Let's cut the B S out

[Maxy Walker]

Maybe Cronk wouldn't have to try to get us out of trouble by having to kick under pressure from 60 metres out if we were further downfield. Maybe if we got better go forward by better service from dummy half and more speed in the play the ball we would be further downfield. So , in fact Friend's poor play does have everything to do with it.

Not when it happens on the 3rd tackle

[Cockadoodledoo]

Fans here ( and elsewhere) are divided in placing the blame for our less than stellar start to the season. The MP and Friend brigade will say it's our high profile recruits ( Cronk and Tedesco) and are salivating at the prospect of us failing so that they can tell the rest of the world " we told you so".
Others say it's Friend's fault for providing such slow and mistimed service from dummy half, that by the time Cronk or Keary get the ball, the defense is on top of them and have little time to do anything worthwhile.
Let me state my observation on this, and I am not a Friend or Pearce hater, nor am I a Cronk or Tedesco lover. In fact I love every player that dons the RWB and gives his all for the Roosters, and Friend and Pearce have certainly done that year after year.
I see the problem emanating from the coach's box. We bought Cronk who played for a decade outside a hooker who is acclaimed to be the best ever of his generation, and he was so good that he was able to engage the markers and immediate defenders by running from dummy half and causing the defense to retreat. That minor hestation and confusion in the defensive line gave Cronk ample time to look around, size up the situation and on 9/10 times make the right plaay selection. He also had a running fullback ( Slater) running inside him through little gaps caused by the defense hesitation ( something we were hoping Tedesco will do). What Robinson has done is stick to the same structure we had used for the last 3-5 years, which is becoming more and more obsolete as the game evolves, and coaches are developing new structures to meet the new requirements. However our coach has not evolved at all, and expects us to compete against current Commodores supercars with a VN commodore!
Cronk has not adapted and is struggling. Tedesco looks lost and is unsure of his role. Cordner is running the same lines he has been running for years but the defenses are aware of it and bottle him easily. Friend who gives his all and plays with a lot of heart ( ala Pearce) has fallen behind the modern hooker ( look at McGuiness, cook, Korasau etc...) and needs to bite the bullet and knuckle down and be more creative. Mitchell does not get enough early clean ball becaue of advancing defenses ( we go back to slow dummy half service), and does not go looking for the ball often enough.
So come on Trent, mpve with times. You are a much better coach than you're showing right now. We have the talent to give the comp a big shake, and being 5/9 whilst running on E10 fuel, I can only imagine what we can achieve once we fill up with high octane .
Thank you for your indulgence, this is my longest ever post, and hopefully never to be repeated for years to come.

One of the best and most accurate posts we will read all season. I like Robbo but he has clear as day not progressed our team to play 2018 style football. The other thing that bothers me is his scape goats are always the young players or new players. Think about those dropped over the past few years. Latrell, Manu, Butcher (who obviously didn't do enough in the 10 minutes he got last week) and Robinson (i agree he wasn't going well). However it appears experienced non performers are guaranteed their position regardless of form. No wonder some players hardly appear motivated. They know they will always be picked.

[Bondicigar]

I'm no Friend supporter but Baptiste is not the answer. His passing and general service looked quite awkward on Sunday.

i'd much prefer VRad at hooker.

I wouldnt feed baptiste hes a park footballer at best

[rented tracksuit]

Fans here ( and elsewhere) are divided in placing the blame for our less than stellar start to the season. The MP and Friend brigade will say it's our high profile recruits ( Cronk and Tedesco) and are salivating at the prospect of us failing so that they can tell the rest of the world " we told you so".
Others say it's Friend's fault for providing such slow and mistimed service from dummy half, that by the time Cronk or Keary get the ball, the defense is on top of them and have little time to do anything worthwhile.
Let me state my observation on this, and I am not a Friend or Pearce hater, nor am I a Cronk or Tedesco lover. In fact I love every player that dons the RWB and gives his all for the Roosters, and Friend and Pearce have certainly done that year after year.
I see the problem emanating from the coach's box. We bought Cronk who played for a decade outside a hooker who is acclaimed to be the best ever of his generation, and he was so good that he was able to engage the markers and immediate defenders by running from dummy half and causing the defense to retreat. That minor hestation and confusion in the defensive line gave Cronk ample time to look around, size up the situation and on 9/10 times make the right plaay selection. He also had a running fullback ( Slater) running inside him through little gaps caused by the defense hesitation ( something we were hoping Tedesco will do). What Robinson has done is stick to the same structure we had used for the last 3-5 years, which is becoming more and more obsolete as the game evolves, and coaches are developing new structures to meet the new requirements. However our coach has not evolved at all, and expects us to compete against current Commodores supercars with a VN commodore!
Cronk has not adapted and is struggling. Tedesco looks lost and is unsure of his role. Cordner is running the same lines he has been running for years but the defenses are aware of it and bottle him easily. Friend who gives his all and plays with a lot of heart ( ala Pearce) has fallen behind the modern hooker ( look at McGuiness, cook, Korasau etc...) and needs to bite the bullet and knuckle down and be more creative. Mitchell does not get enough early clean ball becaue of advancing defenses ( we go back to slow dummy half service), and does not go looking for the ball often enough.
So come on Trent, mpve with times. You are a much better coach than you're showing right now. We have the talent to give the comp a big shake, and being 5/9 whilst running on E10 fuel, I can only imagine what we can achieve once we fill up with high octane .
Thank you for your indulgence, this is my longest ever post, and hopefully never to be repeated for years to come.

and that to me sums it up right there. Does anyone here actually think our two new star recruits have given their all? I can’t say I do but I hope I’m wrong because if I’m not, it’s downright theft!

