other members of not supporting the team or the coach because they question Robbo’s decisions or the form of the players. There are others in a similar mould, but not quite to the level of this zealot.

Tell me this, do you really defend Robbo’s decision to play Manu, Suualii, Keary and Hutch out of position for a large chunk of the year and being too stubborn to change it when it clearly wasn’t working? Do you still think it was a good idea to drop Walker? In my opinion, you can defend those decisions till the cows come home, but you’d look pretty silly doing it don’t you think? Better to support the coach but question his calls when they are clearly wrong.

[Steggles]

I welcome people defending him. But I haven’t seen any defence mounted for his decisions. You just winge about people challenging his questionable decisions.

I am happy to hear differing opinions. But it’s just blind defence with no actual substance.

Thank God; some common sense! Good post Qld Chook.

[mightyrooster]

The original comment was that “you can’t support or defend the coach on this forum”. If you’ve read the posts, you’d clearly see that my point is that this is not right at all as most of us support the coach, but are critical of people blindly defending the indefensible. Pretty simple really.

We all have the right to be either critical of in agreement with the coaches actions, but some will simply defend Robbo’s decisions without question because they think they are actually supporting him. For instance, there is one prominent member (recently rested) on this forum who continually accuses other members of not supporting the team or the coach because they question Robbo’s decisions or the form of the players. There are others in a similar mould, but not quite to the level of this zealot.

Tell me this, do you really defend Robbo’s decision to play Manu, Suualii, Keary and Hutch out of position for a large chunk of the year and being too stubborn to change it when it clearly wasn’t working? Do you still think it was a good idea to drop Walker? In my opinion, you can defend those decisions till the cows come home, but you’d look pretty silly doing it don’t you think? Better to support the coach but question his calls when they are clearly wrong.

The original comment was actually:

But you can’t dare challenge the coaching on this so called fan forum - post #24

My response was in response to that. Post #29. Please read back properly.

[Rooster_Mark]

Don't hold your breath waiting for an answer to this one

The coach is responsible for who he has in the squad though. The buck always stops with the coach, when it comes to recruitment and retention and the development of players at the club. Both have been highly questionable in recent years.

[Carlos Parra]

I actually thought the Chooks looked pretty cohesive last week. They fell down when it came time to turn good attack into points. It might mean they're finally starting to click and maybe they'll get up for a win. The joy will be short-lived though, as they'll probably fall back into old habits.

Tits by 30.

[mightyrooster]

All good points. My frustration with it all, is why did he take so long for leaving Joey at 6 and Suualli at centre. It was obvious it wasn’t working and as soon as Suualli decided he wasn’t here long term he would’ve went straight back to the wing.

I never understood Walkers dropping. Can anyone explain it to me? Robbo talks in riddles. Anything he needed to work on surely you let him do that in first grade so we continue our combos. We are not a club that can afford to be making unforced changes when we are constantly struck with injuries.

I don’t think Gus getting help for a period and being unavailable and a player signing elsewhere are big enough distractions to de-rail our year either.

I’ve said it before but the fact that there are no obvious candidates to take the reins off Robbo shouldn’t let him off the hook. I back our board to get creative and find someone if they NEEDED to. Someone mentioned Websters affect at the warriors, what a hidden gem he was. I’m sure there are others, so I think that is just a really poor excuse tbh. I want to see Robbo bounce back. But I want to see growth too. I don’t know how many more slow starts I can endure. You need to start fast to have any chance, so you can afford the luxury to rest players and freshen them up for the proper season in September like Penrith have.

I can only think he thought we could do enough to win games and the players needed more than 1 or 2 games to adjust to the positions. The fact we beat NZ in NZ early on with Manu at 6 probably gave him false confidence. The coach is aware of stuff that we as fans are not privy to. We don’t have all the facts around selections or players. The Suaalii one frustrated me the most because he played very well on the wing last year. But maybe he thought S Smith wasn’t ready or he thought giving Luke full responsibility in the halves would help. With the Manu and Suaalii selection decision one seemed to depend on the other. Joey at 6 seemed to mean JS at centre. And remember most people here seem to hate Hutch or Momo or Allan at centre. It doesn’t give many other options. With Angus and the RU crap, how are we to know it didn’t affect the players to some degree. Yes they are supposed to be professional and all but the Angus thing could have been distracting for those close to him. I’ve read before that he and Sammy W are very tight for a start.