[The Skeez]

From NRL stats:
Roosters stat attack: Cooper Cronk leads all players in kicks (104) and kick metres (3068), Blake Ferguson is top player in runs (170) and run metres (1730), while Tedesco is the NRL's leader in kick return metres (482)

Seems two of our new recruits are making metres.

Does that show that the rest of the team aren’t doing enough?

[007]

From NRL stats:
Roosters stat attack: Cooper Cronk leads all players in kicks (104) and kick metres (3068), Blake Ferguson is top player in runs (170) and run metres (1730), while Tedesco is the NRL's leader in kick return metres (482)

Seems two of our new recruits are making metres.

Does that show that the rest of the team aren’t doing enough?

So? Kicks that lead to a 7 repeat set for the opposition. Dropped balls that lead to trys? Stats mean Jack. Put it in to perspective.

[stephenj]

nice post omr dont let it be your last contained a lot of fact

[Guest]

Maybe Cronk wouldn't have to try to get us out of trouble by having to kick under pressure from 60 metres out if we were further downfield. Maybe if we got better go forward by better service from dummy half and more speed in the play the ball we would be further downfield. So , in fact Friend's poor play does have everything to do with it.

Kicking from under pressure 60 out LOL are you shitting me? He was attempting a 4th tackle 40/20, get your hand off Cronk

[The Skeez]

So? Kicks that lead to a 7 repeat set for the opposition. Dropped balls that lead to trys? Stats mean Jack. Put it in to perspective.

How about another Stat ladder leader for Ineffective Tackles who also happen to be our captains, Cordner 24 and Friend 20.
That’s a worry
https://www.nrl.com/stats/

[ROC181]

The Pearce fan club members remind me of the Hillary Clinton supporters.

[Arties Pie]

I haven't said much about Friend at all apart from in MY OPINION you can't blame 100% of this season on one bloke and it's an utter cop out to use Friend as a piņata. The bullshit excuses given to Cronk are unfathomable and it's pure lovefest for the shiny new toy. People are saying "give him time" fark that, he's here for about 50 games in total and wasted 9 of them already. SBW, Jennings and Maloney hit the ground running from day 1.

Friend on an individual basis? I don't think he is playing much different to how he has pretty much always played. I never thought he was on the level to be second run for Cameron Smith, I've never been impressed with his 40+ tackles a game because he is usually gassed and teams have targeted him since that one game (maybe in 2013?) where an opposition (maybe Souths?) ran their bigs at him all day long, rendered him useless in attack then bragged about it in the papers so since then everyone has caught on to it. if you're disappointed in Friend this season then it's only because you've been overrating him for years because I see no difference to how he plays this year to how he played in 2013.

The excuses for Cronk, oh my god the excuses are out of hand. It's Jake Friend's fault that Cronk plays like shit but when Baptiste was on the field we still got absolutely nothing from Cronk. Speaking of Baptiste, what did he do that was anything different to what Friend does? They both have that two step shuffle before passing the only difference is that Baptiste looks like Blake Ferguson doing a Rodney Rude skit.

We have carried the bulk of this squad for far too long and it is showing, it is a team full of has-beens. If you lot want to blame our perennial average hooker then go ahead but the wider issue was in full swing late last year and we are carrying that form in to 2018.

In no way have i ever inferred that Friend was the only person to blame for current problems, but as he handles the ball the most his flaws are the most obvious as we see them more often. Napa and Jared have offered little go forward this season, Cordner isn't the Cordner of old maybe he still has knee problems, Fergo he does some really good things but jeez still has some real errors in him, Manu well maybe he may be ready next year, Doesn't look like Keary is gelling well with Cronk at the moment, Tent's use of the bench. I am sure there are alot more but these are just off the top of my head. I hope our team finds some form and cohesion and shows us what they are capapble of.

[NorfolkStreetKid]

Kicking from under pressure 60 out LOL are you shitting me? He was attempting a 4th tackle 40/20, get your hand off Cronk

Yeah genius, Cronk is the problem.....you must have two cocks, you couldn't get that stupid just playing with one.

[Guest]

Yeah genius, Cronk is the problem.....you must have two cocks, you couldn't get that stupid just playing with one.

Answer the question, what pressure is Cronk under 60 out from the 3rd and 4th tackle?

[Guest]

In no way have i ever inferred that Friend was the only person to blame for current problems, but as he handles the ball the most his flaws are the most obvious as we see them more often. Napa and Jared have offered little go forward this season, Cordner isn't the Cordner of old maybe he still has knee problems, Fergo he does some really good things but jeez still has some real errors in him, Manu well maybe he may be ready next year, Doesn't look like Keary is gelling well with Cronk at the moment, Tent's use of the bench. I am sure there are alot more but these are just off the top of my head. I hope our team finds some form and cohesion and shows us what they are capapble of.

I agree with the rest of your points you except for the use of the bench, that's a 50/50 issue. These problems were there last year and weren't going to be fixed by an aging halfback at least if we had a youngster like Cleary we could be setting up the future but we are essentially in limbo at the moment and we play accordingly.

As for Friend I maintain that it's the same as we've gotten every year except that we've sold off one donkey to whip everyone is now noticing that Friend was average all along.

[Mickie Lane]

But if they cut the B S out then we wont have much to talk about here on the Chookpen.