I understand Walker’s dropping and plenty of people have explained their perspectives on it here before. In the Cronulla game which we could have easily won he made some crucial errors by not taking the safer option and going for the all or nothing play. He did this at least twice and it cost us the game in the end. It’s perfectly normal for a young half to go through this sort of phase and Robbo chose to let him work on it in reserves rather than firsts. That’s his prerogative as coach. How many posters here complained that Robbo doesn’t sack players. Most want him to unrealistically drop half the team at various stages when there’s no obvious replacements yet when he actually does drop someone, it’s all up in arms as to why?

Im not saying Robbo’s perfect and he’s made some questionable decisions this year that haven’t worked out but in previous years these sorts of decisions would have paid off and nobody would even notice let alone complain.

[SamKerrSimp]

I’ve never bagged those players, but do I think they are underperforming and think we should be higher on the ladder? Hell yes.

It really concerns me you don’t. You’d be a good fit for the Tigers as a fan.

Look if you think a backline starring the likes of Corey Allan, Drew Hutchison and Jackson Paulo should be winning a premiership then that’s your problem but you’ll be bitterly disappointed as you are now.

The experts picked us to finish top 4 did they? They’re obviously not much for being experts then.

[King Salvo]

I welcome people defending him. But I haven’t seen any defence mounted for his decisions. You just winge about people challenging his questionable decisions.

I am happy to hear differing opinions. But it’s just blind defence with no actual substance.

The decisions made by Coach Robinson are the least of the concerns when you delve into it though

The Roosters for quite a while haven't had the full 30 player squad allowable - This season with the additional of Brown they had 28 players on the books at the squads peak

They have relied on Development contract and extended Bench contract players to fill the void

Of these 28 - Toia and Watson are yet to play and Lodge is now with Manly

You can see from below how many games the main players on 300 k have missed so far this season with Luke Keary the only player to have played all games (17) . - Sitili is out for the season I understand and Crichton and Walker are still recovering from their respective knee injuries so will be unavailable for more games

One can also say that Tedesco/Manu/Suaalii/Walker/Keary/Brandon Smith/Crichton/Radley for instance have not been near their best in the games/ periods they have played so far in 2023 either.

A Clubs depth will always be tested/challenged when injuries and form issues occur.

Not sure if the following is indicative of all clubs but it is often said that Roosters Squad is top heavy.

When you break down the squad based on estimated contract value one could certainly question the pundits and folks view on here that this is the best squad in the NRL let alone atop 4 one.

It has to be noted that not a lot of folk on here rate many/most of the players in 300k or less group and that's almost half the squad (13 players)

One can say the 13 players on over 300 k are safe unless Suaalii goes to Rugby

It's in the 300 k and under group where the changes will be made - Billy Smith/Wong/E Butcher/Whyte/Toia are safe - 2 have signed with other clubs / 5 others are off contract (includes Brown) and 2 others with Contracts have reportedly been told they are free to leave if offered a contract by another club.


17 Games played

Players on over 300 k - 13 players - roughly 8.55 mill

1. Nat Butcher - 15 games - 400 k
2. Lindsay Collins - 16 games 700 k
3. Angus Crichton - 9 games - 600 k
4. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves - 13 games - 700 k
5. Luke Keary - 17 games - 800 k
6. Joseph Manu - 14 games - 800 k
7. Victor Radley - 13 games - 600 k
8. Brandon Smith - 12 games - 800 k
9. Joseph Suaalii - 13 games - 750k
10. James Tedesco - 14 games - 1.1 mil
11. Daniel Tupou - 12 games - 400 k
12. Sitili Tupouniua - 8 games - 400 k
13. Sam Walker - 6 games - 500 k

Players reportedly on mins as other clubs are still paying them - 2 players

1. Nathan Brown - 7 games - Off Contract
2. Matt Lodge - 9 games - Now with Manly

Players on 300 k and Under - 13 players

1. Watson - 0 games - Off Contract
2. Momirovski - 2 games
3. Baker - 7 games - Signed with Brisbane
4. Turpin - 13 games - Off Contract
5. E Butcher - 15 games
6. Allan - 9 games - Off Contract
7. Whyte - 8 games
8. Paulo - 11 games - Signed with Manly
9. Wong - 2 games
10. Hutchinator - 14 games - Off Contract
11. Billy Smith - 7 games
12. May - 8 games
13. Toia - 0 games

[Steggles]

The original comment was actually:

But you can’t dare challenge the coaching on this so called fan forum - post #24

My response was in response to that. Post #29. Please read back properly.

Splitting hairs. I’m not sure that changes your comment and my response one iota. Does it? If so, how?